Bitcoin stuck below $65,000 as Hormuz hopes evaporate, XRP close to dropping below $1
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- Bitcoin dropped 1.68% over 24 hours to $63,823 after Trump's demand for 50 years of Iranian compensation as a negotiation condition killed the Strait of Hormuz reopening narrative, pushing Brent crude up to $89.08 — more than 12% above last week's low.
- Strategy sold a further 1,690 BTC on Monday, its fourth consecutive weekly reduction, and has not bought Bitcoin since June, adding selling pressure to an already-stalled market.
- XRP futures open interest jumped 14% to 2.72 billion tokens — the highest since October — as negative 24-hour cumulative volume delta showed shorts trading more aggressively via market orders, putting the token within reach of dropping below $1 for the first time since 2024.
- Crypto futures trading volume surged 51% to $143.15 billion in 24 hours while total open interest held flat at $115.6 billion, a pattern the source flags as "churn rather than fresh positional trading."
- Bitcoin's 30-day implied volatility index (BVIV) jumped nearly 5% to 38.64%, abandoning its long-held ~36% floor, while one-week call skew in BTC and ETH weakened — a setup the source says points to a fresh downside bias if Wednesday's CPI prints hot.
- Curve DAO (CRV) surged 9.49% over 24 hours, extending a 27.29% weekly gain, as the token bucked a broader market where Zcash led losses with a 1.97% drop to $486 and the CoinMarketCap Altcoin Season indicator recovered only to 41/100.
Why it matters: Strategy's fourth straight week of selling removes a major buy-side floor while BTC churns below $65K ahead of a CPI report that will either validate the 'higher for longer' Fed narrative or hand bears control. With $143 billion in futures volume turning over at flat open interest, positioning is resetting — not accumulating — leaving Wednesday's inflation print as the singular deciding factor.
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