BTC Plays Hard to Get Near $64K While XMR and HYPE Steal the Spotlight 🌚

Bitcoin held near $63,600 on Thursday after an in-line U.S. inflation print eased concerns without prompting a decisive move in either direction. The largest cryptocurrency has added 0.30% since midnight UTC, while the broader crypto market capitalization shed 0.54% over the past 24 hours to $2.18 trillion. CoinMarketCap's Fear and Greed index registered at 38, placing sentiment in "fear" territory.

July's U.S. Consumer Price Index came in at 3.4% year over year, matching forecasts, while core inflation eased to 2.5% from 2.6%. The producer price inflation figure, due at 12:30 UTC, may inject fresh direction into a subdued tape. U.S. equity futures showed modest gains, with S&P 500 futures up 0.13% and Nasdaq 100 futures little changed.

Monero ($XMR) and Hyperliquid ($HYPE) outperformed $BTC, adding 3.2% and 2.7% respectively since midnight UTC. Elsewhere, derivatives positioning painted a mixed picture: 24-hour futures volume stood at $147 billion, up 6% on the day, while cumulative open interest across all cryptocurrency futures held flat near $116 billion. XRP futures open interest sat at 2.67 billion tokens, its highest since October, for a third consecutive day, accompanied by a negative cumulative volume delta pointing to bearish execution at market prices. The annualized perpetual funding rate near 8% indicated a residual bullish lean.

Cardano ($ADA) and Bitcoin Cash ($BCH) both carried funding rates at or below -10%, signaling a pronounced tilt toward bearish positioning, with negative 24-hour cumulative volume deltas confirming aggressive selling. ADA's open interest remained just below its recent record of 2.79 billion tokens, suggesting traders were layering on fresh short exposure near peak participation. Avalanche ($AVAX), earlier in the week a top open interest gainer, led 24-hour open interest decliners alongside Litecoin ($LTC), Chainlink ($LINK) and Solana ($SOL).

Options-based implied volatility for bitcoin and ether stayed near year-to-date lows, consistent with traders pricing in limited near-term movement. By Oliver Knight and Omkar Godbole, edited by Sheldon Reback.