In recent trading, Bitcoin experienced a pullback from its overnight peak above $116,000 to just under $115,000. This movement comes as the Dollar Index (DXY) maintains stability, even amid speculation of an upcoming Federal Reserve rate cut. Despite this volatility, analysts maintain an optimistic outlook for Bitcoin, predicting potential new lifetime highs and significant gains for select tokens such as HYPE, SOL, and ENA.
Investor attention is increasingly directed towards smaller cryptocurrency projects. Tokens like MYX, HASH, PENGU, PUMP, and MNT have seen price increases of more than 10% this week, showcasing the dynamic shifts within the market. Timothy Misir, head of research at BRN, commented on the situation, stating, “The CPI + jobs combo created a classic ‘good news/bad data’ trade: inflation prints higher, but weaker labor data preserves the easing narrative—a net positive for crypto in the near term.”
On the derivatives front, open interest in futures linked to the top 10 cryptocurrencies rose by 3% to 5% over the last 24 hours. This uptick is attributed to growing expectations of Fed rate cuts, encouraging traders to adopt riskier positions. Nonetheless, the market remains at manageable levels, as annualized perpetual funding rates for major cryptocurrencies linger around 10%. Such positive funding rates suggest a bullish sentiment among traders, while extremely high figures would indicate potential market overheating.
Notably, open interest in PENGU, regarded as a top-performing token in recent days, reached a record-breaking 7.78 billion coins, underscoring the recent price surge. The funding rates for PENGU remain slightly elevated at around 15%. In contrast, minor tokens like SKY and PYTH are experiencing deeply negative funding rates, reflecting a more bearish outlook among traders.
CME’s bitcoin futures are also witnessing a revival in open interest, concluding a trend of decline, while ether’s open interest has retraced to a one-month low of 1.78 million ETH. This divergence may indicate a resurgence of trader interest in Bitcoin. Conversely, options open interest for both BTC and ETH remains high, indicating continued market activity and interest.
In a troubling development this week, one of the founders of Thorchain, a decentralized platform for cross-chain asset transfers, became a victim of a hack involving a sophisticated deepfake video call on Zoom. The founder, known as JPThor, reported a loss of assets valued at approximately $1.2 million, linking the attack to North Korean hackers, as highlighted by cybersecurity analysts. Thorchain has faced scrutiny due to its prior connections with illicit fund transfers, with estimates suggesting that a substantial portion of funds from a $1.4 billion hack on Bybit earlier in the year were laundered through the protocol.
As for the Thorchain token (RUNE), it is currently trading around $1.28, reflecting a 14% decrease over the past month and a staggering drop of more than 90% since reaching a high of $12.95 in March 2024. The hacking incident, leveraging social engineering and phishing tactics, contributes to an alarming trend where hackers stole around $2.5 billion in the first half of 2025 alone.
