XRP Snaps 66-Day Slump as Broad Bid Lifts Majors; IBIT Options Skew Turns Call-Heavy

XRP led the majors higher through Tuesday's morning session, adding 3.75% to $1.1543 and ending a 66-day downtrend, while Bitcoin reclaimed $66,670 on a 2.16% move. Options positioning on BlackRock's IBIT skewed decisively call-heavy at midday, with put/call volume at 0.446 — a reading InflowScan data suggests is consistent with directional positioning rather than defensive hedging.

Market Pulse

Spot majors traded higher across the board into New York lunch. Bitcoin changed hands at $66,670, up 2.16% on the session with a 2.21% intraday range. Ether tracked at $1,931.20 (+1.41%), while XRP was the standout at $1.1543 (+3.75% ↑), snapping what one wire report described as a 66-day slump. Solana lagged at $78.12 (+0.33%).

Binance perpetual funding stayed muted across the board — BTC at +0.0019% per 8h (annualized ~2.1%), ETH at +0.0036% (~3.9%). The tape is up, but funding is not confirming leverage-driven chase. That posture is more consistent with spot-led buying than a crowded futures long.

Options Positioning

The most extreme reading on the chain sits in IBIT, where put/call volume prints at 0.446 against underlying at $36.98. Top call open interest clusters at the $40 (54,461 contracts) and $46 (50,468) strikes — both above spot — while 30-day IV holds at 36.5%. The volume skew points to fresh upside positioning rather than protective flow.

FBTC shows a similar tilt with P/C volume at 0.227, though open interest tells a more balanced story (P/C OI 0.498), suggesting today's flow is directional against an already-hedged book. ETHA is more two-way: P/C volume 0.650, IV30d at 49.0%, with heavy put OI stacked at the $5 strike — legacy downside insurance rather than active hedging. XRPC registers a P/C volume of 0.185 with call OI concentrated at the $22 and $32 strikes, aligning with today's spot move.

Narrative

Treasury-vehicle demand continues to shape the ether narrative. BitMine added 7,430 ETH and is now roughly $484M away from its stated 5% ETH-supply target, per today's headlines. Hyperscale Data expanded its bitcoin treasury to 1,087 BTC. On the leadership side, Jack Mallers exited Twenty One Capital's $2.9B bitcoin treasury vehicle — a governance shift the market has thus far absorbed without visible spot impact.

Stablecoin supply is drifting rather than staging. InflowScan data shows USDC market cap slipped $122M over 24 hours to $73.25B; USDT was effectively flat. Dry powder is not building into this rally.

Afternoon Watch

16:00 UTC funding-rate refresh — a firming print above +0.01% per 8h across BTC/ETH would mark the first leverage confirmation of the move
IBIT and FBTC call-strike concentration near $40 and $57.50 respectively — dealer gamma positioning around these levels historically associated with pinning behavior into weekly close
No scheduled Fed speakers or top-tier macro prints; afternoon setup is data-light drift with treasury-vehicle headlines as the marginal driver