Bitcoin price holds at $71,000 as shorts liquidated, open interest slips

Bitcoin traded near $71,000 on March 24 after roughly $550 million in bearish crypto futures were liquidated. Futures open interest in Bitcoin slipped during the move amid continued Middle East tensions.

Since midnight UTC, the token added about 0.25%, extending the 24-hour advance. Bitcoin has outperformed gold since the conflict began. Oil hovered near $100 a barrel, and U.S. equity futures were slightly lower.

Liquidations over the past day totaled more than $200 million across crypto. Open interest in major USD- and USDT-margined Bitcoin futures eased to about 228,000 BTC from 229,000 BTC. Ether, XRP and Solana showed similar declines. Futures tied to Dogecoin, Cardano, Sui, Avalanche, Chainlink, and tokenized gold saw open interest drop by as much as 10%. Most tokens posted positive 24-hour cumulative volume deltas, a gauge of net buying, while Cronos, Monero, and Toncoin recorded negative readings.

Perpetual swap funding rates for large tokens ranged between 5% and 10%. In options, demand for downside protection persisted. On Deribit, Bitcoin and Ether puts held a net bias across expiries and traded at a premium of roughly 5 to 6 volatility points over calls, narrowing from 8 to 10 earlier Monday. Block flows showed interest in a Bitcoin put condor, a low-volatility strategy, while in Ether, risk reversals led activity.

Geopolitics remained a key factor. Fresh strikes hit Tel Aviv and Lebanon on Tuesday. On March 23, President Donald Trump put a 48-hour ultimatum over the Strait of Hormuz on hold after citing progress in Iran talks. Iranian officials dismissed the claim as “fake news.” U.S. stock futures were softer, with Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 contracts each down about 0.1% since midnight.

Altcoins firmed. AI-linked tokens outperformed during Asian trading hours, with Bittensor up about 5.8% and Fetch.ai’s FET gaining 4.1% after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang remarked that artificial general intelligence “has already been achieved.” HYPE, Optimism’s OP and Curve’s CRV advanced around 3%. A large-cap crypto index focused on Bitcoin rose about 0.3%, while a broader basket of 80 altcoins gained more than 1%.

The memecoin segment lagged. A sector gauge rose 0.1%, with several constituents down 3% to 5%. In decentralized finance, conditions stayed weak after Balancer Labs closed operations and the Resolv stablecoin project was hacked.