On a day marked by Bitcoin’s stability and Ether’s retreat, the memecoin market has managed to stand out with a 1.5% growth this Tuesday. According to specialized indices, assets like PIPPIN have staged surges of up to 46%, contrasting with the apathy of leading crypto assets that are currently struggling to consolidate key technical supports.
While the king asset unsuccessfully tries to regain the psychological level of 70,000 dollars, tokens linked to artificial intelligence also show signs of strength today. Worldcoin, co-founded by Sam Altman, has recorded a rise of more than 3%, driven by the growing narrative of agentic AI that currently dominates the most relevant investor conversations.
Massive deleveraging and mixed signals in Bitcoin derivatives
Despite optimism in specific sectors, the “Fear and Greed” index remains anchored in extreme panic levels following last week’s heavy liquidations. Futures data reveal a deep deleveraging process, with open interest having dropped to 15.9 billion dollars, signaling a phase of prolonged institutional caution within the broader financial market.
Funding rates on exchanges such as Binance and Bybit have collapsed into negative territory, ranging between -7% and -8%, indicating that short sellers are paying high premiums. Therefore, bearish dominance remains firm in derivatives, although the options market is beginning to show a slight recovery in the demand for bullish calls recently.
On the other hand, traditional markets have stabilized following Sanae Takaichi’s electoral victory in Japan, reducing the risk of a massive capital flight toward the yen. This macroeconomic calm has allowed, although large assets do not take off, for the memecoin market and other risk sectors to find a temporary breather from global selling pressure.
What factors determined the sudden closure of the Merkle Trade platform?
In the decentralized finance sphere, Merkle Trade, the largest perpetual futures exchange on the Aptos network, has initiated its final shutdown process. Despite having processed 30 billion dollars in volume since its launch, the platform will close all positions today, following a decision that has surprised the cryptographic community recently.
The importance of this event lies in the fragility of some emerging projects that, despite having million-dollar funding, fail to sustain their operations in complex cycles. However, the native token MKL rose 9% following the announcement of fee-free redemptions, although it has accumulated a 77% loss of value during the last twelve months of trading.
Ultimately, the current landscape reflects a dichotomy between the resilience of speculative assets and the structural weakness of the main networks. It is expected that, if long-term volatility rates manage to stabilize, capital could flow back into Bitcoin, allowing the market to finally overcome the phase of extreme fear that currently limits any organic recovery.
