Bitcoin was trading near $65,000 as the crypto market headed toward the end of the week on a constructive footing, with $BTC $65,021.71 rising as much as 1.1% since midnight UTC to $65,760. The broader digital-asset market held firm despite a macroeconomic backdrop that might otherwise have been expected to create more pressure.

Brent crude futures were trading at $97.66 per barrel, their highest level since mid-May, as the Iran conflict showed no sign of de-escalation. Oil matters for crypto traders because sustained energy-price pressure can feed inflation expectations and complicate the interest-rate outlook, both of which tend to influence appetite for risk assets. Previous spikes in oil prices have unsettled risk assets, including crypto, but digital assets were broadly higher this morning.

Ether ($ETH) tracked bitcoin’s move, gaining as much as 1.6%. Other tokens, including $HYPE and $FET, advanced more than 2%.

Traditional markets were subdued. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 index futures were both marginally positive, while gold remained above $4,000. The Dollar Index edged slightly lower.

Derivatives positioning

Market activity was dominated by churn rather than a clear increase in directional positioning. Trading volume rose 11% to $165 billion over 24 hours, while open interest (OI) stayed broadly steady at around $116 billion. The combination points to active turnover without a comparable expansion in overall positional interest, a setup that can indicate frequent position rotation rather than a broad new build in leverage.

In dogecoin, a bearish buildup continued. $DOGE futures open interest kept rising and was approaching 16 billion tokens, the highest level since October. The increase came as $DOGE’s spot price remained under pressure after falling on Thursday to its lowest level since November 2023. Rising open interest alongside a falling price is typically described as confirmation of a downtrend and an indication that traders are showing interest in shorting a declining market.

Ether futures presented a more mixed picture. Open interest in ether futures also increased, reaching 14.53 million $ETH, the highest level since June 7. Other indicators were less uniform: positive funding rates continued to point to bullish sentiment, while the negative 24-hour cumulative volume delta (CVD) suggested that bears were driving price action by shorting through market orders rather than placing limit orders.

Bearish leadership was broad across tokens. Apart from TRX and CRO, most tokens, including $BTC, showed negative 24-hour CVD.

Volatility indicators moved lower. The BVIV index, which measures $BTC’s 30-day implied volatility, declined 3% since midnight to 39%, ending a five-day streak of increases. Ether’s EVIV was also under pressure. Lower implied volatility can make options cheaper in relative terms, but it also reflects a market pricing less near-term movement than it did during the prior run-up in volatility.

In the Deribit-listed bitcoin options market, a large open interest cluster of $5 billion formed around the $70,000-$72,000 strikes, driven mainly by bullish bets, or call options. Volume rankings also showed an upside bias, with calls at the $77,000 and $80,000 strikes appearing on the list alongside other call options.

Token talk

Hyperliquid ($HYPE) led the altcoin market for a second consecutive session, rising 2.4% to $58.93. The token has been rebuilding with a series of higher lows since pulling back in July from record highs.

AI-related tokens $FET and NEAR rose 2.23% and 1.38%, respectively, providing tentative signs of stabilization after several weeks of underperformance. MORPHO $1.9550 gained 1.89%, extending one of the more consistent runs in the DeFi sector this month.

$WLFI $0.05793 fell 2.13%, giving back part of Thursday’s 12% surge. The move followed a familiar pattern for the Trump family-linked token, which remains vulnerable to sharp reversals because of thin liquidity.

Lighter (LIT) dropped another 1.32%, extending a decline that has now reversed nearly 20% from its July peak. The pullback continued as profit-taking followed a rally of more than 200% between May and early July.

The broader 24-hour performance was more cautious than the intraday moves suggested. $WLFI, AVAX, HBAR and SUI were all down between 4% and 10% over the past day, underscoring that the intraday recovery masked lingering weakness across part of the altcoin market.