Bitcoin Stays Near $81,700 as Altcoins Rebound and PEPE Leads Gains

Bitcoin traded around $81,700 on Friday, rising 0.5% since midnight UTC as altcoins outperformed the market leader. The CoinDesk 80 index advanced 1.4%, while memecoins gained 2.9%, signaling a recovery in risk appetite across the crypto sector.

Ether (ETH) climbed 0.9% to approximately $2,401, and the CoinDesk 80 (CD80) index rose 0.7%. The broader memecoin gauge also increased 2.9%.

The rebound came after a technology-led sell-off on Thursday sent the Nasdaq Composite down 2.6%, its steepest daily drop since June. Asian markets showed mixed moves as trading stabilized, with South Korea’s Kospi up 0.3%, China’s CSI 300 higher by 1.7%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 down 0.25%.

Investors are looking ahead to the Federal Reserve’s Oct. 27–28 meeting, while Brent crude near $113 continues to raise concerns about inflation. ETF flows remain another focus after U.S. spot Bitcoin funds saw $635 million in outflows on Thursday, according to SoSoValue data. The withdrawals followed more than $1 billion in inflows over the first three days of the week.

Futures Markets Show Lower Trading Activity

Crypto futures volume dropped 19% over 24 hours, and liquidations declined 23% after surging the previous day. Open interest, however, rose 1% after falling earlier, suggesting traders have started adding positions again while Bitcoin’s price remains relatively stable.

The long-short taker volume ratio showed a slight preference for shorts, which represented 51.6% of activity compared with 48.4% for longs.

Open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD), which measures the balance of aggressive buying and selling, moved closer to neutral across most tokens. Nearly all assets were within 0.05% of zero, whereas most had ended the previous day in negative territory. XAUT stood out with a reading near -0.25%, indicating stronger selling activity.

Bitcoin and Ether Positions Increase Slightly

Open interest in BTC and ETH futures rose by around 1% for each asset, even though prices changed little. This suggests some traders are establishing new positions rather than simply closing existing ones.

Liquidations fell sharply, declining by about two-thirds for Bitcoin and one-third for Ether. Bitcoin’s funding rate increased to 0.0067% from 0.0041%, meaning traders holding long positions are paying more to maintain their exposure. Ether’s funding rate remained steady.

Funding rates for BNB, SUI and DOGE also turned positive. On the previous day, BNB funding stood at -0.0048% and SUI at -0.0036%, meaning short traders were paying longs. The shift, alongside rising prices, means long traders are now paying to hold leveraged positions in all three tokens.

Meanwhile, open interest continued to decline in mZEC, SOL, XRP and DOGE, pointing to further position closures. ZEC saw the largest reduction, with open interest down 8% as its price fell 1.5%. The move marked a second straight day of significant exits.

Commodity Futures See Continued Position Growth

Open interest in gold, silver and crude oil derivatives increased for a second consecutive day. Gold and silver prices declined even as their funding rates remained positive, indicating that long traders were paying to maintain their positions.

Crude oil futures recorded higher open interest alongside a 1.4% price gain. Negative funding indicated that short traders were paying long traders. Gold-backed token XAUT showed the strongest selling imbalance among the tracked assets, with the most negative open-interest-adjusted CVD reading.

Monero’s funding rate, meanwhile, cooled after being among the highest on the 24-hour heatmap. The return toward normal levels suggests the earlier buildup in leveraged XMR positions has eased.

Bitcoin Options Lean Toward Upside, Ether Toward Downside

Bitcoin’s most actively traded options included the Nov. 27 $98,000 call and the Dec. 25 $88,000 call. Calls accounted for five of the six leading contracts, with all five carrying strike prices above the current market. The only put among the group was a $76,000 contract expiring Oct. 30.

Ether options displayed stronger demand for puts. The top two contracts were puts, led by the Oct. 26 $2,200 put with approximately 9,000 contracts traded. The available volume figures do not indicate whether traders bought or sold the options.

Ether’s one-week 25-delta put-call skew climbed to about 13%, reflecting a substantial premium for puts over calls. Bitcoin’s equivalent measure fell to around 4%, down from a mid-month high near 14%. The difference suggests that demand for downside protection has eased for Bitcoin but increased for Ether.

PEPE Leads the Latest Altcoin Rally

Pepe (PEPE) surged 14%, marking the strongest performance in the CD100 and its largest daily gain in a month. The Ethereum-based memecoin extended its weekly advance to 23% and its monthly gain to 16%, despite no obvious catalyst for the rally.

Other major memecoins also rose, although their gains were more modest. Floki (FLOKI), Bonk (BONK) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) climbed between 3.3% and 4.9% on the day but remained down by as much as 16% over the month.

PEPE’s 24-hour trading volume reached approximately $353 million, about 10% above its level at the same time the previous day.

Layer-1 assets Polkadot (DOT) and Cosmos (ATOM) each advanced more than 5%, lifting their weekly gains above 6%. Their October performance remained mixed: DOT was down 2.5%, while ATOM was up 3.6%.

DeFi tokens also recovered from Thursday’s losses. Uniswap (UNI) rose 3.5% to around $7.25, and Ethena (ENA) gained 2% to approximately $0.20.

Some of the CD100’s weakest monthly performers also moved higher. DoubleZero (2Z) gained 2.5%, while Monad (MON) increased 4.3%. Despite the rebound, the tokens remained down 49% and 31%, respectively, over the month.

CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season indicator rose to 58 out of 100, recovering from Monday’s reading of 54. The improvement points to stronger sentiment toward altcoins while Bitcoin remains within a relatively narrow trading range.