Altcoins Steal the Show as Bitcoin Builds Steam: Crypto Daybook Americas

Yahoo

2 days ago

By James Van Straten (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
While bitcoin (BTC) holds just below its record high, the derivatives market is showing signs of froth. Perpetual funding rates indicate that long positions are still dominant and traders are paying a premium to maintain bullish exposure.
There are two ways of interpreting this, either the rally that took the largest currency to $123,000 is not yet spent, or it could be exhausted if not met with more spot buying. Don't you love markets?
In Glassnode's latest weekly note, analysts point out that bitcoin has decisively broken into new all-time highs. While that signals strong underlying momentum, short-term holders are sitting on increasingly large unrealized profits, pushing key indicators into marginally overheated territory.
Markets were jolted Wednesday by speculation that President Trump was getting ready to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, sending risk assets briefly lower before the White House clarified he was 'not planning' to remove him.
Separately, a FOIA request revealed that the U.S. Marshals Service holds just 28,988 BTC, far fewer than many in the market assumed, raising fresh questions about future government auctions and their market impact.
As bitcoin cools off, altcoins are taking the spotlight. Bitcoin dominance has fallen from 66% to 62%, while the total crypto market cap has surged to an all-time high of $3.8 trillion.
Ether (ETH) is trading above $3,400 following a 7% daily gain driven by ETF inflows and positive regulatory sentiment. Solana (SOL) also rallied 5% after Galaxy Digital accumulated $55 million worth of SOL, a move that underscored rising institutional demand. Stay alert!
What to Watch
Crypto
July 18: Lorenzo Protocol, a Cosmos-based blockchain with native token BANK, launches USD1+ OTF on BNB Chain's mainnet. The institutional-grade on-chain traded fund lets users stake stablecoins to mint sUSD1+ tokens that earn stable, NAV-backed yield from real-world assets, CeFi quantitative strategies and DeFi protocols. All returns are settled in USD1 stablecoin, issued by World Liberty Financial, whose stablecoin infrastructure powers the product's stable yield mechanism.
Macro
July 17: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is visiting London to sign a treaty with Prime Minister Keir Starmer on strengthening bilateral defense, migration and industry ties as Europe faces new security challenges.
July 17, 10 a.m.: Speech by Fed Governor Adriana D. Kugler on "A View of the Housing Market and U.S. Economic Outlook" at the Housing Partnership Network Symposium in Washington. Livestream link.
July 17, 6:30 p.m.: Speech by Fed Governor Christopher J. Waller on the economic outlook at an event hosted by the Money Marketeers of New York University.
Aug. 1, 12:01 a.m.: New U.S. tariffs take effect on imports from trade partners that failed to reach agreements by the July 9 deadline. These increased duties could range from 10% to as high as 70%, impacting a wide range of goods.
Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
July 23: Tesla (TSLA), post-market, $0.42
July 29: PayPal Holdings (PYPL), pre-market, $1.29
July 30: Robinhood Markets (HOOD), post-market, $0.30
July 31: Coinbase Global (COIN), post-market, $1.35
July 31: Reddit (RDDT), post-market, $0.19
Aug. 5: Galaxy Digital (GLXY), pre-market
Token Events
Governance votes & calls
Aavegotchi DAO is voting on a $245,000 funding proposal to expand Gotchi Battler into a revenue-generating game with PvE modes, NFTs and battle passes, aiming to reverse declining player numbers, boost GHST utility and create sustainable rewards. Voting ends July 22.
Uniswap DAO is conducting a temperature check on Etherlink's request to co-incentivize Uniswap v3 liquidity. Tezos Foundation would put up $300K for three months of rewards on WETH/USDC, WBTC/USDC and LBTC/USDC, and is asking the DAO for $150K more, aiming to anchor Etherlink's rising TVL and future native tokens on Uniswap. Voting ends July 18.
Ethereum Name Service DAO is voting on a proposal from Tally to enter a one-year renewable agreement to enhance ENS governance. Voting ends July 22.
Rocket Pool DAO is voting to finalize Saturn 1's implementation. Approval by a 75% supermajority will ratify key protocol changes, including new transaction designs and a potential revenue share to the pDAO treasury. Voting ends July 24.
NEAR Protocol is voting on potentially reducing NEAR's inflation from 5% to 2.5%. Two-thirds of validators must approve the proposal for it to pass, and if so it could be implemented by late Q3. Voting ends Aug. 1.
July 29, 10 a.m.: Ether.fi to host a bi-quarterly analyst call.
Unlocks
July 17: ApeCoin (APE) to unlock 1.95% of its circulating supply worth $10.49 million.
July 18: Official TRUMP (TRUMP) to unlock 45.35% of its circulating supply worth $903.36 million.
July 18: Fasttoken (FTN) to unlock 4.64% of its circulating supply worth $90.2 million.
July 20: LayerZero (ZRO) to unlock 23.13% of its circulating supply worth $58.87 million.
July 25: Venom (VENOM) to unlock 2.84% of its circulating supply worth $13.21 million.
July 31: Optimism (OP) to unlock 1.79% of its circulating supply worth $22.52 million.
Token Launches
July 17: Mogcoin (MOG) to be listed on Binance.US.
Conferences
The CoinDesk Policy & Regulation conference (formerly known as State of Crypto) is a one-day boutique event held in Washington on Sept. 10 that allows general counsels, compliance officers and regulatory executives to meet with public officials responsible for crypto legislation and regulatory oversight. Space is limited. Use code CDB10 for 10% off your registration through July 17.
July 20: Crypto Coin Day 7/20 (Atlanta)
July 21-22: Malaysia Blockchain Week 2025 (Kuala Lumpur)
July 24: Decasonic's Web3 Investor Day 2025 (Chicago)
July 25: Blockchain Summit Global (Montevideo, Uruguay)
July 28-29: TWS Conference 2025 (Singapore)
Aug. 6-7: Blockchain.Rio 2025 (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Aug. 6-10: Rare EVO (Las Vegas)
Aug. 7-8: bitcoin++ (Riga, Latvia)
Aug. 9-10: Baltic Honeybadger 2025 (Riga, Latvia)
Aug. 9-10: Conviction 2025 (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
Token Talk
By Shaurya Malwa
Pump.fun's $500 million ICO sold out in minutes, and it wasn't just investors showing up.
Over 1,700 fake PUMP tokens were deployed in the lead-up to the debut, with 214 impersonator dapps also spinning up to trap users, according to a BlockAid report shared with CoinDesk.
On launch day alone, over 1,000 impersonator attacks were attempted. Security firm Blockaid said it blocked them in real time, preventing $381,000 in potential losses.
This isn't a one-off. It's becoming a pattern: 6,700+ scam attempts tied to PUMP were blocked in just the past two weeks, and an estimated 550 fake tokens/contracts are being created daily.
Attackers are using automated tooling to spin up malicious contracts faster than official announcements, exploiting hype and social momentum.
The PUMP event highlights how memecoin frenzies are increasingly accompanied by industrialized scam infrastructure, targeting unsophisticated buyers and wallet drainers.
While Pump.fun's token was a success, its introduction has become a prime example of how token drops now double as battlegrounds between users, scammers and security tools.
Derivatives Positioning
Open interest (OI) across top derivatives venues remains close to all time highs.
Bitcoin OI currently sits at $31.6B, just shy of yesterday's record $33B, according to Velo data. Binance leads with $13.56B of open interest while Hyperliquid has been one of the largest gainers of the past week, adding $800M to reach $3.9B.
BTC three-month annualized basis is at 7%, still some way off the Q4 2024 highs of around 15%. For derivatives, ETH volumes currently exceed BTC volumes at $163.2B vs. $107.6B, according to Coinglass data.
BTC put and call contracts currently stand at 339K, with calls accounting for 61% of the total, according to Velo. That's at the same time as Coinglass shows BTC options open interest at an all-time high of $51.67B.
ETH has 2.68M call and put contracts, with 68% of them being calls, according to data from Velo. ETH open interest is starting to pick up, but at $12B is still below the record $14.76B set in March 2024, as per Coinglass data.
Funding rate APRs across perpetual swaps remain positive and rising according to Velo, with BTC printing 7% and ETH printing 6.5% annualized funding on Binance, OKX and Deribit, Velo data show. This is low when compared with altcoins like HYPE and PUMP, which show annualized funding of 71% and 100% respectively, in Coinglass data.
Coinglass also shows $521.29M in 24-hour liquidations, skewed 65% towards shorts. ETH led notional liquidations at $228.6M, followed by BTC at $69.9M and other tokens at $46.3M.
The Binance liquidation heatmap for BTC indicates high leverage positions at $117,000 and $119,000. BTC dominance continues to hover above 60%, and while short liquidations hint at squeezed leverage, directional conviction appears measured heading into the next major expiry window.
Market Movements
BTC is down 0.82% from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $118,930.72 (24hrs: -0.07%)
ETH is up 2.76% at $3,473.51 (24hrs: +10.16%)
CoinDesk 20 is up 2.29% at 3,917.71 (24hrs: +5.9%)
Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 2 bps at 3.05%
BTC funding rate is at 0.031% (33.945% annualized) on KuCoin
DXY is up 0.28% at 98.66
Gold futures are down 0.81% at $3,332.00
Silver futures are down 0.38% at $37.97
Nikkei 225 closed up 0.60% at 39,901.19
Hang Seng closed unchanged at 24,498.95
FTSE is up 0.48% at 8,969.83
Euro Stoxx 50 is up 0.82% at 5,341.65
DJIA closed on Wednesday up 0.53% at 44,254.78
S&P 500 closed up 0.32% at 6,263.70
Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.25% at 20,730.49
S&P/TSX Composite closed up 0.37% at 27,152.97
S&P 40 Latin America closed up 0.48% at 2,613.36
U.S. 10-Year Treasury rate is up 1.4 bps at 4.469%
E-mini S&P 500 futures are unchanged at 6,307.75
E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.16% at 23,112.75
E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index are unchanged at 44,426.00
Bitcoin Stats
BTC Dominance: 62.44% (-0.96%)
Ether to bitcoin ratio: 0.02919 (2.67%)
Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 915 EH/s
Hashprice (spot): $60.16
Total Fees: 4.53 BTC / $538,818
CME Futures Open Interest: 158,530 BTC
BTC priced in gold: 35.6 oz
BTC vs gold market cap: 10.06%
Technical Analysis
The ETH/BTC ratio has recorded its largest weekly gain since the week of May 5th, climbing 17.5% to 0.029.
It is currently trading within the weekly order block that preceded ether's underperformance relative to bitcoin since mid-February.
A decisive break above this level would open the path toward the next major resistance at 0.035, which marks the yearly open.
Crypto Equities
Strategy (MSTR): closed on Wednesday at $455.90 (+3.07%), -0.64% at $452.99
Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $398.20 (+2.62%), +0.81% at $401.41
Circle (CRCL): closed at $233.20 (+19.39%), -0.4% at $232.27
Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $24.36 (+16.78%), +3.24% at $25.15
MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $19.44 (+3.62%), +0.26% at $19.49
Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $12.57 (+3.88%), -0.16% at $12.55
Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $13.92 (+1.16%), unchanged in pre-market
CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $12.57 (+3.12%), unchanged in pre-market
CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $26.17 (+4.47%)
Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $42.71 (+1.26%), unchanged in pre-market
Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $38.18 (+21.86%), unchanged in pre-market
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs
Daily net flows: $799.4 million
Cumulative net flows: $53.84 billion
Total BTC holdings ~1.28 million
Spot ETH ETFs
Daily net flows: $726.6 million
Cumulative net flows: $6.5 billion
Total ETH holdings ~4.6 million
Source: Farside Investors
Overnight Flows
Chart of the Day
Ether leads the market as the largest asset by derivatives volume, with 24-hour volumes reaching $163B. Bitcoin follows in second place, recording a 24-hour derivatives volume of $108B.
While You Were Sleeping
Fed's John Williams Says Rate Stance Remains 'Entirely Appropriate' (The Wall Street Journal): The New York Fed president said President Trump's tariffs have already driven up some consumer prices, such as household appliances, and could raise headline inflation to 3.5% over the next six months.
'Crypto Week' Back on Track After Lengthy House Do-Over Vote (CoinDesk): A nine-hour House standoff ended after the House Freedom Caucus secured an anti-CBDC provision in the defense bill, potentially clearing the way for a final Thursday vote on the GENIUS Act.
China's Aircraft Carriers Push Into Waters Long Dominated by U.S. (The New York Times): China's twin-carrier drills beyond Okinawa marked a major naval milestone, with combat training near the U.S. base in Guam underscoring Beijing's aim to challenge American influence across the Pacific.
Ether ETFs Post Record $726M Daily Inflow as Analysts Signal 'Deep Demand Shift' (CoinDesk): BlackRock's ETHA saw nearly $500 million in new capital and over $1.78 billion in volume, helping push total ether ETF assets above $16.4 billion, or 4% of ETH's supply.
Crypto Market Maker B2C2 Said to Be Raising up to $200M: Source (CoinDesk): Part of the targeted raise would reportedly allow Tokyo-based SBI Holdings to reduce its 90% stake in B2C2.
National Crypto Sandbox for Tourists in the Offing (Bangkok Post): Thailand's securities watchdog is seeking public feedback on a proposed national crypto sandbox for tourists, which would allow regulated conversion of digital assets into Thai baht via licensed operators.
In the Ether