Altcoins slip as bitcoin (BTC) price steadies before U.S. CPI report: Crypto Markets Today

Bitcoin BTC$83,212.45 was trading around $83,450 in the European morning after briefly spiking to $84,000 at 08:00 UTC, having bounced from a low of $80,970 on Tuesday.

Altcoins struggled to follow, with the CoinDesk 80 falling 0.6% since midnight UTC while the CoinDesk 20 added 0.2%, leaving close to two-thirds of the CoinDesk 100’s members lower. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season index slipped to 55 from 60 a week ago.

Some pressure eased overnight after New York Fed President John Williams said he saw no need for interest-rate increases in 2027, though he left the door open to one more this year.

That puts the focus on today’s U.S. consumer price index, the last inflation reading before the Fed’s Oct. 28 decision. Economists polled by Dow Jones estimated annual inflation quickened to 3.6% from 3.4%, CNBC reported, with gasoline averaging $4.34 a gallon against $3.08 a year earlier, according to AAA.

S&P 500 index futures edged up 0.2%, while Brent crude held near $106 a barrel.

Derivatives positioning

• Futures activity is cooling: 24-hour crypto futures volume fell 26% to $156.79 billion. Cumulative open interest (OI) dropped to $140 billion, down 2.27%. Liquidations slid more than 80% to $136.32 million. Lower forced selling points to a calmer, less leveraged market. The long-short taker volume ratio still leans bearish, with shorts accounting for 52% of the flow.
• Bitcoin and ether traders are de-risking: OI in the two largest cryptocurrencies is down 3.5% and 2.7%, respectively, alongside flat to negative price action over 24 hours. The drops in dollar-value OI mean positions are being closed, not just marked down, so capital is leaving. It’s typical of the caution ahead of key economic reports.
• ZEC is the only major token showing fresh money: OI is up over 4% alongside a 1% rise in spot price. Because OI is measured in dollars, the faster gain suggests new contracts of roughly 3% are being opened, which is net capital inflow beyond the price move. The coin’s 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD) is positive, and annualized perpetual funding rates are almost 10%. That means buyers are aggressive and longs are paying to hold positions. Canton Network’s CC token shows a similar setup.
• Leverage appears to be rotating into altcoins: Over the past 30 days, OI in bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies has declined, while that in tokens such as NEAR and Wormhole has risen significantly. The discrepancy points to speculative capital seeking higher beta.
• CVD shows where the buying and selling pressure is: BTC and TRX lead the past 24 hours, while UNI, SUI and NEAR have the most negative values among the majors. NEAR stands out because rising OI alongside heavy net selling suggests the buildup may be bearish positioning.
• Bitcoin’s implied volatility is rising: BTC’s 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, has bounced to 40%, higher than its 50- and 100-day averages. Traders may want to watch this because spikes in implied volatility are often a feature of risk aversion. Ether’s index is up slightly.
• Options traders are trading downside protection in bitcoin: BTC’s 24-hour options rankings show puts at the $60,000, $78,000 and $75,000 strikes at the top. In ETH’s case, calls at the $3,400 and $2,600 strikes top the list, along with the $2,300 put.

Token talk

• Optimism OP$0.1541 has slipped 4.2% since midnight after rallying to its highest since mid-May on Tuesday. The run followed Uniswap’s Unichain completing its testnet migration to OP Enterprise on Oct. 13, with the mainnet move scheduled for Oct. 29. Under the arrangement, Optimism will run Unichain’s production infrastructure, including its sequencer.
• DeFi is the weakest corner of the market, with the CoinDesk DeFi index (DFX) falling 1.8% since midnight. Liquid staking token lido LDO$0.4227 lost 2.9%, jito JTO$0.5277 2.8% and uniswap (UNI) 2.5%.
• Some of last week’s biggest gainers are leading the decliners, with starknet STRK$0.07904 down 4.5% since midnight, kaia KAIA$0.04529 3.8% and celestia (TIA) 3.7%. Celestia reached its highest level of 2026 at about $0.63 on Saturday.
• AI agent payments token kite KITE$0.1395 leads the gainers with a 5.3% rise, followed by oracle token pyth PYTH$0.08105, up 4.5%, and privacy-focused AI platform token venice VVV$22.67, up 2.4%. Zcash (ZEC) has added 1.7%.