Bitcoin stalls below at $77,500 as volatility cools, traders unwind leverage

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Bitcoin stalls below at $77,500 as volatility cools, traders unwind leverage BTC holds a tight range as open interest drops, signaling cooling momentum, while altcoins show mixed performance and ZEC attracts fresh bullish interest. Bitcoin futures open interest fell over 6% in 24 hours, pointing to leverage unwinding as prices stalled below $80,000. Derivatives data shows rising bearish positioning, with negative funding rates and persistent demand for downside protection in options markets. Zcash stands out with rising open interest and volume, while broader altcoin performance remains mixed amid soft DeFi sentiment. Crypto volatility cooled on Friday, with bitcoin BTC$77,644.08 stuck between $77,500 and $78,500 range since midnight UTC. The muted price action follows a failed breakout attempt near $80,000 on Wednesday, although the broader trend remains constructive, with the BTC price grinding higher through April and printing a series of higher highs and higher lows. Ether (ETH) matched bitcoin's performance on Friday, losing around 0.9% since midnight while also remaining in a narrow trading range. U.S. stock futures were mixed, with Nasdaq 100 futures rising by 0.5% on the back of strong tech earnings and S&P 500 futures slipping 3 basis points. The Dollar Index (DXY) was little changed despite comments from U.S. President Donald Trump confirming that the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has been extended by three weeks. The dollar fell roughly 0.5% when the ceasefire was first announced on April 16. Derivatives positioning Bitcoin futures open interest has declined by over 6% to 744.3K BTC in 24 hours, as the rally in spot price pulls back to $77,500 after failing to hit $80,000 early this week. The moves suggest traders are unwinding leveraged positions and that bullish momentum is cooling in the near term. BTC's 24-hour open interest–adjusted cumulative volume delta has flipped negative, meaning sellers are hitting the bid more than buyers are lifting the ask over the period. Annualized perpetual funding rates remain slightly negative, indicating dominance of bearish short positions. Futures tied to other major cryptocurrencies, such as ether (ETH), solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP), have seen lackluster trading over the past 24 hours. Privacy-focused zcash (ZEC), however, stands out. Open interest in its futures has climbed nearly 7.5% to a 10-day high of 1.88 million tokens, while 24-hour trading volume has surged 80%. The token also boasts one of the strongest positive CVD readings alongside positive funding rates, indicating sustained aggressive buying interest and bullish positioning overall. While BTC and ETH prices have come under pressure, investors likely see it as a brief pause in the rally. That's evident from the continued slide in bitcoin's 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV. It has dropped to 42%, the lowest since Jan. 31. ETH's index has dipped below 65%, also the lowest since Feb. 1. On Deribit, bitcoin and ether risk reversals continue to show a bias for put options across all time frames. It shows persistent downside hedging by market players and upside volatility selling via covered calls. Token talk The CoinDesk Memecoin Index (CDMEME) was the only benchmark in the black on Friday, posting a gain of less than 0.2% while the DeFi Select Index (DFX) and Computing Select Index (CPUS) lost about 1% each. DeFi tokens lido (LDO) and MORPHO$1.8602 led the sector's losses, falling by between 3% and 3.8% since midnight UTC as sentiment continues to suffer following last weekend's $290 million KelpDAO exploit. Privacy coin zcash (ZEC) gave back 0.5% of its gains on Friday, but remains up by more than 7% over the past 24 hours, buoyed by Thursday's listing on popular retail trading app Robinhood. CoinMarketCap's "Altcoin Season" index ticked back up to 39/100 on Friday as investors began to make speculative bets while bitcoin remained range-bound. Market analyst Mati Greenspan said bitcoin has not gone through a “winter,” rather a pullback within a broader bull market, adding the next leg up for bitcoin will be driven by nation-state adoption. What to know: Michael Saylor said “winter is over” for bitcoin when the cryptocurrency traded above $78,000 even as some analysts disputed that the recent downturn qualified as a full crypto winter. Market analyst Mati Greenspan argued the slump was a pullback within a broader bull market, and said bitcoin has probably already...

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