Crypto traders were in high spirits on Thursday morning as Bitcoin soared past $119,000, aiming for a new all-time high. Meanwhile, the Altcoin market also experienced a surge. Tokens like XMR and APT showed significant gains, with prices reaching about $332.94 and $4.97, respectively. The movement fueled by a 58% increase brought ZEC to $129.20, following a noticeable rise on Wednesday.
The reasons behind this upward movement in the crypto space seem to be a combination of ETF inflows, rising gold prices, and general optimism surrounding riskier assets.
Positioning of Derivatives
- The Bitcoin futures market is witnessing a strong and consistent bullish trend, with key metrics hitting new records. Open profits have surged to an all-time high of $32.6 billion, which indicates increased exposure among traders.
- This unprecedented profit level is reflected in a steady annual basis over three months, with around 7% of these profits settled. Such patterns hint that the recent price movements stem from strong, conviction-based bullish positioning rather than mere short-term speculation.
- However, within the Bitcoin options market, the sentiment appears mixed and contradictory. The short-term options’ delta skew continues its downward trend at 3.25%, indicating that traders are hedging against downward risks for puts. Yet, the 24-hour put/call volume presents a more optimistic narrative.
- Interestingly, control remains with a majority of traders, with over 56% actively positioned for price increases instead of declines.
- On major exchanges, Bitcoin’s funding rates are hovering around 9% to 10% annually, signaling robust demand for long leveraged positions.
- An outlier in this scenario is Delibit, where funding rates have sky-rocketed above 60%. This spike points to intense demand for long positions on that platform, although the overall market dynamics, including Altcoins, haven’t yet hit a state of overheating, with market capitalization roughly at 10% per annum, according to Coinglass.
Token Talk
On another note, Plasma founder Paulie Punt addressed claims surrounding the recently released XPL token. Some suggested that team members were offloading their holdings, but he asserted the opposite, claiming that none of the Plasma Team has sold XPL since the launch. He stated that both investors and team members are bound by a three-year lockup period that includes a one-year cliff during which sales aren’t possible—so, I guess there’s some clarity there.
Punt also refuted suggestions that the team consists mainly of “Exblast” employees, emphasizing that only three out of roughly 50 team members hail from that background. He proudly noted the diverse expertise of the group, which includes individuals from notable firms like Google, Facebook, and Goldman Sachs.
There’s also a conflict involving WinterMute, a known crypto trading firm engaged in market-making for various new projects. Punt denied that Plasma has engaged WinterMute for any services, stating that the firm possesses less insight into WinterMute’s XPL holdings than the public.
Interestingly, researcher Mana Moon claimed that over 600 million XPL tokens have moved from the project’s vault since launch. Nonetheless, the performance of XPL has been rather disappointing, with daily trading volumes steady at $2.6 billion but dwindling from a peak of $1.68 to merely $0.97.
