Bitcoin falls to $83,300 while bond yields reach their highest level since 2007

Bitcoin Falls to $83,344 as Bond Selloff Pressures Crypto and $17 Billion in Options Expire Friday

Bitcoin gave back gains from an early Thursday recovery and traded at $83,344, down 1.23% since midnight Coordinated Universal Time, after the price had been quoted at $83,405.92. The pressure came from a bond selloff that pushed the United States 10-year Treasury yield to its highest level since 2007, weighing on crypto for a second day and setting the tone for a market-wide decline.

Macro Pressure Spreads Across Major Tokens

The weakness moved beyond Bitcoin. Ether ETH was quoted at $2,642.86 and fell 1.55%, XRP lost 2.87%, and Solana SOL traded at $113.14 after a 1.61% decline. Smaller tokens had led a slight recovery in the European morning, but that strength faded. NEAR and Hyperliquid HYPE were down 3.32% and 3.94% in the broader market snapshot, showing the pressure shifting toward riskier assets.

The backdrop was not limited to crypto. The Dollar Index DXY rose 0.13% to 101.24, its highest level since July, while gold fell 0.71% to $4,257. United States equity futures trended lower again, with S&P 500 futures down 0.61% and Nasdaq 100 tumbled by more than 1%.

Derivatives Show Position Closing More Than New Short Conviction

Taker flow stayed bearish for a second day. Shorts made up more than 52% of 24-hour taker volume, and that volume rose 10% to $250 billion, even as open interest fell nearly 6% to $149 billion. Rising volume with falling open interest and short-heavy flow suggested existing positions were closing out rather than fresh short conviction building.

Bitcoin futures open interest dropped 6% against a 3% price decline over 24 hours. Because the open interest measure was notional, the faster fall in open interest meant real contracts were closing, not just the dollar value of unchanged positions shrinking. That pattern was consistent with genuine long unwinding rather than new shorts piling in.

Binance, the top exchange by volume, showed a divergence. The whale long/short account ratio sat back above 1 at 1.30, and the whale position ratio held under 2 for a second straight day. Large accounts appeared to be sitting out or leaning against the broader selling, a divergence worth watching rather than dismissing.

Across other assets, XRP notional open interest was falling faster than price, mirroring Bitcoin and pointing to real position closing. Ether and Solana showed a different pattern: their open interest decline roughly matched the price drop, which looked more like existing positions losing dollar value as price fell than active deleveraging.

Sell pressure was also visible in flow. The 24-hour open-interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta was negative across majors including Bitcoin and Ether, meaning aggressive selling had outpaced aggressive buying. XRP, SUI and AVAX showed the most negative readings, marking them as places where selling pressure was concentrated hardest.

Litecoin was the clearest exception. LTC was up nearly 8% in 24 hours, and its futures open interest, measured directly in tokens, rose to 8.96 million, the highest since Jan. 18, extending a rising streak since Sept. 19. Rising price alongside rising open interest in coin terms is a cleaner signal than notional-based reads, pointing to fresh long build-up rather than short covering.

Options markets were calmer than spot price action. Bitcoin and Ether 30-day implied volatility indices remained pinned in recent ranges, with short-term implied volatility still cheap relative to realized volatility in both cases. Options traders were not pricing panic even as spot weakened. Still, positioning turned defensive: Bitcoin's one-week skew flipped positive, showing renewed demand for downside protection, and Ether showed the same shift. Both aligned with the broader market weakness.

The biggest near-term event is Friday, when over $17 billion in Bitcoin and Ether options expire on Deribit, with most positions currently in the money. Whether traders roll those positions into later expiries or let them settle remains the key question, and either outcome could add volatility into the weekend.

Token Moves Split as Halving Positioning and Givebacks Diverge

Litecoin LTC $66.97 held its gains through the selloff, up 8.1% since midnight Coordinated Universal Time and 6.2% over the rolling day. The move came as traders positioned ahead of next July's block reward halving, with historical bottoms typically arriving six to 12 months beforehand.

Ethereum Classic ETC added 7.6% on the day to $9.42, while lending protocol token Morpho MORPHO $2.6633 climbed 4.1% to $2.67.

The damage was concentrated in tokens that ran hardest earlier in the week. AI inference token Venice VVV $28.63 fell 5.2% since midnight and 9.6% over 24 hours to $28.71. Perpetuals exchange token Lighter LIT fell 4.2% and 2.1% to $5.09. Pump.fun PUMP $0.003784 fell 4.1% on the day and 11% over the rolling window.

Hyperliquid HYPE lost 3.9% to $90.39, and NEAR fell 3.1% to $4.2. The AI token referenced in the market update was 8.7% lower over the past 24 hours despite being one of the strongest performers over the past week.

XRP and Bitcoin Cash BCH $329.53 were the weakest of the majors, each falling 2.7% since midnight to $1.46 and $328.56. XRP was 8.3% lower over 24 hours, while Bitcoin Cash was 6.8% lower, giving back gains from Wednesday's Chicago Mercantile Exchange futures announcement.

What Comes Next

The next session will test whether the bond-yield pressure continues to dominate crypto pricing and whether Friday's $17 billion options expiry on Deribit becomes a volatility catalyst. The whale divergence on Binance, the defensive options skew, and the contrast between genuine long unwinding in Bitcoin and position closing in XRP give traders several signals to watch as the weekend approaches.