Crypto and stocks go their separate ways as bitcoins failed breakout continues to weigh
Bitcoin added as much as 0.4% since midnight UTC on Friday and was recently just 0.07% higher after slumping to its lowest level since early April the day before. Thursdays drop extended a decline that has emerged over the past three weeks after a failed attempt to climb above $83,000. There is now a chance that the rejection will have contributed to a series of lower highs dating back to October — a key characteristic of a bear market. Ether (ETH) tracked bitcoin. It fell to $1,965 on Thursday before staging a recovery back above $2,000. U.S stocks continued to outperform the crypto market on Friday, with S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 index futures both posting 0.15% gains as the equity gauges approached fresh record highs. There is no clear explanation why the crypto market is struggling against sectors it has historically been correlated with. The divergence since early October, however, aligns with a leverage wipeout that the market has failed to fully recover from. Derivatives positioningBTC open interest sits at $20.05 billion, up from $19.7 billion a week ago, with speculative positioning showing slight growth.Funding rates remain positive across multiple venues at under 10% annualized. The exception is Deribit, where they spiked to 44%.The