Strength Diverges in Altcoin Rally: Record Interest in One, Inverse Signal in the Other

As Bitcoin recovers, Arbitrum is seeing record futures interest, while LIT’s rally diverges with falling open interest.

In a session where Bitcoin saw a limited recovery following Wednesday’s sell-off, altcoin rallies diverged in the derivatives market: while new futures positions strengthened for Arbitrum (ARB), Lighter’s LIT token lost futures interest despite its record spot price. Bitcoin traded around $77,890 on Thursday morning; despite its 0.76% intraday gain, its weekly loss stood at 2.89%.

Open interest in Arbitrum, which represents the total number of outstanding futures positions, increased by approximately 10% to reach a record 1.58 billion ARB. ARB’s daily trading volume also reached approximately 486 million dollars, exceeding nine times last week’s average.

Record participation in Arbitrum, inverse signal in LIT

In contrast, open interest in the futures markets for Lighter’s LIT token declined despite it reaching a record spot price. This divergence suggests that the LIT move may be largely driven by spot purchases. The lack of futures interest creates an outlook that increases the likelihood of the rally quickly unwinding.

Another notable token in the altcoin rally, Pons (PONS), rose 318.72% on a weekly basis. Described as the largest revenue generator on Robinhood Chain, the PONS launchpad directs approximately 80% of protocol revenues toward buybacks and burns of its own token.

Bitcoin ETFs saw net outflows of $9.3 million for the second consecutive day. Despite this, call options with strike prices of $82,000 and $84,000 stood out on Deribit. Total open interest in the cryptocurrency market remained flat at approximately $136 billion.