Crypto Market Rises With Asian Tech Stocks as Zcash Extends Rally on NU7 Upgrade Date
Cryptocurrency markets advanced alongside Asian technology stocks on Wednesday, with Bitcoin reaching its highest level in a week and Zcash extending its rally after developers set a November activation date for its NU7 network upgrade. Derivatives data showed rising futures activity and liquidations, while several major cryptocurrencies posted gains despite mixed signals from options markets.
Bitcoin traded around $83,500, up 0.6% since midnight UTC, after reaching a weekly high. The recovery in risk assets followed strong earnings from SpaceX and Super Micro Computer (SMCI) in the United States on Tuesday. South Korea's Kospi gained 3.29%, while Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.44%.
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the two companies had formed special committees to discuss a potential merger. A combination would bring together more than 30,000 bitcoin, valued at approximately $2.5 billion, held on their balance sheets.
Bitcoin and Ethereum Rise as Crypto Derivatives Activity Accelerates
Ether gained 0.6% to trade near $2,460. The CoinDesk 80 Index rose 0.47%, compared with a 0.64% increase for the CoinDesk 5. The CoinDesk Memecoin Index advanced 1.2%, outperforming the CoinDesk 100, which climbed 0.84%.
Crypto derivatives activity also increased. Futures trading volume over 24 hours reached $190 billion, up 19%, while open interest rose nearly 4% to $145 billion. Liquidations climbed 76% to $284 million. The taker long-to-short volume ratio stood at approximately 53% to 47%, indicating a modest tilt toward bullish positions.
Price gains in Bitcoin and Ether were larger than the changes in futures open interest. Over 24 hours, Bitcoin's spot price rose 2.6% and Ether's increased 3.35%, while their futures open interest grew 3% and 2%, respectively. Bitcoin's open interest broadly tracked its price advance, while Ether's lagged, suggesting traders reduced positions when measured in coin terms. Overall open interest remained well below historical peaks.
Zcash and Monero Attract More Leveraged Positions
Privacy-focused cryptocurrencies showed stronger growth in derivatives positioning. Zcash (ZEC) open interest increased 24% alongside a 12% price gain, indicating that traders were adding positions. Its annualized funding rate reached 10%, while its 24-hour open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD) was negative, suggesting that sellers were hitting bids during the rally.
Monero (XMR) open interest rose 8% to more than $300 million, close to record levels. Its spot price gained 2%, funding stood at 4%, and its CVD was positive. Among major cryptocurrencies discussed in the market report, Monero was the only one with a positive CVD.
Bitcoin's 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, fell below 40%, reversing a smaller increase above 42% on October 15. Ether's EVIV showed a similar decline in expected volatility, pointing to expectations of relatively steady price action.
Options positioning remained more defensive. On Deribit, Bitcoin's one-month put-call skew stood at 8%, indicating a relative preference for puts. The one-week and three-month skews showed a similar bias. However, the five most-traded bets involved call options with strike prices above Bitcoin's spot price. Most of the volume came from synthetic, multi-legged strategies rather than outright bullish bets.
Ether options also favored puts, although the bias was weaker than for Bitcoin. Its options volume profile presented a mixed picture.
The token BTW stood out for its negative funding rate, which was annualized at minus 77%. The figure reflects the cost short sellers were willing to pay to maintain their positions and could leave the token vulnerable to a short squeeze if prices rebound sharply. Arbitrum (ARB) and Ethereum Classic (ETC) also recorded slightly negative funding rates.
Zcash Advances After Developers Set November NU7 Activation
Zcash rose 0.9% since midnight UTC to approximately $1,260, extending its 24-hour gain to around 11%. The move followed developers setting a November activation date for NU7, an upgrade designed to reduce block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, allowing payments to confirm three times faster.
The upgrade also directs 60% of transaction fees into a reserve that will be paid out over time. Despite the recent rally, ZEC remained down approximately 12% over the previous month.
NEAR Leads Gains While DeFi Tokens Lag
NEAR Protocol's NEAR token was the strongest performer in the CoinDesk 100, gaining 6.0% to approximately $5.23. The advance coincided with growth in NEAR Intents, the project's cross-chain swap product, whose fees partly fund token buybacks. A governance proposal would also reduce annual token issuance from 2.5% to 1.6% over two years.
Ethena's ENA token, which underpins the USDe synthetic dollar, climbed 4.8%, recovering part of a decline of approximately 22% over the previous month. USDe supply stood at around $4.7 billion, still below the $7.5 billion level that would trigger ENA buybacks.
Not all tokens advanced. Aerodrome's AERO, the exchange token associated with Base, fell 4.4%, making it the CoinDesk 100's biggest loser. The decline gave back part of a gain of approximately 6% over the week.
Morpho (MORPHO) dropped 2.7% as decentralized finance tokens underperformed. The sector index rose just 0.22%, compared with a 0.84% increase in the CoinDesk 100. Injective (INJ) slipped 2.1%, trimming a gain of approximately 18% over the month that had developed amid pending U.S. exchange-traded fund applications tied to the token.
Solana Upgrade and Meta Earnings in Focus
Market attention also turned to Solana's Alpenglow upgrade, which targets transaction finality of approximately 150 milliseconds and was scheduled to go live on Wednesday. Meta Platforms was due to report earnings after the U.S. market close.
These developments added to a market backdrop shaped by technology-sector earnings, token-specific catalysts, and shifting derivatives positions. While crypto prices broadly advanced, options positioning and the divergence between transaction activity and open interest showed that traders were not uniformly increasing bullish exposure.
source: coindesk
Writer: Ethan Collins
Crypto Journalist
Ethan Collins reports on developments across the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector. His work covers market movements, protocol updates, regulatory changes, and emerging trends in digital assets.
He focuses on presenting complex topics in a clear and accessible manner for a broad readership.
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