TL;DR:
- Bitcoin hovers around $75,000 with sustained institutional demand, but faces supply resistance near $76,800.
- Open interest in futures grew 2.5% in 24 hours while liquidations dropped 48%, signaling caution and lack of conviction.
- CoW Swap suffered a DNS hijacking attack on April 14 that drained at least $1 million from wallets connected to the site.
Bitcoin consolidates positions near $75,000 amid a tension between sustained institutional demand and a supply wall that makes it difficult to advance toward new highs. Onchain data shows the critical level sits around $76,800, where the cost basis of short-term holders is concentrated and from where many investors tend to liquidate positions upon recovering their break-even point.
The macroeconomic context is key for the crypto market. The US dollar fell to its lowest level in nearly six weeks and Treasury yields eased, conditions that historically favor crypto assets by reducing the relative appeal of cash. Gold also climbed, sending a market signal that balances risk appetite with hedging. However, the US naval blockade of Iranian ports and Iran’s threats to disrupt commercial routes in the Persian Gulf keep geopolitical context under pressure, with markets awaiting possible inflationary impacts that could reshape global monetary policy.
According to the latest data from CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin trades at around $73,651 and is down 0.44% over the past 24 hours. Its volume fell 16.4% compared to the previous session, though it still exceeds $39 billion.
Cautious Positioning in Derivatives
The derivatives market signals a peculiar positioning. Open interest in crypto futures grew 2.5% over the past 24 hours while trading volume fell 16% and liquidations plunged 48% to $220 million. The divergence suggests traders are quietly building exposure without taking aggressive risks. XRP and DOGE lead the gains in open interest with increases of at least 3%, and DOGE posts the most positive adjusted CVD of the period, indicating sustained buying pressure.
Doubts About the Bitcoin Rally
Bitcoin and Ethereum’s 30-day implied volatility remains below their 200-day averages. In the Bitcoin options market listed on Deribit, short-term contracts trade cheaper than realized volatility, a setup that typically incentivizes volatility-buying strategies through straddles or strangles. Even so, demand for puts persists and the bearish skew in options indicates that the market has yet to fully trust the sustainability of the current rally.
CoW Swap, Victim of Social Engineering
The CoW Swap protocol suffered a DNS hijacking attack that redirected users from the cow.fi domain to a cloned site designed to capture wallet approvals. The attackers did not compromise the smart contracts or backend systems, but instead used social engineering to take control of the domain registrar. Onchain losses amount to at least $1 million, with one wallet losing 219 ETH. The COW token fell 2.6% on the day of the incident and has accumulated a 11% decline since then, despite CoW DAO recovering control of the domain just hours after the attack.
