Bitcoin showed some muscle today, breaching the $93,000 mark, as buying saw a good amount of activity across the digital currency market. Even with prices heading north, Bitcoin stored on Binance has been retreating, according to on-chain data.

That shrinking supply on a major exchange is one of several forces traders point to as tightening available coins for sale.

Binance Reserves Shrink

Based on an analysis by CryptoQuant, Binance’s Bitcoin reserves have declined as more coins move off the exchange. Some of that shift comes from holders moving funds into private cold wallets for safekeeping.

Reports show that large buyers in the US — including spot ETF managers — are also taking coins off the market and placing them with custodians.

Those moves reduce the float available to traders and can add upward pressure on prices when demand rises.

Why Binance’s Bitcoin Reserves Are Declining

“Historically, such conditions have supported medium- to long-term price appreciation. The current trend suggests that Binance’s reserve decline is a normal re-accumulation phase.” – By @xwinfinance pic.twitter.com/g3TCG4o6GD

— CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) December 3, 2025

ETF Buying And Self-Custody

According to analysts, US spot ETFs have been buying meaningful amounts of Bitcoin for their products. Funds from big issuers are held by trusted custodians rather than on trading platforms.

At the same time, ordinary holders and whales frequently shift holdings to self-custody during rallies, signaling they do not plan to sell soon.

Together, these trends remove supply from exchanges and help explain why reserves on Binance are shrinking.

Derivatives And Liquidations

Derivatives activity also played a role in recent exchange balances. Daily futures wipeouts have climbed from averages of about $28 million long and $15 million short in the prior cycle to near $68 million long and $45 million short in the current run.

That uptick in forced exits peaked on Oct. 10, when over $640 million per hour in long positions were liquidated as Bitcoin slid from $121,000 to $102,000.

Open interest dropped roughly 22% in under 12 hours, falling from close to $50 billion to $38 billion at the time.

Still At A High

While those liquidations were dramatic, the futures market has grown overall. Open interest is at a record $67 billion and daily futures turnover reached $68 billion.

More than 90% of that activity is in perpetual contracts, which tend to amplify short-term moves. That combination raises both trading volume and the potential for sharp moves when sentiment flips.

Price Levels To Watch

Based on trader calls, the market is watching the $92,000–$94,000 zone as a key resistance area. A clean daily close above that band could speed momentum toward $100K.

Nearer-term support sits around $88,000–$89,000, where buyers are expected to step in if prices pull back. Trading volume on a busy day climbed close to $86 billion, showing renewed interest from both retail and institutional participants.

Featured image from Safelincs, chart from TradingView

A sharp rise in crypto liquidations is sending a louder message of how some traders are using more leverage in recent months.

Average daily wipeouts have jumped from roughly $28 million in long bets and $15 million in shorts during the last cycle to about $68 million long and $45 million short in the current cycle, according to a new Glassnode and Fasanara report. That shift has made single sell-offs much more violent.

Early Black Friday Shock

Reports have disclosed that Oct. 10 was the clearest sign of the change. On that day, more than $640 million per hour in long positions were liquidated as Bitcoin plunged from $121,000 to $102,000.

Open interest fell about 22% in less than 12 hours, sliding from close to $50 billion to $39 billion. Traders felt the move fast. Positions were closed out on a scale Glassnode called one of the sharpest deleveraging events in Bitcoin’s history.

Futures Activity Hits Records

Futures markets have swelled. Open interest climbed to a record $68 billion and daily futures turnover topped $69 billion in mid-October.

Perpetual contracts now account for more than 90% of that activity, which concentrates risk in instruments that reset continuously.

Average daily futures wipeouts rising to $68 million long and $45 million short shows the costs when big swings occur.

Spot Trading Doubles

Based on reports, spot trading has also become more active. Bitcoin’s spot volume has climbed into an $8 billion to $22 billion daily range, roughly double what was seen in the prior cycle.

During the Oct. 10 crash, hourly spot volume spiked to $7.3 billion, with many traders stepping in to buy the dip rather than run for the exits. That flow has helped shift where price discovery happens.

Capital Flows And Market Share

Monthly inflows into Bitcoin have varied from $40 billion to $190 billion, pushing realized market capitalization to a record $1.1 trillion.

Roughly $730 billion has flowed into the network since the November 2022 low — more than all previous cycles combined.

As a result, Bitcoin’s share of overall crypto market cap rose from 38% in late 2022 to 58% today, based on the report’s figures.

Bitcoin As Settlement Rail

Meanwhile, there’s another striking stat: over the past 90 days the Bitcoin network processed nearly $7 trillion in transfers. That throughput exceeded what major card networks handled in the same window.

This has been cited as a reason some participants view Bitcoin not just as a store of value, but as an increasingly important settlement rail.

Bitcoin Price Action

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $93,165, up 6.5% and nearly 7% in the daily and weekly timeframes.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Ethereum has fallen below the $2,800 mark after a sharp and sudden decline, deepening panic across the market and reinforcing the sense that bulls have lost control. The recent drop has pushed investors into defensive mode, with some analysts now openly discussing the possibility of a broader bear market emerging. Selling pressure has intensified across spot and derivatives markets, and volatility continues to rise as traders struggle to identify a reliable support zone.

A new CryptoQuant report by Darkfost highlights one of the most alarming developments: Ethereum’s open interest on Binance has been steadily collapsing for more than three months. After reaching an all-time high of $12.6 billion on August 22, open interest has now been cut in half. Nearly $6.4 billion in derivative positions have evaporated, bringing ETH’s open interest down to $6.2 billion, a steep 51% decline.

While this appears to be an extraordinary contraction, Darkfost notes that open interest has only just slipped below the previous all-time high of $7.7 billion. This underscores how speculative and overstretched the 2025 derivatives market had become — and suggests that Ethereum may be undergoing a much deeper structural reset than most expected.

Speculation Unwinds Across Exchanges as Ethereum Enters Deep Reset Phase

Darkfost emphasizes that 2025 has been the most speculative phase in Ethereum’s history, fueled by aggressive leverage, rapid inflows, and a market structure that proved far less solid — and far less sustainable — than it appeared during the rally. The collapse in open interest on Binance is only part of the story.

The same pattern is unfolding across major derivatives platforms, revealing a broader structural unwind rather than an exchange-specific phenomenon.

On Gate.io, ETH open interest has fallen from $5.2 billion to $3.5 billion. On Bybit, the drop is even more severe, plunging from $6.1 billion to $2.3 billion. This synchronized contraction shows how aggressively speculative positions have been flushed out. Meanwhile, the ongoing correction has dragged Ethereum’s price from $4,830 to $2,800, marking a steep 43% decline from the highs.

This widespread reduction in leverage suggests the market is undergoing a deeper reset than typical corrections. Investors are not rushing to re-enter positions, especially as liquidations continue to stack up across exchanges.

While shrinking open interest weighs on short-term momentum and sentiment, Darkfost notes that such aggressive deleveraging may ultimately help rebuild a healthier market foundation — one capable of supporting a durable bottom for ETH.

ETH Loses Key Trend Support as 3-Day Structure Turns Fully Bearish

Ethereum’s 3-day chart shows a decisive breakdown in structure, with price now firmly below the 50 SMA, 100 SMA, and 200 SMA for the first time since late 2024. The rejection from the $3,600–$3,800 region triggered a strong impulse to the downside, sending ETH directly through all major moving averages and confirming a shift toward a higher-timeframe downtrend. The current trading zone around $2,800 reflects a critical test of former support, but momentum remains weak.

The 50 SMA has now crossed below the 100 SMA, while both are beginning to converge downward toward the 200 SMA — a configuration that typically precedes sustained corrections. Volume has increased on red candles, showing that sellers remain dominant, and there is little evidence of aggressive dip-buying. The most recent candle wick toward $2,700 highlights vulnerability rather than strength, suggesting buyers are hesitant to defend this level with conviction.

ETH is also forming a series of lower highs and lower lows, further confirming bearish market structure. If $2,750 breaks cleanly, the next significant liquidity zones sit near $2,550 and $2,300, where prior consolidations developed earlier in the cycle.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com

XRP may be holding above the $2 price mark for a brief period, but the leading altcoin is still facing heightened bearish pressures at that level due to a broader market pullback on Monday. Even with the ongoing downward trend in price, XRP is still experiencing robust engagement as evidenced by the massive surge in activity on the XRP Ledger.

An Explosive uptick In XRP Ledger’s Activity

Prices are constantly dwindling along with the entire crypto market, but the XRP Ledger is seeing sharp engagement within the bearish period. After months of quiet and reduced adoption, the Ledger has roared back to life, recording one of its strongest growth waves yet.

Arthur, a community member and official partner of the BingX cryptocurrency exchange, shared this surge in activity on the social media platform X. This isn’t a mild rise; it’s a growth wave with significant weight behind it, the kind that indicates an expanding utility rather than fleeting speculation.

Furthermore, the sharp growth in activity suggests that more investors are choosing to conduct their day-to-day XRP operations on the Ledger, reflecting a renewed conviction in the network. The Ledger’s current activity spike is centered around the rise in Account Set transactions to a point not seen in years.

After navigating through XRPL metrics, the expert revealed that more than 40,000 Account Set transactions were carried out on the Ledger, marking its highest level in years. Such a massive wave of transactions to a new peak suggests that the Ledger may be speeding into its next phase in a market where many chains find it difficult to sustain momentum.

At the same time, there was also a surge in Automated Market Maker (AMM) bids just after November 23 concluded, indicating that preparations are taking place on the network. With Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD approvals, AMM rollout, and the onboarding of institutional investors at an accelerated rate, it simply implies that the Ledger is picking up pace. 

Open Interest Suffers A Steep Decline

While the price of XRP has pulled back, the decline appears to be heavily impacting investors’ sentiment toward the altcoin. Its derivatives market has significantly lost its weight in a single and steep decline as Open Interest (OI) experiences a sharp drop.

In a report from Glassnode, a leading on-chain data analytics platform, the token’s futures open interest fell from 1.7 billion XRP in early October to 0.7 billion XRP by the end of November. This figure represents a more than 59% flush out from October to November alone.

The funding rates have also followed suit, recording a drop from 0.001% to 0.001% in the 7-day Simple Moving Average (SMA). A combination of the drop in open interest and funding rates marks a structural pause in the altcoin’s speculators’ appetite to bet heavily on an upward direction. At the time of writing, the altcoin was trading at $2.02 after falling by over 1% in the last 24 hours.

With the crypto market turning increasingly bearish, Bitcoin’s price has experienced another pullback, bringing it closer to the $80,000 mark once again. Along with the current drop in price, BTC’s derivatives market is showcasing bearish performance, suffering one of its steepest declines of the ongoing cycle.

Mass Derivative Unwind For Bitcoin

In a volatile landscape, Bitcoin’s Open Interest (OI) has contracted sharply as though the speculative framework supporting the market were suddenly removed. This steep drop in open interest comes after a sudden pullback in the price of BTC, causing it to lose the previously reclaimed $91,000 mark.

A report from Darkfost, a market expert and author at CryptoQuant, shows that the open interest has been sliced in half, indicating a drastic shift in investors’ sentiment and behavior. With a massive portion of leverage being evaporated, the market now stands unusually silent, while it prepares for its next decisive trigger.

Darkfost highlighted that Bitcoin leveraged positions continue to get liquidated or are being intentionally closed. Despite the recent drop in BTC’s price, this period of uncertainty is not bolstering traders’ enthusiasm to increase their exposure to risk.

Currently, the market is exhibiting a risk-off attitude, a trend that is understandable given the current state of the crypto environment. As a result, the open interest of BTC has cleared a whopping $20 billion. Data shared by the expert shows that the key metric fell from 47.5 billion BTC to 28.35 billion BTC between October 6 and December, indicating a drop of half during the period. 

According to the expert, this is the worst flush in both the current cycle and the history of Bitcoin since the availability of the derivatives market. “I continue to say that the derivatives market has a major impact on Bitcoin and is the number one driver,” Darkfost stated.

BTC Percentage Loss Hits Historic Level

As the Bitcoin price continues to pull back, short-term BTC holders are feeling the weight of the waning action. These holders, also referred to as retail investors, have realized substantial losses from their positions. 

Darkfost’s research is based solely on the spot market. His objective is to identify a very particular group of investors who speculate over the short term. With a realized price of $113,692, BTC holders between 1 month and 3 months are now experiencing the largest percentage loss in the ongoing market cycle. 

For the past two weeks, this group of investors has been holding average unrealized losses between 20% and 25%. During his cycle, these phases have been linked with the creation of a bottom. This is because the cohort often has to decide between two behaviors: selling or holding.

In the event that a large portion of these traders are capitulating, this is typically the moment when the opportunity to accumulate BTC becomes more interesting, as observed in recent weeks. However, this setup becomes valid if the bullish trend remains intact in the long term, which Darkfost expresses trust in for the meantime.

Data shows the Ethereum Open Interest has shot up by more than 4% following the sharp move down in the cryptocurrency’s price.

Ethereum Has Seen A Pullback Over The Past Day

The cryptocurrency sector as a whole has witnessed a plunge to kick off the new month, with Bitcoin and Ethereum both being down by more than 5% over the last 24 hours. ETH is back in the low $2,800 levels, having essentially retraced the recovery that it had made during the last week of November.

The sudden price decline has unleashed a wave of liquidations on the derivatives exchanges, leading to $158 million in Ethereum-related contracts being flushed. Of these, $140 million of the liquidations involved long positions alone.

Below is a heatmap from CoinGlass that breaks down the liquidation numbers related to the various digital asset symbols.

Interestingly, while notable liquidations have occurred, derivatives investors still haven’t become discouraged.

ETH Open Interest Has Gone Up Since The Dip

As pointed out by CryptoQuant community analyst Maartunn in an X post, the Ethereum Open Interest has witnessed a sharp jump following the price decline. The “Open Interest” here refers to an indicator that measures the total amount of positions related to ETH that are currently open on all centralized derivatives platforms.

Here is the chart shared by Maartunn that shows the trend in this metric over the past couple of days:

As displayed in the above graph, the Ethereum Open Interest initially collapsed alongside the price drop as long positions suffered forceful closures. As ETH’s bearish momentum tapered off and the price settled into a sideways rhythm, however, the metric saw a gradual reversal in direction, indicating that speculators have started opening up fresh positions.

Since the dip, the ETH Open Interest has gone up by almost $654 million, equivalent to an increase of 4.3%. “Looks like the gamblers are back for another round,” noted the analyst.

Historically, a high value on the metric has generally been something that has led to volatility for the cryptocurrency. This is because an extreme amount of positions implies the presence of a high amount of leverage in the sector. In these conditions, any sharp swing in the asset can induce a large number of liquidations in the market. These liquidations only feed back into the price move that caused them, making it more intense.

An example of this pattern was already seen during the past day. With the Ethereum Open Interest now rising again, it remains to be seen whether more volatility will follow.

Ethereum presently trades around $3,000 following a broader crypto market rebound in the last week. During this time, the market’s largest altcoin gained by 7.22%, providing a much-needed relief after an extended correction that dominated the majority of the last two months. As price stabilizes, crypto analytics platform XWIN Research Japan shares a forward-looking assessment of Ethereum’s outlook, especially considering developments in the futures market.

Ethereum Bulls Buy The Dip After Weak Position Exits

Amid the widespread correction of the crypto market in Q4 2025, Ethereum’s prices crashed from $4,700 to as low as $2,900, representing a 38% price decline. XWIN Research Japan reports this price fall coincided with certain relevant developments in the futures market.

In particular, Ethereum’s open interest across all exchanges dropped from $21 billion to around $17 billion in late November, as overleveraged long positions were closed down, forcing traders to open new positions with moderate leverage size. Meanwhile, funding rates stayed positive but declined to around 0.002, meaning that the dominant bullish sentiment from mid-2025 greatly reduced.

Looking at on-chain data, the Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) is at 1.27, while Binance data shows it to be around 1.0, both values indicating Ethereum is in a neutral to fair value zone, suggesting a period of stability before the next major trend emerges. Meanwhile, the recent market recovery kick-started after ETH retested the realized price of whale addresses, indicating that large market players are bolstering their holdings. 

XWIN Research Japan supports this theory, noting that Ethereum Treasury BitMine has boosted its market holdings to 3.63 million ETH. Additionally, a BlackRock client recently acquired tens of millions of dollars’ worth of ETH, further reinforcing the strength of current market demand. However, despite this robust market demand, ETH Spot ETF net outflows for November hit $1.42 billion, indicating there is significant selling pressure in the market.

Ethereum Market Outlook

At the time of writing, Ethereum trades at $3,003, reflecting a 0.22% loss in the past day. Despite its gains in the last week, the altcoin is still down by 22.34% over the last month, suggesting the majority of short-term holders are in losses.

XWIN Research Japan explains that although the overleveraged position has been cleared out with market whales now ramping up their holding, Ethereum remains in a “bottom-building phase”.  Therefore, investors should still anticipate a “choppy, sell-on-rally” price action in the short term. The analysts predict a major trend reversal with time as the current price area becomes increasingly attractive to investors for massive accumulation opportunities.

Data shows the Bitcoin-denominated Options Open Interest has witnessed a sharp surge recently and set a new all-time high (ATH).

Bitcoin Options Trend Suggests Investors Repositioning Amid Downtrend

According to the latest weekly report from Glassnode, the recent market volatility has brought with it fresh activity on the options market. Options are one of the ways derivatives traders bet on future Bitcoin price action. An options contract grants the investor the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell the cryptocurrency at a set price on or before a pre-set date. Bullish options bets are known as “calls,” while bearish ones as “puts.”

In the past, futures trading dominated the BTC derivatives market, but in recent times, options have gained popularity and now rival futures in terms of the Open Interest.

The Open Interest here refers to an indicator that measures the total amount of positions related to a given market that are open on all centralized exchanges. Below is the chart for this metric shared by Glassnode in the report that shows the trend in its BTC-denominated value for the options market over the past year.

As is visible in the graph, the Bitcoin Options Open Interest has shot up recently, indicating that options traders have been opening new positions. This surge in activity has come as BTC’s spot price has gone through some sharp volatility. The rise in the indicator has been so strong that it has pushed its value to a new ATH. Glassnode noted that this is a result of “a combination of volatility-arbitrage strategies and renewed demand for risk management.”

While the Options Open Interest denominated in BTC has spiked, the same hasn’t been true for the USD version, which remains well below the peak witnessed in late-October.

That said, the rise in the BTC-denominated metric is still a sign that investors have been repositioning, even if the overall USD capital involved is lower.  “This sets the stage for the upcoming key expiry, which is shaping up to be one of the most significant in the near term,” explained the analytics firm.

Like the USD-denominated Options Open Interest, the indicator for the perpetual futures market has also seen a decline recently.

As displayed in the above chart, the Bitcoin Futures Open Interest has been following a slow and steady decline since the massive deleveraging event in October. The pace of the decline indicates investors themselves have been pulling back on risk, rather than facing forceful liquidations.

The report concluded:

The market now rests on a leaner leverage base, which lowers the odds of sharp, liquidation-driven volatility and reflects a more cautious, defensive positioning across futures markets.

BTC Price

Bitcoin has returned to $91,300 following its sharp 5% surge over the past day.