Crypto markets tumble as oil surges and traders pile into bearish bets: Crypto Markets Today

Markets Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Crypto markets tumble as oil surges and traders pile into bearish bets: Crypto Markets Today Bitcoin and ether fell sharply alongside global risk assets after escalating tension in Iran drove oil higher, while derivatives data shows traders positioning for further downside. By Oliver Knight , Omkar Godbole Apr 2, 2026, 10:30 a.m. Make preferred on Traders pile into bearish bets (geralt/Pixabay What to know : Crypto fell after renewed geopolitical tensions pushed oil up by 10% and weighed on equities, strengthening the dollar and driving a broader risk-off move. Funding rates turned deeply negative and open interest rose, indicating traders are actively shorting BTC and ETH; liquidations hit nearly $400 million. Despite the drop, implied volatility remains stable and options markets show sustained demand for downside protection rather than panic selling. Bitcoin BTC $ 66,366.82 gave back a large portion of its recent gains on Thursday, now trading at $66,700 having lost 2.4% of its value since midnight UTC. Ether (ETH) performed even worse, tumbling by 4.4% as the broader crypto market struggles to deal with continued risk-off sentiment. The latest plunge was spurred by U.S. president Donald Trump, who said on Wednesday evening that the war in Iran would continue with extensive strikes on Iran. “Over the next two to three weeks, we’re going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong,” he said. The comments led to an immediate spike in oil prices, with brent crude rising by around 10% to $108 per barrel as U.S. equities diverged. Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 futures lost 1.5% and 1.1% respectively while the U.S. dollar increased by 0.5% to above 100 points. Derivatives positioning BTC's price has dropped over 2% since midnight UTC hours alongside a slightly uptick in open interest in major USD- and USDT-denominated futures. Plus, perpetual funding rates have dropped to their most negative since March 12. This combination suggests that traders are bearish and shorting the falling market. In ether's case, funding rates are most negative since October last year, a sign of strong bias for bearish bets. Meanwhile, bearishness in solana (SOL) is surprisingly more measured despite the overnight hack. Privacy-focused zcash (ZEC) and ADA $ 0.2380 have seen a notable decline in open interest (OI) in 24 hours, a sign of capital outflows. Nearly $400 million in futures positions have been liquidated due to margin shortfalls. That's a 17% increase in losses compared to the previous day. Despite renewed risk-off tone, bitcoin and ether's 30-day implied volatility indices remain flat in recent ranges. It points to orderly selling in the spot market rather than panic. There is little scope for panic because traders are already positioned for market swoon. They have been consistently chasing bitcoin and ether put options (downside hedges) since the start of the year. As of writing, bitcoin and ether puts remained pricier than calls across all tenors on Deribit. Block flows featured demand for ether straddles, a volatility strategy, and put spreads and bitcoin call spreads. Token talk The worst performing benchmark on Thursday was CoinDesk's DeFi Select Index (DFX), which lost 5.9% since midnight UTC, closely followed by the CoinDesk Computing Select Index (CPUS) that tumbled by 5%. Ethena (ENA) led the downside move as it fell by more than 10% on Thursday, there was also a heavy drawdown among DeFi tokens UNI, LDO, SKY and AAVE - all shedding between 4.2% and 6.5% during Asian and European hours on Thursday. Algorand (ALGO) bucked the bearish market trend, rising by around 0.8% on Thursday as it continues its rich vein of form having rallied by 22% in the past week. CoinMarketCap's "altcoin season" index is down from 50/100 to 42/100 since March 30, highlighting relative weakness across the sector. Crypto Markets Today More For You Encryption Supremacy: Zcash and Privacy in the Age of Scale By CoinDesk Research Mar 31, 2026 Commissioned by GenZcash Most crypto privacy models weaken as blockchain data grows. Encryption-based models like Zcash strengthen. CoinDesk Research maps the five privacy approaches and examines the widening gap. Why it matters : As blockchain adoption scales, the metadata available to machine learning models scales with it. Obfuscation-based privacy approaches are structurally degrading as a result. This report provides a comprehensive comparison of all five major crypto privacy architectures and a framework for evaluating which models remain durable as AI capabilities improve. View Full Report More For You The bitcoin treasury boom is unwinding as some companies and governments sell holdings By James Van Straten | Edited by Omkar Godbole 44 minutes ago Falling prices and prolonged consolidation are pushing public firms and sovereign holders to liquidate bitcoin reserves to shore up balance sheets. What to know : Public companies including Empery Digital, Genius Group and Riot Platforms have all sold bitcoin this week, citing debt repayment, liquidity needs, or strategic pivots into AI and HPC. Sovereign selling is also accelerating, with Bhutan offloading more bitcoin. Read full story Latest Crypto News The bitcoin treasury boom is unwinding as some companies and governments sell holdings 44 minutes ago Beyond T-bills: OpenEden introduces tokenized high-yield corporate bond 1 hour ago Metaplanet acquires 5,075 BTC, jumps to third largest bitcoin treasury company 1 hour ago Ripple Treasury puts XRP and RLUSD inside corporate finance for the first time 3 hours ago Bitcoin traders keep chasing Trump’s Iran noise. The real signals are elsewhere. 5 hours ago Oil trader takes $17 million hit as tokenized crude rivals bitcoin liquidations 5 hours ago Top Stories Bitcoin, ether, solana slide further as Trump threatens to hit Iran 'extremely hard' 6 hours ago Solana DeFi platform Drift confirms 'active attack' as $200M+ leaves platform 15 hours ago Bitcoin’s crashes are shrinking, and Wall Street is starting to notice 21 hours ago Some quantum-resistant tokens jump 50% as Google flags risks to Bitcoin security Apr 1, 2026 Hong Kong hasn’t issued a single HKD stablecoin license after March target Apr 1, 2026 In this article BTC BTC $ 66,366.82 ◢ 3.21 % ADA ADA $ 0.2378 ◢ 4.43 %