Bitcoin held steady in a tight range on Friday as cooling derivatives activity signaled a loss of near-term momentum, while altcoins showed mixed trends and Zcash drew renewed bullish attention.

The leading cryptocurrency traded between $77,500 and $78,500 since midnight UTC, reflecting subdued volatility. The consolidation follows a failed attempt to reclaim $80,000 earlier in the week. Despite this pause, the broader uptrend remains intact, with BTC continuing to post higher highs and higher lows throughout April.

Ethereum tracked bitcoin’s movement, slipping about 0.9% over the same period while remaining range-bound.

In traditional markets, U.S. equity futures were mixed. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.5% on the back of strong technology earnings, while S&P 500 futures edged slightly lower. The U.S. Dollar Index was largely unchanged despite comments from Donald Trump confirming a three-week extension of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire. The dollar had weakened following the initial announcement earlier this month.

In crypto derivatives, bitcoin futures open interest declined by more than 6% over the past 24 hours to 744,300 BTC, indicating traders are reducing leveraged exposure after the rally stalled below $80,000. Supporting this view, the open interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta turned negative, suggesting increased selling pressure, while funding rates remained slightly negative, reflecting a tilt toward short positions.

Activity across major altcoin futures—including ETH, SOL, and XRP—remained subdued. In contrast, Zcash stood out, with open interest climbing nearly 7.5% to a 10-day high and trading volume surging 80%. Positive cumulative volume delta and funding rates point to sustained buying interest and bullish positioning in the privacy-focused token.

Despite the recent slowdown in BTC and ETH, market participants appear to view the move as a temporary consolidation. This is reflected in declining implied volatility, with bitcoin’s 30-day volatility index dropping to 42%, its lowest level since late January, while ether’s fell below 65%, also marking a multi-month low.

Options data from Deribit continues to reflect a defensive bias, with risk reversals favoring put options across maturities. This indicates ongoing downside hedging alongside strategies such as covered call selling to capitalize on limited upside volatility.

Among sector indices, the CoinDesk Memecoin Index was the only one to post gains, edging modestly higher, while DeFi and computing indices each fell around 1%. Within DeFi, tokens such as LDO and MORPHO led losses, declining between 3% and 3.8% as sentiment remains pressured following last weekend’s $290 million KelpDAO exploit.

Zcash trimmed a portion of its gains on Friday but remained up more than 7% over the past 24 hours, supported by its recent listing on Robinhood.

Meanwhile, CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index rose to 39 out of 100, signaling a modest pickup in speculative activity as bitcoin continues to trade sideways.