Bitcoin and ether slipped and rebounded as South Korea's Kospi index fell 5.5% on Tuesday, leaving the index roughly 38% below its June all-time high. Bitcoin fell below $81,000 before rebounding above $84,000 and settling just above $83,000. Ether fell as low as $2,400. Several tokens suffered double-digit losses, and Autheo plunged 92% after a suspected exploit.
The Asian selloff reflected mounting concerns about AI investment. Broadcom's CEO called current AI investing "casino-like", weakening investor confidence. Reported advances in memory-chip technology at China's CXMT raised concerns about stronger competition for established chipmakers. Samsung Electronics fell 7%, and SK Hynix fell 10%, leading the declines.
Investors are positioning ahead of Wednesday's U.S. CPI report, another potential source of volatility. Headline inflation is forecast at 3.6% year over year, which would represent an acceleration from the previous month's 3.4%. Core inflation is forecast at 2.5%. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are scheduled to report third-quarter earnings later today, offering a fresh assessment of consumer demand, credit conditions and corporate activity.
The 24-hour futures trading volume reached $212 billion, up 66% from $126 billion yesterday. Open interest, the dollar value of all open contracts, fell 1.58% to $143.4 billion. Liquidations rose 284% to $813 million. Heavy trading, shrinking open interest and forced closures indicate that leverage is being reduced rather than added. The 24-hour long/short taker volume ratio was 48%/52%, reversing yesterday's balance when longs accounted for 52% of the flow. Aggressive sellers retain a slight advantage, although buyers are closer to parity.
SPCX and SNDK were the most-traded crypto futures contracts over the past 24 hours. Coinglass said SPCX's 24-hour volume rose 700%. Coinglass said SNDK's 24-hour volume rose 271%. Open interest in both remained just under $1 billion, significantly below major contracts, indicating mostly rapid trading rather than an accumulation of positions. SNDK's open interest rose nearly 9% alongside a 7% price decline, implying roughly 17% more open contracts after accounting for the price change. New positions in a falling market usually indicate fresh shorts, although some positions may belong to buyers seeking lower prices. SK Hynix's open interest rose 18% as the price fell 8%, implying about 28% more open contracts and reflecting South Korea's equity-market risk aversion in onchain markets.
Bitcoin and ether futures open interest fell 2% or more while prices were largely flat to negative over 24 hours. Lower prices accounted for part of the decline, making the net outflow of positions smaller than 2%; XRP, SOL and HYPE showed the same pattern. ZEC's price fell more than 7% in 24 hours as open interest fell 11%, implying about 4% fewer open contracts. ZEC's open interest rose 7% alongside a 6% price gain a day earlier, implying only about a 1% inflow and making the subsequent reversal larger. NEAR showed a similar pattern. Annualized funding rates for ZEC and NEAR remained positive at around 7%, down from 10% for ZEC yesterday, meaning longs continued paying to maintain positions. Open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta, which tracks aggressive buying versus selling, was negative for both.
SUI had the most negative cumulative volume delta, while most major tokens, including bitcoin and ether, also showed aggressive selling. NEAR changed to a negative reading after having the second-most positive reading yesterday. Annualized perpetual funding rates were minus 30% or more, meaning shorts paid longs; crowded short positions can reverse quickly if prices rise.
Bitcoin and ether implied volatility indexes remained near year-to-date lows despite the liquidations, indicating continued calm in options markets. Bitcoin put options dominated the most-traded 24-hour rankings for the second day, pointing to demand for protection against price declines. Ether options flows were mixed. Ether's $2,500 put expiring on October 16 led trading volume by a wide margin over the second- and third-largest positions.