Bitcoin and Ethereum inched higher on Thursday as the broader crypto market paused after the previous session’s breakout, with traders evaluating macroeconomic developments, derivatives positioning and whether bitcoin can extend its advance toward $80,000.

Both assets posted gains of less than 1% as investors consolidated following Wednesday’s rally. Bitcoin has managed to maintain levels above $70,000—a threshold that previously capped several upward attempts—but the market has yet to see the stronger surge toward $80,000 that some analysts had forecast.

Global equity markets were supported by reports that Iran had quietly contacted the United States to explore a possible agreement aimed at ending the conflict in exchange for limits on missile production. The development helped ease geopolitical concerns and supported risk sentiment.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) weakened following the reports but remains roughly 3.5% higher since late January as traders continue to reassess potential interest-rate decisions by the Federal Reserve. Market participants are also closely monitoring the Strait of Hormuz, where any disruption could fuel inflation and potentially push the Fed toward maintaining higher interest rates.

Bitcoin often shows an inverse relationship with the U.S. dollar, typically rising when the currency weakens and losing momentum when the dollar strengthens.

Derivatives activity

Derivatives markets reflected growing participation alongside the recent rally. Bitcoin futures open interest increased to around 680,000 BTC, the highest level in nearly two weeks, reinforcing the recent gains in the spot market.

Open interest in ether futures climbed to approximately 13.41 million ETH, its highest level since Jan. 31. In contrast, activity in XRP futures remains subdued, with open interest lingering below 1.7 billion tokens. Futures linked to Solana’s SOL also show relatively weak activity.

At the same time, open interest in futures tied to tokenized gold assets such as Tether Gold and PAX Gold continues to decline as cryptocurrencies rise, suggesting investors may be shifting funds into major digital assets while the gold rally slows.

Futures activity related to privacy-focused Zcash has also begun to recover, ending a two-month slide in open interest.

Funding rates for perpetual futures tied to bitcoin and ether remain mildly positive, indicating a slight bullish bias among traders. However, funding rates for XRP and SOL remain marginally negative.

Volatility indicators point to a relatively stable market environment. The 30-day implied volatility indexes for bitcoin and ether remain within recent ranges, while the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) has eased to around 21% after peaking near 28% earlier in the week.

Options activity on Deribit shows that bearish put skews for bitcoin and ether have softened somewhat, though interest in higher-strike call options—bullish bets on further upside—has increased. Block trades have also highlighted demand for call calendar diagonal spreads in both assets.

Token developments

Elsewhere in the market, layer-1 blockchain project MANTRA completed a token migration and rebrand, replacing the legacy OM ticker with MANTRA and implementing a 1-for-4 redenomination. The move helped lift the token’s price by about 25% over the past 24 hours.

Privacy tokens had struggled in February, with Zcash, Dash and Monero all undergoing sharp corrections after a strong start to the year. However, monero has recently begun to reverse that trend, rising about 5.2% since midnight UTC and gaining nearly 10% over the past week.

Large-cap cryptocurrencies led the market’s gains over the past day. The CoinDesk 5 Index and CoinDesk 10 Index each climbed roughly 3.1%, while the CoinDesk DeFi Select Index and CoinDesk Computing Select Index recorded more modest increases of about 0.4% and 0.7%.

Analysts say that if bitcoin continues advancing toward $80,000 and stabilizes at higher levels, profits from major cryptocurrencies could eventually rotate into more speculative altcoins. For now, however, traders appear cautious as the market consolidates following its recent breakout.