Crypto steadies after selloff as bitcoin, ether rebound from multiyear lows

Bitcoin and ether are posting gains after a sharp market-wide decline, with derivatives traders continuing to reduce risk exposure.

By Oliver Knight, Omkar Godbole|Edited by Sheldon Reback

Updated Feb 4, 2026, 11:30 a.m. Published Feb 4, 2026, 11:29 a.m.

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The crypto market is enjoying a rare period of calm after Tuesday's selloff took bitcoin BTC$75,925.17 and ether ETH$2,251.72 to fresh multiyear lows.

BTC was recently trading at $76,100 having bounced from $72,870, the lowest since November 2024, while ETH is at $2,255 after dropping to a level not seen since May last year. Both assets in the black since midnight UTC, if only just.

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The altcoin market is mixed, with privacy coins embarking on a much-needed bounce while Solana-based tokens like PUMP and JUP fell, losing 2% and 2.5%, respectively, since midnight.

The recovery occurred after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a government funding package to end a partial shutdown, lifting U.S. equity futures and other global markets. Precious metals rebounded, with gold back above $5,000 and silverat $90 having risen by almost 6%.

Derivatives positioning

Traders continue to reduce their risk exposure, driving the cumulative notional open interest in all crypto futures down to $105.90 billion, the lowest since last April.
Crypto futures bets worth $679 million have been liquidated in 24 hours, with bullish plays accounting for most of the tally.
Bitcoin's 30-day implied volatility climbed to an annualized 53%, the highest since Dec. 1, indicating heightened market fear.
Open interest (OI) in bitcoin and ether futures dropped 0.7% and 2%, respectively. DOGE and recent outperformer HYPE have seen bigger capital outflows.
OI in LINK futures increased 2% alongside positive cumulative volume delta. The combination points to influx of bullish pressure in the market. The 24-hour CVD is also positive for TRX, XLM and ZEC.
Deribit-listed options are still showing a bias for bitcoin and ether puts, a sign of persistent demand for downside protection. Short-dated puts are trading at a 10-12 volatility premium to calls, a sign of peak fear.
Block flows featured demand for bitcoin and ether put spreads, a bearish strategy.

Token talk

Derivatives exchange tokens HYPE, LIT and ASTER all fell over the past 24 hours as traders rotated back into privacy coins.
HYPE lost 8.5%, but remains up by 30% since the turn of the year.
Monero XMR$388.91 bounced by 4% halt the bleeding after losing more than 50% of its value since Jan. 14. Zcash ZEC$278.08 is up by 3.4% after tumbling by more than 62% from its record high in November.
Generally speaking, the altcoin market lost ground to bitcoin during the recent market plunge. Bitcoin dominance is now back above 59% having started the year at 58.5%.
The divergence is typical of previous crypto bear markets, characterized by exaggerated altcoin moves in low liquidity environments.
Crypto majors SOL, ADA and XRP are all trading at their lowest levels since 2024 having retraced the entire bullish rallies over the past few years.

Crypto Markets TodayDerivatives