Bitcoin pushed firmly above $81,000 on Friday, breaking through a price level that had acted as resistance during the final stretch of August. The move came as cryptocurrencies rallied broadly, with privacy-focused tokens delivering some of the strongest performances.

BTC was trading near $81,060 in Friday morning trading, down 0.22% from midnight UTC after briefly reaching $81,309 overnight. The move marked a breakout above the $81,000 area that had previously limited Bitcoin’s upside.

The rally extended across large-cap cryptocurrencies. Ether rose 4.52% over 24 hours, XRP gained 5.58% and Solana advanced 3.04%. Roughly $318.6 million worth of crypto positions were liquidated during the move, according to Coinalyze.

Privacy coins significantly outperformed. Dash climbed 19.24%, Zcash added 16.55% and Monero rose 5.89%. The sharp gains came without an obvious fundamental catalyst driving the sector.

Traditional markets also remained supportive of risk assets. Gold increased 0.17% to $4,480, silver gained 0.25% to $67.11 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.42%. The dollar index was broadly unchanged at 99.063.

Futures Market Tilts Toward Bulls

Bitcoin futures positioning has started to show stronger demand from buyers. The long-short taker volume ratio stood at 51.4% versus 48.5%, giving bulls a modest advantage as BTC established itself above $80,000.

Dash showed particularly strong derivatives momentum. Its price rose about 25% over 24 hours at one point, reaching roughly $53.10, while open interest increased by around 20%.

When price and open interest rise together, it generally indicates that new positions are being added to the market. Positive funding rates and a positive normalized cumulative volume delta further supported the bullish picture for DASH. Funding remained around 10%, suggesting the market had not yet become excessively leveraged.

Zcash displayed comparable strength. Its open interest, cumulative volume delta and perpetual futures activity all showed bullish characteristics, with no clear indication that positioning had become overheated.

TRON, meanwhile, showed a much more bearish derivatives setup. Annualized perpetual funding for TRX fell to -59%, extending a period of negative funding that was briefly interrupted when rates improved to about -20% on Thursday.

Deeply negative funding typically signals heavy short positioning. If TRX begins moving higher, those crowded bearish bets could increase the potential for a short squeeze.

Fresh Capital Enters BTC Futures

Bitcoin futures open interest rose to approximately 709,000 BTC from 687,000 BTC over the previous 24 hours.

The increase is relatively modest, and open interest has generally remained around 700,000 BTC for some time. Still, the rise alongside Bitcoin’s breakout above $80,000 points to additional capital entering the derivatives market.

Positive funding rates and a positive OI-adjusted 24-hour CVD suggest that much of the new positioning is skewed toward the long side.

Ether futures also recorded a small increase in open interest. Solana and XRP have yet to see the same pickup, despite both tokens posting notable price gains.

SOL futures open interest remained largely unchanged over the past 24 to 48 hours even after Solana moved above $100. XRP showed a similar lack of growth in futures positioning.

Options Market Favors Upside

Bitcoin’s volatility measures remain relatively calm. The 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, was holding near 40%, down significantly from its August spike toward 50%.

The subdued conditions mirror traditional markets, where the VIX was around 14%, its lowest level since January.

Options positioning also points to continued optimism. Bitcoin’s 24-hour options activity was dominated by calls, with the $80,000 call expiring Sept. 25 among the most heavily traded contracts. Trading was concentrated around strikes between $85,000 and $95,000.

Ether options showed a similar bias, with the $2,800 call expiring Sept. 18 leading trading activity.

Privacy Coins Continue to Outperform

Pons remained one of the market’s biggest movers, rising 31.50% over 24 hours to $0.6607 and extending its seven-day gain to 379.33%. The token traded $151 million in volume and added more than $100 million to its market capitalization during the week.

Zcash climbed to approximately $967, gaining 16.55% over 24 hours and 22.21% over seven days. Open interest jumped 38.72%, while funding turned negative at -0.0118%, indicating that short sellers were paying to remain positioned against the rising token.

Dash rose 19.24% over 24 hours to $50.66 and gained another 6.91% since midnight, taking its weekly advance to 30.52% on $204 million in volume.

Monero increased 5.89% to $544 and was up 3.82% since midnight, bringing its seven-day gain to 16.03%.

Uniswap also extended its rebound, climbing 9.84% over 24 hours to $6.34 and 36.94% over the week after recovering from Thursday’s sharp sell-off.