Altcoins pushed higher across the market Friday as bitcoin continued to consolidate around $84,000. Quant (QNT) led the advance with a 39% 24-hour gain, while 93 of the 100 assets in the CoinDesk 100 index traded higher.

Bitcoin stood near $84,342, little changed since midnight UTC. The broader CoinDesk 80 gained 4.7%, significantly ahead of the 1.0% increase in the CoinDesk 5.

The move reflects a familiar market rotation in which traders move into more speculative assets after bitcoin records a strong rally and begins consolidating. Higher costs for maintaining leveraged long positions can also encourage traders to redirect capital toward altcoins.

Bitcoin advanced from below $63,000 in August to almost $87,000 on Tuesday before entering a sideways phase. Altcoins have strengthened during the pause, with CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index rising to 56 from 45 a week earlier and 38 a month ago. The reading was its highest in more than three months.

Chainlink (LINK), Internet Computer (ICP) and Bittensor (TAO) were among the main contributors to a 9.5% 24-hour increase in the CoinDesk Computing Index. The DeFi Select Index climbed 8.7%, meaning both sector gauges gained more than three times the 2.5% advance in the CoinDesk blended benchmark.

Bitget Incident Has Limited Effect on Market Sentiment

The crypto market largely absorbed the impact of Bitget’s $351.6 million security breach. Attackers gained access to a backend component of the exchange’s wallet infrastructure and manipulated transaction data to trigger the normal authorization process.

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said the investigation had ruled out private-key compromise. She also said the exchange’s $464 million User Protection Fund is sufficient to cover the reported loss. Withdrawals remain suspended while the security review continues.

Improving macro conditions provided additional support. European stocks opened sharply higher after reports that U.S. and Iranian negotiators were discussing a phased reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude dropped below $100 to $98.94, while gold rose 0.26% to $4,287. The dollar index slipped 0.11% to 101.14.

Futures Market Shows Calmer Activity

The 24-hour long-short taker volume ratio moved closer to an even 50%, compared with a 52% short-heavy reading the previous day. Overall trading volume declined 17% to $206 billion, while open interest increased 1.8% to $153 billion. Liquidations fell 63% to $228 million.

The combination of lower trading activity and slightly higher open interest suggests traders are holding positions rather than aggressively adjusting exposure. The sharp reduction in liquidations also indicates limited forced selling.

Bitcoin futures open interest fell below 700,000 BTC after a brief increase. At the same time, Binance whale positioning remained tilted toward longs, with the whale account long-short ratio at 1.33 and the whale position ratio at 1.87.

Futures open interest for ETH, SOL and XRP was unchanged over 24 hours, pointing to relatively stable positioning in those markets.

Zcash stood out as fresh positions entered the market. ZEC gained 7% while futures open interest rose 15.9%. Annualized funding was near 10%, and ZEC recorded the strongest positive 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta among major assets.

ZEC has climbed nearly 300% this quarter. The increase in open interest suggests traders are positioning for further gains, although the buildup of leverage could increase the potential for a sharp unwind.

Chainlink futures OI increased 28%, compared with a 14% gain in its price. The faster growth in open interest points to new positions entering the market.

ONDO futures OI reached a record 1.07 billion tokens while its spot price climbed to the highest level since November 2025. The increase in OI indicates that the price move is being accompanied by greater market participation.

Meanwhile, 30-day implied volatility for BTC and ETH continued to approach yearly lows. Options pricing therefore remained relatively subdued rather than signaling expectations of a major disorderly move.

More than $17 billion in BTC and ETH options expired on Deribit Friday with little apparent market disruption. The most traded bitcoin strike was the $70,000 call, followed by the $90,000 call, while the $2,800 call was the most active ETH strike.

Quant Leads Broad Altcoin Gains

QNT traded at $98.93 after rising 9.8% since midnight and 39% over 24 hours, making it the strongest performer in the CoinDesk 100 over both periods.

ONDO added 8.4% since midnight and 32% over 24 hours. Lido DAO (LDO) gained 8.0% on the day and 20% over 24 hours.

Computing-related tokens also posted broad gains, with all seven constituents of the CoinDesk Computing Index advancing. LINK climbed 3.7% since midnight and 12% over 24 hours, ICP gained 4.3% and 10%, and TAO rose 2.2% and 5.4%. Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) increased 1.6% on the day and 18% over 24 hours.

DeFi assets continued to strengthen as the sector index gained 8.7%. ONDO, LDO and Ethena (ENA) were among the leaders. ENA gained 10% over 24 hours despite falling 0.42% since midnight, while Uniswap (UNI) rose 0.67% on the day and 0.66% over 24 hours.

Privacy-focused tokens also remained strong. Zcash climbed 2.5% to $1,584.86, while Monero (XMR) rose 1.0% to $571.43. ZEC was still about 16% higher than a week earlier and remained near record levels.

The main decliners were tokens that had posted strong gains during the previous session. Raydium (RAY) fell 3.4%, Bonk (BONK) declined 2.7%, and Litecoin (LTC) dropped 1.6% to $70.78 after its halving-driven advance. All three remained higher over 24 hours except RAY.