Bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) prices hold steady while XMR, HYPE outperform

Bitcoin held near $63,600 after Wednesday’s in-line U.S. inflation print proved enough to calm nerves, but not enough to move markets decisively in either direction.

The largest cryptocurrency has added 0.30% since midnight UTC, while the broader crypto market capitalization dropped 0.54% over 24 hours to $2.18 trillion.

July CPI came in at 3.4% year over year, matching forecasts. Core inflation also eased, with the annual reading slipping to 2.5% from 2.6%. The producer price inflation figure due at 12:30 UTC may provide more impetus to a lackluster market.

As for U.S. equities, S&P 500 index futures gained 0.13% while Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed.

Derivatives positioning

• Futures market churn continues: 24-hour volume stands at $147 billion, up 6% on the day, but cumulative open interest (OI) across all cryptocurrency futures has held flat near $116 billion.
• XRP positioning stays elevated: XRP futures OI is perched at 2.67 billion tokens, the most since October, for a third straight day. The 24-hour cumulative volume delta (CVD) remains negative, pointing to bearish bets being executed at market prices more than bullish ones. These paint a bearish picture, flagging a possible drop below $1. There's a silver lining, though: The annualized perpetual funding rate is near 8%, pointing to a bias toward bullish bets.
• ADA and BCH show heavy bearish tilt: Both coins are seeing funding rates of -10% or lower, pointing to a clear investor preference for bearish positions. They both also show negative 24-hour CVD, indicating aggressive selling. This is particularly notable for ADA, whose OI remains just shy of the recent record high of 2.79 billion tokens, suggesting traders are adding fresh short exposure near record participation levels, not just unwinding old longs.
• AVAX flips from gainer to loser: Avalanche's AVAX, one of the top OI gainers earlier this week, is the biggest OI loser of the past 24 hours. Others include LTC, LINK and SOL.
• Implied volatility stays muted: Options-based implied volatility for bitcoin and ether remains near its recently hit year-to-date lows, suggesting traders aren't expecting a big move in the short term.
• Upside bets still surface: In BTC's case, someone bought a large number of call options at the $65,500 strike, paying $1.07 million in initial premium. This is an ultra-short-term bullish bet; the calls expire Aug. 15.