Bitcoin held steady over the past 24 hours even as a surge in sell pressure hit the market and altcoins broadly declined.

On-chain data provider Lookonchain reported that a long-term bitcoin holder transferred $228 million worth of BTC to Kraken, while miner MARA Holdings (MARA) moved an additional $58 million in bitcoin to FalconX and Coinbase Prime. Despite the influx of supply, BTC’s price remained largely unchanged, supported by a 5% rise in trading volume to $81 billion.

Altcoins significantly underperformed. Ether (ETH) dropped 3.4%, and several smaller tokens—including canton (CC)—fell more than 10%.

Derivatives positioning

Roughly $600 million in leveraged crypto futures positions were liquidated over the past day, with most of the wiped-out positions coming from long traders, signaling a continued unwind of bullish leverage.

Open interest rose in ZEC, BTC, SOL and DOGE futures, while XRP, ETH, ASTER and AVAX saw capital outflows. Funding rates in TRX and ZEC perpetual futures remained negative, reflecting ongoing short bias, while most major tokens posted modestly positive rates.

CME futures positioning continued to thin out. Open interest in BTC futures fell to 133,250 contracts — its lowest since late September and well below the December 2024 peak above 200,000 BTC. ETH futures OI on the CME steadied near 2 million ETH after dropping from a record 2.63 million in late October.

Options flow on Deribit skewed toward call spreads and strangles. A notable block trade involved a $90,000 BTC put option expiring Nov. 28. For ETH, put spreads accounted for 43% of 24-hour block activity.

Token talk

The altcoin market surrendered much of Wednesday’s gains, with ether slipping 3.4% and dragging the broader sector lower. CoinMarketCap’s “altcoin season” index fell five points to 26/100 as bitcoin traded flat, while the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) declined 0.66%.

A handful of tokens bucked the trend. ATOM surged more than 10% on a technical breakout, and zcash (ZEC) extended its two-month rally with an 8.7% gain.

Meanwhile, Base founder Jesse Pollak said he plans to launch a token on Thursday under the ticker JESSE. The announcement drew skepticism given his earlier “content token” releases, which quickly lost value. Pollak argued on X that combining content tokens with creator-focused tokens can build a “flywheel” that returns value and control to creators and their audiences.

Memecoins and viral tokens have lagged the rest of the market in recent months. The CoinDesk Memecoin Index (CDMEME) has fallen more than 40% since September, compared with a roughly 30% decline in the CoinDesk 20.