Bitcoin steadied near $81,700 on Oct. 23, up 0.5% since midnight UTC, as altcoins accelerated gains following Thursday's tech-led selloff. The recovery extended across multiple asset classes, with Asian markets stabilizing after the previous day's decline.
Altcoins moved faster than bitcoin, with the CoinDesk 80 index gaining 1.4%, memecoins climbing 2.9%, and the Ethereum-based memecoin Pepe jumping 14% to lead the broader CoinDesk 100 index. Ether rose 0.9% while the broader memecoin sector showed mixed performance, with other tokens including Floki, Bonk, and Shiba Inu gaining between 3.3% and 4.9% today but remaining down significantly over the month.
Layer-1 tokens also bounced, with Polkadot and Cosmos both rising more than 5% and extending weekly gains above 6%. DeFi tokens recovered from Thursday's losses, with Uniswap gaining 3.5% and Ethena rising 2.0%.
Bitcoin futures activity cooled after Thursday's volatility, with trading volume falling 19% over 24 hours and liquidations dropping 23%. Open interest rose 1%, indicating traders are adding new positions. Ether showed stronger put positioning, with puts commanding the highest traded option activity and one-week put-call skew near 13%, compared to bitcoin's skew of about 4%.
Market sentiment remained tied to macroeconomic developments, with traders watching the Federal Reserve's Oct. 27-28 meeting while Brent crude held near $113. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs saw $635 million in outflows on Thursday, following inflows exceeding $1 billion over the first three days of the week. CoinMarketCap's "Altcoin Season" indicator stood at 58/100, up from Monday's low of 54/100 as positive sentiment supported the altcoin sector during bitcoin's consolidation.
