Crypto market positioning is 'defensive and thin' after Fed rate meeting, Marex  analysts say

Crypto market positioning is 'defensive and thin' after Fed rate meeting, Marex  analysts say

Markets

Crypto market positioning is 'defensive and thin' after Fed, Marex  analysts say

While the Federal Reserve held interest rates, Chair Kevin Warsh made it clear the U.S. central bank is more worried about inflation than growth.

By

Omkar Godbole

,

Shaurya Malwa

|

Edited by

Sheldon Reback

Jun 18, 2026, 10:56 a.m.

3

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Crypto markets weakened after the Fed press conference. (Austin Distel/Unsplash)

Summary

Show

Crypto markets slipped after the Federal Reserve's hawkish tone on interest rates.

Derivatives data show risk-off positioning and bearish dominance amid rising demand for short-dated put options as traders hedge against further downside.

The crypto market slipped a day after the Federal Reserve raised expectations that U.S. interest rates are headed higher.

Bitcoin

BTC

$

59,772.97

, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was changing hands near $63,900, down more than 1% over the past 24 hours. Other major tokens, including XRP (XRP), ether (ETH), BNB coin

BNB

$

559.60

and solana (SOL), posted similar losses.

The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) fell more than 1.2% in the same period. The DeFi Select Index (DFX) slid 5%, the largest drop among all the CoinDesk benchmarks.

Still, there were pockets of strength. For instance, Provenance Blockchain’s HASH token surged 15%, alongside a gain of almost 10% gain in Stellar’s lumen (XLM).

"Sentiment is washed out, the fear gauge has plunged into extreme fear and BTC is now about 48% off its $126k high from last October. Contrarian fuel if you have the patience, but a clear tell that positioning is defensive and conviction is thin," analysts at Marex said.

Derivatives positioning

Crypto futures bets worth over $440 million have been liquidated across exchanges in the past 24 hours. Most were bullish long positions, indicating that traders had positioned for a recovery rally following Wednesday’s Federal Reserve interest-rate decision.

BTC’s futures open interest (OI) has pulled back to 730K BTC from Tuesday’s high of 742K BTC, signaling renewed risk aversion. The same applies to ether’s OI.

XRP’s OI is hovering at 2.30 billion tokens, the highest level since October, topping the recent peak of 2.29 billion tokens. This is not necessarily bullish because both perpetual funding rates and 24-hour cumulative volume delta (CVD) are negative, pointing to bearish dominance in the market.

Broadly speaking, most of the top 25 tokens, excluding TRX and SOL, recorded negative 24-hour CVD, a sign that bears are aggressively hitting market orders rather than placing passive limit orders.

Against this backdrop, the annualized 30-day implied volatility indexes for bitcoin and ether continue to signal calm. Bitcoin’s BVIV index is hovering near 41%, having reversed an early-month spike to nearly 59%.

In the options market, flows tracked by Laevitas show increased demand for put options expiring on June 21, a clear indication that traders are seeking protection against downside volatility heading into the weekend.

Token talk

Hyperliquid's token keeps ripping higher, but its app layer is not. HYPE is up 34% on the week and its core perpetuals exchange is posting record volume, yet HyperEVM, the general-purpose layer meant to attract outside developers, hasn't produced a breakout app.

A critique circulating in the Hyperliquid community argues the builder side has stalled, pointing to projects that have shut down or lost momentum and to activity concentrating in just a few hands.

The data backs the gap. HyperEVM holds about $1.5 billion in total value locked (TVL), the money parked in its apps, compared with the core exchange's $5 billion-plus in daily volume. More than 175 teams have deployed, few have meaningful traction.

What traction exists is concentrated. Unit is the main deployer of HIP-3 markets, Hyperliquid's permissionless system for listing new perpetuals, and Kinetiq leads in liquid staking. Relying on one or two builders is risky, in case either pulls back.

The disincentives look structural. Builders hesitate because a winning idea may simply get built by Hyperliquid itself, and an app that is unlikely to reward early users with an airdrop, and may not survive the year, gives traders little reason to lock up capital there.

The tension is that Hyperliquid says attracting builders matters to it. The token and the trading engine are among the strongest in crypto, while the layer meant to widen the ecosystem has yet to find its breakout moment the way Solana or Ethereum did.

Crypto Markets Today

Related Assets

Bitcoin

$

59,772.97

2.84

%

BNB

$

559.60

1.75

%

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Latest Research

CEX Volumes Drop to Lowest Since September 2024 as RWA Perps Hit Record High

CEX Volumes Drop to Lowest Since September 2024 as RWA Perps Hit Record High

In May, combined exchange volumes fell 3.45% to $4.41T; the lowest since September 2024. RWA perpetual futures volumes rose 10.4% against the trend, hitting a new all-time high.

By

CoinDesk Research

Jun 15, 2026

In May, combined exchange volumes fell 3.45% to $4.41T; the lowest since September 2024. RWA perpetual futures volumes rose 10.4% against the trend, hitting a new all-time high.

Why it matters

:

In May, combined exchange volumes fell 3.45% to $4.41T; the lowest since September 2024. RWA perpetual futures volumes rose 10.4% against the trend, hitting a new all-time high.

View Full Report

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