Crypto traders are in risk-on mode as bitcoin dominance nears return to 60%

Bitcoin led broad crypto gains on Friday, trading above $86,000 after a 3.4% intraday rise as markets awaited the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report. Traders and analysts noted that bitcoin’s share of total crypto market capitalization is nearing 60%, while the largest dollar-pegged stablecoin, USDT, has seen its share fall to about 6.3% — a combination that market participants interpret as investors reducing cash exposure and rotating into tokens. Derivatives metrics show traders are adding leverage to bullish bets. BTC open interest increased to $22.4 billion from $20.9 billion the previous day, funding rates spiked on some venues (about 9–10% annualized on Hyperliquid and OKX), and the three-month annualized basis on Deribit remained above 6%. Options flow was strongly call-skewed, with a 24-hour put/call ratio favoring calls by 88%. Heightened positioning coincided with a sharp rise in liquidations: Coinglass reported about $344 million wiped out in the prior 24 hours (up from roughly $100 million), with BTC ($132 million) and ETH ($70 million) leading notional losses. Exchange-level data highlighted $87,400 as a key liquidation cluster on Binance to watch in the event of further price moves. Macro factors remain a focal point. Economists polled by FactSet expected the U.S. to have added 90,000 jobs in September and for the unemployment rate to remain near 4.1%. Traders and some analysts emphasized how payrolls and the mid-October consumer price index could influence longer-dated Treasury yields — especially inflation-adjusted yields — and thereby affect bitcoin’s trajectory. Market-implied odds of an October Fed rate hike had fallen to about 30% after recent dovish comments from Fed officials, a dynamic that has been supportive of risk assets including crypto.