Bitcoin Tests $80,000 as ETH Leads Majors Lower; ETHA Options Flow Turns Defensive

Bitcoin traded at $79,782 by midday Saturday, down 1.7% over 24 hours and probing the $80,000 handle for the second session running, as ether led the majors lower with a 3.5% slide to $2,305. BlackRock's ETHA registered a put-to-call volume ratio of 1.95 on Friday's close, according to InflowScan data — a defensive tilt that aligns with the ETH tape.

Market Pulse

Spot prices across the four majors are red into the New York afternoon. Bitcoin sits at $79,782, down 1.7% on 24 hours with a 2.2% intraday range that twice tested the $80,000 handle. Ether is the weakest major at $2,305, off 3.5% with a wider 4.2% range. Solana trades at $99.81 (-3.0%) and XRP at $1.27 (-2.1%). Perpetual funding tells a quieter story than price: Binance BTC funding sits at +0.001% per 8h — effectively flat — while ETH, SOL, and XRP funding have slipped marginally negative. Annualized, SOL and XRP funding register near -3%, consistent with modest short positioning rather than aggressive hedging.

Options Positioning

Friday's close options snapshots show the defensive tilt concentrated in ether products, per InflowScan data. BlackRock's ETHA printed a put-to-call volume ratio of 1.95 against a 30-day implied vol of 50.3% — the most defensive volume signature in the complex. Grayscale's ETHE echoed it at a 1.66 P/C volume ratio with IV30 at 57.4%. Bitcoin products look calmer: IBIT P/C volume at 0.64 and FBTC at 0.37, both call-tilted on the day. IBIT open interest remains anchored by the $20 put strike (OI 165,891, more than 56% below Friday's $45.90 close), a legacy downside hedge rather than a near-the-money signal. The near-money IBIT call concentration sits at $50, roughly 9% above Friday's close.

Narrative

The tape is being framed by two threads. Spot bitcoin ETFs have now logged $773 million in two-day outflows against the $80,000 test, per weekend wire coverage — a sequence that puts the prior-session settled flow picture squarely in focus for Monday's Pre-Market brief. On the ether side, outflows have reportedly hit a four-month high, which rhymes with the ETHA options skew. Stablecoin supply offered no offsetting staging signal: USDC market cap fell $445M on 24 hours to $71.79B, and USDT dropped $87M to $182.45B, per InflowScan data.

Afternoon Watch

The $80,000 handle on BTC — a second failed defense would be historically associated with momentum capitulation into the Asia open.
ETH's $2,300 level, flagged across weekend coverage as the next technical reference.
Any shift in Binance ETH perpetual funding away from the current near-flat print, which would signal fresh directional conviction into Sunday.