The cryptocurrency market was at a critical juncture on Wednesday. After failing to break through $78,000 on Tuesday, Bitcoin’s price has fallen below the $76,000 “bear market boundary” defined by Tom Lee, now approaching the support level of $75,000. Ethereum also retreated after reaching $2,150 on Tuesday, falling towards the $2,000 support, and then rebounding around $2,050. AI concept tokens RENDER, FET, and NEAR have given back most of their gains from Tuesday.
Market performance diverges significantly from U.S. stocks. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 index futures both hit all-time highs, rising about 0.3%. In the derivatives market, cryptocurrency futures trading volume surged 54% to $201 billion within 24 hours, with liquidation volume skyrocketing by 87%, but this mainly reflects the market’s restart after the U.S. holiday. Bitcoin open interest climbed to 740,000, with a negative cumulative trading volume difference over 24 hours, indicating that traders are actively shorting through market orders. Ethereum’s open interest reached a historic high of 15.57 million, but the trading volume difference is also negative, suggesting that traders are shorting contracts to bet on deeper declines after the critical technical support trendline was breached. The 30-day implied volatility index for Bitcoin rebounded from a year-to-date low, rising nearly 3% to 37.35%, indicating that the market is beginning to seek protection against potential price declines.