Solana (SOL) and Dogecoin (DOGE) tokens fell the most among major cryptocurrencies, while Bitcoin remained largely unchanged over the past 24 hours.
SOL lost as much as 8% amid continued "risk-off" sentiment for major cryptocurrencies. DOGE fell 5%, while BNB Chain's BNB, Cardano's ADA and XRP slipped a relatively small 3.5%, data on CoinGecko showed.
Outside the top ten, Avalanche's AVAX slipped 11%, while Shiba Inu's SHIB lost only 2.5%, despite being a relatively volatile token. Ether (ETH) lost 3.2% amid declining demand for blockspace on Ethereum, suggesting lower development and on-chain activity.
Blockspace is the amount of transaction data that can be included in each block, for which users pay "gas" fees. Lower block demand generally means a decrease in user activity on a given network.
Another drawback.
On-chain analysis firm Glassnode said in a note earlier this week that the derivatives market suggests that fears of further downside remain among investors.
"Poor price performance, anxious derivatives pricing and extremely weak blockspace demand for both Bitcoin and Ethereum suggest that the demand side is likely to continue to face headwinds," Glassnode said.
Yields on a rolling three-month basis for futures are around 3.1% for both assets, which is "historically very low," Glassnode said. Such returns occur when there is a mispricing between the spot and futures prices of an asset. Traders buy the underlying asset and sell its futures or the futures of a related asset. The difference is collected.
However, lower yields give traders little reason to deploy capital and enter the markets, which could lead to further downside movements because new capital does not cause spot and futures prices to rise. Capital could flow back into markets if broader markets offer low yields.
"The yield is now higher than the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield (2.78%), which could be a reason for investors to get back into the market," Glassnode analysts said.
The bearish futures data came along with options activity on bitcoin, which indicated bearish sentiment among traders, as reported earlier this week. The put/call ratio on bitcoin options reached a 12-month high above 0.72, indicating that traders are hedging their portfolios against a downtrend.
Put options are a contract that gives the option buyer the right, but not the obligation, to sell a specified amount of an underlying asset at a specified price. Call options, on the other hand, give the buyer the right to purchase the asset at a predetermined price in the future.
The put/call ratio is a measure of the ratio of puts to calls that indicates how traders are positioning themselves for a market move.
However, current conditions continue to be bearish. Bitcoin traded within a narrow range of $28,700 to $30,500 last week and has trended downward for more than eight consecutive weeks for the first time in its trading history.