The crypto market remained in a buoyant mood on Thursday as bitcoin BTC$92,978.01 traded near its weekly high around $93,500 and ether ETH$3,193.34 rose to $3,200 after completing its Fusaka upgrade.The Fear and Greed index advanced to 27/100, exiting the “extreme fear” zone as a degree of optimism begins to enter the market.It’s worth noting that bitcoin and the majority of other tokens remain in downtrends since early October, forming a series of lower highs and lower lows. To break the trend bitcoin needs to begin forming highs above $98,500, which would show signs of a meaningful bullish reversal.The CoinDesk 20 (CD20) Index added 1.13% in the past 24 hours as the market began to build on Tuesdays’ rally.Derivatives positioningBitcoin’s options-based 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, declined to 48.44%, the lowest since Nov. 14, reversing the pop to 65% on Nov. 21, when spot prices fell to nearly $80,000 on some exchanges. The drop invalidates the bullish trendline from September, pointing to a low-volatility environment ahead, which supports the bull case in the spot price. The ether volatility index fell to 72%, the lowest since Nov. 3.On Deribit, BTC puts continue to draw premium to calls across all time frames while ether options show slight bullishness after the August 2026 expiry. It’s a sign of persistent demand for protective puts and call overwriting strategies. The $100K call has once again become the most popular options play, boasting an open interest of $2.82 billion. Strangles dominated block flows in both bitcoin and ether. In the futures market, ZEC has seen an open interest (OI) growth of over 6% in 24 hours and ETH’s OI has increased by 4%. There are signs of speculative activity in FART futures, where OI has increased by 22%. Token talk The altcoin market remains subdued despite broader market strength.CoinMarketCap’s “altcoin season” indicator ticked down to 20/100 after being five points higher at the start of the month.The move highlights how investors are showing signs of preference towards bitcoin as opposed to altcoin plays that typically carry more risk.There were a few exceptions to that rule over the past 24 hours: TAO, ENA and AVAX all posted gains between 4.5% and 8.5%.On the flipside, hedera (HBAR) slumped by 3.8% as momentum from the introduction of a spot ETF begins to wane along with trading volume, which dropped 15% to $245 million over the past 24 hours.The difference between the altcoin market today and the market one year ago is stark: In late 2024 it was frothing with viral memecoins and the emergence of decentralized derivatives exchanges, while now it appears that the retail audience has left, or moved on, leaving a series of tokens that rise and fall based on actual development as opposed to solely speculative sentiment.This maturation bodes well for forthcoming cycles because it means sectors have the potential to outperform wider trends, as demonstrated by the recent surge in privacy coins during a period when bitcoin and ether declined to multi-month lows.Privacy coins, incidentally, have now entered a corrective phase after rallying from September through the end of November. ZEC has lost 29.4% over the past week while DASH fell 22%.
Crypto Markets Today: Bitcoin Holds Near Weekly High, Altcoins Remain Subdued
