Bitcoin Reclaims $78,900 as XRP Outperforms; IBIT Options Skew Turns Call-Heavy

Bitcoin traded at $78,918 near midday Monday, up 2.5% over 24 hours, as risk assets across the crypto complex extended gains. XRP led the majors with a 6.1% advance to $1.42, while ETH and SOL rose 2.0% and 3.4% respectively. Options positioning on BlackRock's IBIT skewed call-heavy at Friday's close, with a P/C volume ratio of 0.45 pointing to directional upside interest rather than downside hedging.

Market Pulse

Spot majors traded green across the board into the New York lunch hour. Bitcoin held $78,918 after a 2.02% intraday range, ETH changed hands at $2,527, and SOL reclaimed $102.77. XRP was the standout, up +6.1% ↑ to $1.4245 with a 3.84% session range — the widest of the majors. Perpetual funding remained modestly positive across all four assets on Binance, with SOL leading at an annualized +10.95% and BTC the most subdued at +3.72%. Funding this shallow is consistent with spot-led rather than leverage-led buying.

Options Positioning

Friday's end-of-day options chain shows a clear call bias in the flagship bitcoin products. IBIT, trading live at $44.63, printed a P/C volume ratio of 0.446 and 30-day IV of 36.6%, with the top call open interest sitting at the $48 strike (7.6% above current levels) at 72,081 contracts. FBTC ran even lighter on puts at a 0.327 P/C volume ratio, though its top call OI cluster at $100 sits 45.9% above the live $68.55 price — a longer-dated tail bet rather than a near-term magnet. ETHA showed the most pronounced call skew of the ETH names at a 0.319 P/C volume ratio and 52.1% IV; its $20 call strike (4.9% above live $19.07) has drawn 52,587 contracts of open interest. ARKB is the outlier with a P/C volume ratio of 1.213, though thin OI limits the read.

Narrative

Wire coverage this morning centered on Friday's settled ETF picture — spot bitcoin funds recorded roughly $463M in net outflows in the prior session, according to InflowScan data — even as spot prices rallied through Monday's open. That disconnect between settled redemptions and intraday strength points to spot bid absorption, not fresh ETF-led inflows, driving the tape. Elsewhere, DeFi Development disclosed an expansion of its Solana treasury to 2.39M SOL, adding a corporate-treasury data point to SOL's session leadership, and Ripple flagged $2.4B in cleared supply activity as XRP outperformed.

Afternoon Watch

Today's ETF flow prints (settle overnight, publish in tomorrow's pre-market brief) — the tell for whether Monday's spot strength drew issuer creations or was purely offshore.
Funding rate refresh at the 16:00 UTC print — a further push higher on SOL from +10.95% annualized would historically be associated with crowding on the long side.
USDC and USDT market caps ticked down $119M and $138M respectively over 24 hours — a modest stablecoin drawdown to monitor into the close.