Bitcoin fell below $80,000 on Tuesday, underperforming Asian technology stocks as investors prepared for the Federal Reserve’s latest policy decision. BTC dropped 0.4% from midnight UTC to roughly $79,700, while Ether declined 0.5% to around $2,323. The CoinDesk DeFi Index recorded the steepest loss among the platform’s indexes, sliding 1.8% after leading gains the previous day.

U.S. stock futures edged lower ahead of earnings reports from major technology companies scheduled for later this week. In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi climbed 3.1%, but the rally failed to lift cryptocurrency prices. Oil also advanced, with U.S. crude approaching $102 per barrel.

The Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting began Tuesday, with its interest-rate announcement scheduled for Wednesday. CME FedWatch data indicated roughly a 90% probability that policymakers would leave rates unchanged. Traders are monitoring the Fed’s guidance for clues about whether another rate increase remains possible before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $110 million in net inflows on Monday, according to Farside Investors, ending two consecutive sessions of withdrawals.

Crypto Futures Activity Increases

Cryptocurrency futures trading volume rose 18% to $152 billion over 24 hours, rebounding after a decline in the previous session. Open interest increased by 0.95%, while liquidations dropped 13% to $133 million.

The taker long-short ratio stood at 49.54% for longs and 50.46% for shorts, suggesting market orders were almost evenly split between buying and selling.

Bitcoin and Ether each declined approximately 1.1% over 24 hours, while Solana lost 1.91%. However, futures open interest rose around 1% for BTC, 0.8% for ETH, and 3.6% for SOL. Solana recorded the largest increase, indicating that traders continued adding positions despite falling prices.

Funding rates remained positive for all three assets, showing that long-position holders were still paying short sellers. Solana’s cumulative volume delta, however, turned negative, pointing to net selling through market orders.

Semiconductor Contracts Rise as Shorts Close

SOXL, a contract linked to a triple-leveraged semiconductor ETF, gained 8% while futures open interest fell 7.4%. This combination suggests that the rally was driven mainly by short-position closures rather than new bullish bets.

SKHYNIX, a contract tied to South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix, showed a similar but smaller move. Its funding rate declined to 0.0221% from 0.0516%.

Oil derivatives continued to reflect bearish positioning. Oil remained the only asset in the tracked group with a negative funding rate, which fell further to -0.0115% from -0.0077%. Open interest increased 2.18% as prices rose 0.86%, suggesting money returned to the market after the previous session’s outflows.

Bitcoin Options Signal Continued Caution

The most actively traded Bitcoin options contract over the past 24 hours was a $72,000 put expiring on Dec. 25. The remaining four contracts in the top five by volume were calls.

Despite the strong activity in calls, Bitcoin’s 25-delta put-call skew remained positive across maturities, indicating continued demand for downside protection. Ether options showed a similar pattern, suggesting investors remained cautious about potential market weakness.

Privacy Coins Hold Up Better Than DeFi Tokens

Privacy-focused cryptocurrencies outperformed much of the market. Dash (DASH) gained 1.8%, while Zcash (ZEC) advanced 0.5%.

Zcash co-founder Sean Bowe proposed ending the automatic allocation of 8% of newly issued ZEC to the network’s community grants program. He argued that the program’s treasury, estimated at around $125 million, could cover several years of expenses.

DeFi tokens reversed their previous gains, with Aave (AAVE) falling 3.6% and Sky (SKY), the token associated with the project formerly known as MakerDAO, declining 3.9%. Aave’s decentralized autonomous organization has not conducted token buybacks since April.

AI-linked tokens also weakened despite the rally in Asian technology shares. Render (RENDER), a decentralized GPU computing network, and The Graph (GRT), a blockchain data protocol, both fell more than 2%.

Celestia (TIA), Starknet (STRK), and Pump.fun (PUMP) each dropped roughly 3%. Celestia is scheduled to unlock 5.58 million TIA tokens on Saturday, according to Tokenomist, potentially increasing available supply.

CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index climbed to 57 out of 100 from 53 on Monday, reflecting a modest improvement in altcoin performance relative to Bitcoin.