Bitcoin steadied above $60,000 Thursday after a sharp intraday plunge that saw the leading cryptocurrency tumble to $61,300 before recovering to trade around $62,500, as derivatives markets flashed unambiguous bearish signals with put skews strengthening across both bitcoin and ether.

Market Context

The broader crypto market succumbed to a wave of selling pressure and liquidations on Thursday. Ether (ETH) lost 3% since midnight UTC, now trading at approximately $1,750. Several altcoins saw deeper declines, with NEAR, ZEC and JUP all losing more than 13%. The memecoin HYPE shed 12% after hitting a record high earlier this week, while DASH, ENA and FET fell by more than 10%. Monero (XMR), trading at $347, managed to stay in the green over 24 hours despite falling 4% since midnight UTC.

Analysis

The downside move triggered severe liquidations with roughly $1.7 billion worth of futures positions forcibly closed due to the slide over 24 hours, bringing the two-day total to approximately $3 billion. Bitcoin accounted for $750 million of those liquidations, while ether contributed $390 million.

Derivatives positioning tells a cautionary tale. Total 24-hour futures volume rose 2.9% to $305 billion, reflecting elevated but not panicked activity. More telling is open interest, which declined 8.5% to $111.4 billion—a sign that leveraged positions are being unwound rather than fresh bets being added.

Put skews have strengthened in both bitcoin and ether, signaling that investors are willing to pay a premium for downside protection. The $60,000 strike put on Deribit carries over $1 billion in notional open interest. As spot prices approach that strike, large position adjustments become increasingly likely, which could amplify volatility.

Solana presents a notable exception. Open interest in SOL surged to a record 72.16 million tokens even as prices declined—a combination that typically signals aggressive short accumulation and reflects SOL's relative weakness after breaking below its February low. TRX and ADA are also seeing open interest rise as their prices fall, suggesting similar short-side positioning.

The 24-hour cumulative volume delta across the top 20 tokens is negative, meaning traders are selling at market prices rather than limit orders. This active, aggressive bearish participation suggests potential for deeper losses ahead.

Implied volatility indexes for bitcoin (BVIV) and ether (EVIV) have surged over the past three sessions, reflecting growing demand for options-based hedging and heightened expectations of continued price swings. The $55,000 put was the most actively traded options contract in the past 24 hours, reinforcing the bearish tilt.

Investors appear to be deserting crypto to pursue the AI narrative in traditional markets, exacerbating the geopolitical uncertainty and a fundamentally broken market structure that has failed to recover from October's leverage wipeout.

Key Numbers

- Bitcoin fell to $61,300 before recovering to around $62,500; ETH traded near $1,750, down 3%

- Two-day liquidations reached approximately $3 billion, with $1.7 billion in the past 24 hours alone

- Crypto futures open interest dropped 8.5% to $111.4 billion from record highs above 800,000 BTC

- Solana open interest surged to a record 72.16 million tokens despite declining prices

- The $60,000 strike put on Deribit carries over $1 billion in notional open interest

- More than half of circulating bitcoin sits on unrealized losses with 10.5 million tokens underwater

What to Watch

Bitcoin's ability to hold above the $60,000 level remains critical for the broader crypto market. A break below that psychological support could trigger further liquidations, which would weigh disproportionately on illiquid altcoin pairs given their lower market depth. The $55,000 put is currently the most actively traded options contract, suggesting traders are positioning for potential extensions of this downside move. Watch for whether open interest begins rebuilding as an indicator of fresh directional conviction, and monitor BVIV and EVIV implied volatility readings for signs of hedging demand escalating further.

The bitcoin price touched its 200-week moving average at $61,300—a historically significant long-term support level that traders will be watching closely for potential bounce reactions or breakdown confirmation.