Bitcoin recovered from its Thursday decline, climbing from around $75,200 as traders assessed the impact of the AI stock sell-off and prepared for the latest U.S. employment data. The previous session’s market turmoil triggered more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency liquidations, adding pressure to already weak market sentiment.

Bitcoin (BTC) advanced 0.2% to approximately $76,150 since midnight UTC on Friday, rebounding from its late Thursday low near $75,200. Ether (ETH) posted a 0.3% gain, while the CoinDesk 80 Index also increased 0.2%. Memecoins performed better, with the CoinDesk Memecoin Index climbing 4%.

The modest recovery followed Thursday’s steep decline in U.S. equities. The Nasdaq Composite plunged 5.5% as investors assessed whether Democrats’ control of Congress could complicate plans for expanding AI data center infrastructure.

The concerns extended into the cryptocurrency sector, where CoinGlass recorded more than $1 billion in leveraged liquidations within 24 hours. Bitcoin declined 5.3% during the period, while Ether dropped 7.3%.

Institutional investment flows also reflected weakening demand. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded substantial withdrawals on Thursday, with Fidelity’s FBTC losing approximately $200 million and BlackRock’s IBIT experiencing $105 million in outflows, according to Farside Investors. The withdrawals extended IBIT’s negative flow streak to five consecutive sessions.

Traders are now awaiting the U.S. jobs report, scheduled for 8:30 a.m. EST (13:30 UTC). FactSet’s survey of economists projects that employers added 65,000 jobs in October, making the release a key event for financial markets.

Bitcoin Derivatives Reflect Defensive Market Positioning

Bitcoin futures open interest increased to $22.1 billion from $21.8 billion, despite substantial forced closures across the derivatives market. Total liquidations reached $1.27 billion over 24 hours, with approximately $1.1 billion coming from long positions.

The increase in open interest suggests that traders have started rebuilding their leveraged exposure following the liquidation event. Funding rates also fluctuated considerably, briefly falling to an annualized negative 5% on Bybit before returning to a range of 0%–5% across other exchanges.

The three-month futures basis remained relatively stable at 5.7%.

Options activity indicated that traders were becoming more cautious about further downside. The 24-hour put-to-call volume ratio stood at approximately 51:48 in favor of put options, while the one-week 25-delta skew climbed to 15% from roughly 11% a week earlier.

The implied volatility curve continued to show contango. Short-term volatility approached 50% as traders responded to immediate uncertainty, while longer-dated contracts extending through late 2027 remained around 38%–40%.

Liquidation data also highlighted important price levels. Binance’s heatmap showed a notable concentration of leveraged long positions between $74,000 and $75,000. A fresh decline could expose this area to additional forced selling.

On the recovery side, the $76,800–$77,000 range remains an important level to watch as Bitcoin attempts to extend its rebound.

WLFI Buyback Announcement Supports Token Recovery

World Liberty Financial’s WLFI token gained around 3.5% after the Trump-backed crypto project announced plans to increase its token buyback activity.

The project intends to finance part of the purchases through fees generated by reserves backing its USD1 stablecoin. However, WLFI remains approximately 10% lower since Tuesday’s midterm elections and has lost more than 66% of its value this year. The official Trump (TRUMP) token also reached a new record low during the week.

Privacy cryptocurrencies showed comparatively stronger performance during the latest market downturn. Monero (XMR) declined 3.2% over 24 hours, a smaller loss than Bitcoin’s 5.3% drop.

Zcash (ZEC) activated its NU7 upgrade early Friday, shortening the target time between blocks from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. The token advanced approximately 1% following the network upgrade.

Hyperliquid’s HYPE token remained under pressure, trading roughly 19% below its $96 peak from the previous week. The earlier rally followed an agreement between ICE and Trade[XYZ] to introduce Hyperliquid-based perpetual futures to U.S. retail investors. However, market enthusiasm surrounding the development has since cooled.

Injective (INJ) was among the week’s stronger performers, gaining 14%. Its advance followed Nasdaq’s approval of the listing of Canary Capital’s staked INJ ETF, according to an SEC filing.

Meanwhile, speculative interest across the broader altcoin market continued to weaken. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index dropped to 44 out of 100, its lowest reading since September, indicating that investors remain cautious about smaller digital assets.