Crypto Markets Today: BTC's Gain Lacks Derivative Traders' Support; YZY Leads to Losses

As bitcoin's (BTC) price recovery looks to gather pace, on-chain data points to potential seller resurgence near $113,600.

The wider altcoin market, however, is doing well, as evidenced by the 4% gain in the CoinDesk 80 Index in the past 24 hours. The CoinDesk 20 Index has gained nearly 1%.

"Bitcoin is drawing its third rising daily candle, trading above $113K on Thursday morning," Alex Kuptsikevich, the chief market analyst at the FxPro, said in an email. "The growth of altcoins, coupled with the rise in stock indices, has created an environment of increased risk appetite, while BTC's decline to $110K has restored its attractiveness to buyers."

Derivatives Positioning

• BTC's rise in price from Tuesday is characterized by a drop in open interest (OI) in USDT- and dollar-denominated perpetual futures across major exchanges, including Bybit, Binance, OKX, Deribit and Hyperliquid, and low spot market volumes. (Check the Chart of the Day). The same is true for ether.
• The divergence between the price performance and trends in OI and volumes, raises a question about the sustainability of the gains.
• In the past 24 hours, SOL, DOGE and ADA have registered an increase in futures OI, while the other major cryptocurrencies have seen capital outflows. Funding rates (calculated on an 8-hour basis) for most majors have receded to near zero, indicating a neutral sentiment.
• On the CME, BTC futures OI remains well below December highs while the annualized three-month basis remains under 10%. However, options OI has increased to 42.89K BTC, the highest since May 29.
• In ETH's case, the CME futures OI has risen to a record 2.2 million ETH, signaling robust institutional participation.
• On Deribit, BTC put options continue to trade at a higher premium than calls across all tenors, indicating a bearish regime shift. BTC's implied volatility (IV) term structure remains upward-sloping with September expiry options trading at mid-to-high 30 IVs.
• In ETH's case, the call bias has notably weakened since early this week.
• Block flows on OTC network Paradigm featured butterfly option strategies in BTC and an outright purchase of the Aug. 30 expiry ether call at the $5,000 strike.

Token Talk

• YZY, the Solana-based memecoin linked to Ye (Kanye West), appears to have left more than 70,000 wallets with losses, according to blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps.
• The token was pitched as part of a broader “YZY Money” ecosystem, including payment rails and a branded card, but structural flaws in supply distribution and liquidity design quickly tilted risk the toward retail.
• Over 51,800 addresses apparently lost $1–$1,000, 5,269 wallets lost $1,000–$10,000 and 1,025 wallets lost $10,000–$100,000, Bubblemaps said. Three traders lost more than $1 million each and 108 wallets booked six-figure losses.
• On the flip side, just 11 wallets made $1 million or more, 99 wallets booked $100,000+, and about 2,541 cleared at least $1,000 in profit — meaning less than 0.1% of traders captured meaningful upside.
• The crowd overall is down $8.2 million, despite insiders pocketing millions. Bubblemaps’ data shows profits were brutally concentrated, with the top 11 winners capturing nearly all meaningful gains.
• Structural flaws were evident: 70% of supply was reserved for Yeezy Investments LLC, 20% sold to the public, and 10% used for liquidity. The pool was seeded only with YZY tokens, not paired with stablecoins, leaving it vulnerable to liquidity drains — similar to the LIBRA token collapse in Argentina..
• The outcome mirrors many celebrity-based memecoins, which are marketed as fan engagement tools, but often appear to be structured to funnel gains to those in the know while leaving retail buyers holding the bag.