Oliver Knight Tue, November 25, 2025 at 7:32 PM GMT+8 3 min read In this article: - BTC-USD +3.14% BONK-USD +2.01% ^IXIC +1.05%
Bitcoin (BTC) found its groove on Tuesday, rallying 1.8% over 24 hours to $87,250 as it begins to recover from the negative sentiment and downside price predictions that have surfaced since the weekend.
BTC's relative strength paved the way for a number of altcoins post even larger gains. SUI, ENA, BONK and CC all rose more than 8% as investors looked to take on more speculative assets following signals the market may be turning, at least in the short term.
It's worth noting that the outlook for longer time frames remains bearish as bitcoin and ether (ETH) have formed a series of lower highs and lower lows, confirming a downtrend from early October.
Much of the rally can be attributed to the crypto market's correlation to U.S. equities: The Nasdaq Composite Index posted its largest daily gain since May on Monday in a signal that riskier assets are becoming more attractive.
Derivatives positioning
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BTC's 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, has pulled back to 55% from 65% since Friday, indicating a reduction in expected near-term price turbulence. It still reflects a relatively high volatility by historical standards.
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On Deribit, BTC put skews remain intact, indicating persistent downside concerns, although the spread over calls has narrowed. The same can be said for ether, with one difference: ETH options show bullishness after August 2026.
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In BTC's case, there has been renewed interest in the $100K call, which has lifted its notional open interest (OI) to $2 billion, matching the $85K and $80K put options.
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Once again, BTC call condors dominate the 24-hour block flow, with one specific trade targeting renewed range play above $100K. In ETH's case, strangles are the most popular trade of the past 24 hours.
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Options tied to BlackRock's spot bitcoin ETF, IBIT, saw renewed demand for upside calls Monday. Still, the overall call-put skew continues to favor protective puts.
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In the futures market, XRP is leading top five coins with a 12% increase in open interest to 1.84 billion XRP, the most since Oct. 11.
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OI in USDT- and USD-denominated BTC perpetual futures on key exchanges continues to drop, indicating low participation in the price bounce.
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Funding rates in BTC perpetuals flipped negative, implying a net bias for short positions, the first such instance in over five weeks.
Token talk
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The altcoin market showed signs of life on Tuesday as tokens such as sui (SUI) and ethena (ENA) rose more than 11% following a week declining prices.
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Longer time frames remain in a downtrend characterized by a series of lower highs and lower lows, although ether would begin to put in a bottoming pattern if it can rally and sustain price around $3,500.
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While ETH is currently at $2,880 having lost more than a quarter of its value over the past month, a 3.3% gain in the past 24 hours is beginning to improve sentiment and daily trading volume has ticked up by 13% to $27.3 billion.
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One sector that is lagging is privacy: Zcash (ZEC) lost 6.6% of its value in the past 24 hours as it cools from a rally that lasted two months and took it into "overbought" territory on the relative strength index (RSI). DASH is also in the red despite the wider market showing signs of strength.
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The average crypto RSI remains firmly in the neutral zone at 50.34/100, indicating indecision amid a wave of negative sentiment and contrastingly strong price action this week.