Crypto market clings to support as bitcoin hits 21-month low: Crypto Markets Today

BTC touched its lowest level since September 2024 before bouncing to $59,770, while ETH slipped further and another $1 billion in futures positions were wiped out.

Crypto market clings to support as bitcoin hits 21-month low: Crypto Markets Today

Markets

Bitcoin bounces from $58,000 as derivatives signal more pain in the pipeline

BTC touched its lowest level since September 2024 before rebounding to $59,770, while ETH slipped further and another $1 billion in futures positions were wiped out.

By

Oliver Knight

,

Omkar Godbole

|

Edited by

Sheldon Reback

Jun 26, 2026, 11:03 a.m.

3

min read

Make

preferred on

Share

Share this article

Copy link

X icon

X (Twitter)

LinkedIn

Facebook

Email

Make

preferred on

Bitcoin price (CoinDesk Data)

Summary

Show

Bitcoin rebounded from its weakest level since September, while ether fell and U.S. equity futures also softened.

Derivatives data show rising stress, with bitcoin futures open interest jumping as traders add shorts, implied volatility and put skew climbing, and over $1 billion in leveraged positions—mostly longs—liquidated in 24 hours.

Aave and solana are among the few standouts in a broadly weak altcoin market, while ethena slides as negative funding rates undercut ENA’s model.

The crypto market is clinging to a crucial level of support, with bitcoin

BTC

$

59,342.81

barely moving since midnight UTC after rebounding from its lowest level since September 2024 on Thursday.

The largest cryptocurrency was recently trading near $59,700, having fallen as low as $58,100.

Ether (ETH) failed to mirror bitcoin's bounce, dropping a further 1% and extending its string of declines to three straight days. It recently held around $1,550.

U.S. equities also start Friday indicating weakness, Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 futures are down by 1% and 0.4%, respectively, since midnight as the tech rally of the past three months continues to unwind.

One token that bucked the bearish market sentiment was aave

AAVE

$

85.55

, which added as much as 6.8% since midnight, building on a 17% gain over the past week after CoinDesk reported that crypto exchange

Kraken was looking to acquire a 15% stake

in the DeFi company.

Derivatives positioning

Market volatility continues to weigh on leveraged futures positions. Over the past 24 hours, another $1 billion in positions were liquidated, with long positions once again accounting for the majority. Notably, ETH saw more liquidations than BTC in the past 12 hours.

Bitcoin futures open interest (OI) rose for a second consecutive day to 778,000 BTC, a sharp increase from recent lows near 730,000 BTC. The open interest surged during Thursday’s late selloff, suggesting traders added shorts into the dip in anticipation of further downside.

The picture is different in ether futures, where open interest has remained stable near the 14 million ETH level since at least June 15. This is somewhat constructive, as it indicates traders are not aggressively shorting the price decline. A similar pattern holds for XRP.

Solana’s open interest has pulled back from record highs but remains elevated compared with recent months, pointing to the potential for continued volatility.

The OI-adjusted 24-hour cumulative volume delta continues to show bearish dominance across most of the top 25 cryptocurrencies, with the notable exceptions of BNB, SOL and TON. The negative reading suggests bears are more aggressive than bulls, favoring market orders over passive limit orders. This trend has persisted since Tuesday.

Annualized 30-day implied volatility indexes are signaling rising levels of concern. Bitcoin's BVIV index jumped to 53% early today, its highest level since June 7 and a sharp rise from the June 16 low of 39%. ETH’s index climbed to 66%.

Wall Street’s equivalent, the VIX, has also risen to 20% from 15% recently but remains within the range seen since early April, indicating that equities are not yet in panic mode. A similar message is coming from the U.S. Treasury market’s implied volatility index, MOVE.

On Deribit, the one-week bitcoin options skew is approaching 30%, reflecting a substantial premium for puts, or defensive positions, over calls and underscoring strong downside fears. The one- and three-month skews are conveying a similar message.

Block flows included a large trade in the $53,000 put expiring July 10, along with demand for ether risk reversals.

Token talk

Aave outperformed the broader altcoin market, and an honorable mention goes to solana (SOL), which has added 2% since midnight and now trades around $68.95 after tumbling to $64.05 on Thursday.

AI tokens continue to unwind; RENDER, NEAR, FET and TAO lost between 1% and 1.5% on Friday, extending their declines.

Hyperliquid (HYPE) also fell, dropping 2.6%. It has now lost 18.5% since touching a record high 12 days ago.

Ethena (ENA) remains one of the worst-performing altcoins, losing another 5% on Friday. It's now dropped 34% after touching the month's high on June 3.

ENA's plight can be attributed to the ongoing bear market, as a portion of the platform's yield-generation strategy is tied to positive funding rates, which have now flipped negative.

Crypto Markets Today

Related Assets

Bitcoin

$

59,342.81

3.04

%

Aave

$

85.55

4.28

%

Latest Crypto News

1

With crypto ending the first half in the red, bitcoin's solace is it beat Strategy

11 minutes ago

2

All eyes on Strategy's June 30 ex-dividend date and monthly STRC dividend rate reset

1 hour ago

3

Binance tells EU users it will no longer provide services after failing to secure MiCA license

1 hour ago

4

Ethereum treasury firm Sharplink takes in ether for the first time in eight months

2 hours ago

5

Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings to buy Bitbank for $289 million

3 hours ago

6

Grant Cardone says he will keep buying bitcoin using real estate cash flows

3 hours ago

7

Too big to fail: Strategy’s $13 billion bitcoin paper loss alone dwarfs hundreds of prominent tokens

5 hours ago

8

Ether, XRP and dogecoin lead a broad crypto selloff as tech stocks tumble

6 hours ago

9

Live markets: Bitcoin falls below $60,000. Kospi, Nikkei sink

6 hours ago

10

Asset management giant Invesco files for tokenized fund targeting stablecoin reserve market

14 hours ago

Latest Research

Equities on Crypto Rails: A Platform Comparison

Equities on Crypto Rails: A Platform Comparison

US equities on crypto rails: access is easy, on-chain composability is the real test. Only Binance and Backpack deliver both - and only Binance at scale.

By

CoinDesk Research

2 hours ago

US equities on crypto rails: access is easy, on-chain composability is the real test. Only Binance and Backpack deliver both - and only Binance at scale.

Why it matters

:

US equities on crypto rails: access is easy, on-chain composability is the real test. Only Binance and Backpack deliver both - and only Binance at scale.

View Full Report

More From

Markets

All eyes on Strategy's June 30 ex-dividend date and monthly STRC dividend rate reset

Ethereum treasury firm Sharplink takes in ether for the first time in eight months

Too big to fail: Strategy’s $13 billion bitcoin paper loss alone dwarfs hundreds of prominent tokens

More From

Bitcoin

With crypto ending the first half in the red, bitcoin's solace is it beat Strategy

All eyes on Strategy's June 30 ex-dividend date and monthly STRC dividend rate reset

Binance tells EU users it will no longer provide services after failing to secure MiCA license

CD20

$1,599.62

CD20 down 2.61 percent

2.61%

BTC

$59,349.00

BTC down 3.03 percent

3.03%

ETH

$1,544.84

ETH down 5.26 percent

5.26%

XRP

$1.02

XRP down 4.52 percent

4.52%

SOL

$68.51

SOL up 0.65 percent

0.65%