Bitcoin settles near $65,000 as oil’s march toward $100 fails to spook the market

The crypto market is closing out the week on a constructive note, with bitcoin $BTC$65,021.71 adding as much as 1.1% since midnight UTC to $65,760 as the broader market held its ground despite a macro backdrop that should be applying far more pressure.

Brent crude futures are trading at $97.66 per barrel, the highest since mid-May, as the Iran conflict shows no sign of de-escalating. While previous oil spikes have rattled risk assets including crypto, digital assets are broadly green this morning.

Ether ($ETH) mirrored bitcoin’s gain, rising as much as 1.6%, while the likes of $HYPE and $FET rose more than 2%.

Traditional markets are muted, with S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 index futures both marginally positive and gold holding above $4,000. The Dollar Index has edged slightly lower.

Derivatives positioning

• Market churn dominates activity: Volume increased by 11% to $165 billion in 24 hours while open interest (OI) held steady at around $116 billion. This shows a market that’s seen churn rather than positional interest.
• Bearish buildup in dogecoin: $DOGE futures OI continues to rise and is nearing 16 billion tokens, the most since October. The continued gains come as $DOGE‘s spot price remains under pressure after falling to the lowest since November 2023 on Thursday. The combination of rising open interest alongside a drop in price is said to confirm the downtrend and signal trader interest in shorting the falling market.
• Mixed signals from ether: OI in ether futures is rising as well, currently at 14.53 million $ETH, the highest since June 7. Other indicators paint a mixed picture with positive funding rates still pointing to bullish sentiment while the negative 24-hour CVD indicates that bears are leading the price aciton by shorting at market orders rather than placing limit orders.
• Broad-based bear leadership: With the exception of TRX and CRO, most tokens, including $BTC, have negative 24-hour CVD.
• Volatility declines: There is good news for the bulls from the BVIV index, which measures $BTC‘s 30-day implied volatility. The measure has declined by 3% since midnight to 39%, halting a five-day streak of advances. Ether’s EVIV is under pressure too.
• Options cluster: In the Deribit-listed bitcoin options market, a massive $5 billion open interest cluster has formed at $70,000-$72,000 options, mainly driven by bullish bets, or call options. Volume rankings also show a bias for upside with calls at strikes $77,000 and $80,000 featuring in the list alongside other calls.

Token talk

• Hyperliquid ($HYPE) led the altcoin market for the second consecutive session, rising 2.4% to $58.93 as it rebuilds with a series of higher lows since its July pullback from record highs.
• AI tokens $FET and NEAR posted gains of 2.23% and 1.38%, respectively, offering tentative signs of stabilization after weeks of underperformance, while MORPHO$1.9550 added 1.89% to extend one of the more consistent runs in the DeFi sector this month.
• $WLFI$0.05793 gave back 2.13% of Thursday’s 12% surge, a familiar pattern for the Trump family-linked token, which remains highly susceptible to sharp reversals due to thin liquidity.
• Lighter (LIT) fell a further 1.32%, extending a slide that has now unwound close to 20% from its July peak as profit-taking continues following its 200%-plus rally between May and early July.
• The broader 24-hour picture tells a more cautious story, with $WLFI, AVAX, HBAR and SUI all down between 4% and 10% over the past day, a reminder that the intraday recovery masks lingering weakness across a portion of the altcoin market.