Crypto Markets Update: Bitcoin Stuck at $111K While Altcoins Extend Gains

Crypto Markets Today: Bitcoin Stuck at $111K as Altcoins Extend Lead

Nearly $250 million in derivatives positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours, despite muted volatility across crypto markets.

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading in a narrow band near $111,000, down 2.9% over the last month. At the same time, bitcoin dominance has dropped from 61% to 57%, signaling that traders are increasingly rotating into altcoins.

Ethereum (ETH) rose 1.1% since midnight UTC and is up 21% in the past 30 days, while Solana (SOL) gained 0.43% overnight and has advanced 27.5% over the month. The CoinDesk 20 Index, a benchmark of major tokens, has climbed 0.46% intraday and 1.7% over the past 24 hours, with all members trading higher.

Nick Forster, founder of Derive.xyz, said ETH has a 44% chance of reaching $6,000 before the end of 2025, citing accelerating institutional demand. “Last week alone, ETH held by ETFs jumped by 250,000, from 6.5 million to 6.74 million,” he told CoinDesk.

Derivatives Positioning

Open interest in perpetual contracts rose overnight to $114 billion, Laevitas data shows.
Binance heatmaps place BTC between two liquidation clusters: $90M above at $112,200 and $76.6M below at $110,000.
On Deribit, 24-hour BTC options volume reached 26.4K contracts, with calls making up 51.6%.
- The most traded contracts: a $108K put expiring Sept. 26, followed by a $114K call expiring the same day.
Funding rates across most assets remain positive, signaling bullish positioning. The exception is TRX, where funding rates are negative, reflecting an annualized -10.2% APR.

Token Trends

Bitcoin dominance continues to weaken, slipping to 58% from above 61% a month ago. Typically, altcoins underperform when BTC trends lower, but this cycle is different: many tokens are holding ground or outperforming.

BTC is down 2.91% over 30 days.
ETH is up 21% and SOL is up 27.5% over the same period.
Analysts attribute the divergence partly to corporate treasury adoption of altcoins and broader market recalibration after BTC’s surge to a $124,000 all-time high last month.

In past cycles, BTC dominance has fallen as low as 39%, suggesting the current altcoin resurgence could extend further. Technicals also show several tokens as oversold relative to BTC, potentially setting the stage for more catch-up rallies.