# Bitcoin Falls Below $78,000 as Downside Protection Stands Out

> As Bitcoin retreated to around $77,900, options offering protection against a decline stood out in the derivatives market, while total open interest showed no notable growth despite a rapid increase…

**As Bitcoin retreated to around $77,900, options offering protection against a decline stood out in the derivatives market, while total [open interest](https://koinbulteni.com/en/guides/how-to-read-funding-rate-and-open-interest) showed no notable growth despite a rapid increase in trading volume.**

According to CoinDesk’s Nov. 2 market review, Bitcoin fell to around **$77,900** after reaching $78,700 during Asian trading. Bitcoin was down 0.4% from the start of the day, while Ethereum rose 0.5% and the CoinDesk Memecoin Index fell 1.9%.

Activity in derivatives trading also drew attention alongside prices. Crypto futures trading volume rose **56% to $111.8 billion** over the past 24 hours. By contrast, open interest, which represents the total value of contracts that have not yet been closed, remained broadly flat at around **$137.1 billion**.

### Volume rose, but open interest did not grow at the same pace

This divergence shows that, despite more trading, total open interest in the market did not expand to a similar extent. Bitcoin futures trading volume rose 37%, while Ethereum futures trading volume increased 83%; open interest in both assets changed little.

Meanwhile, **liquidations**—forced closures of leveraged positions—rose 77% to **$140.2 million**. Buy and sell orders in market orders were nearly balanced, with sellers holding a slight edge. The data do not point to a strong buildup of positions in a single direction despite increased activity.

### Downside protection for Bitcoin is more expensive

All three of the most-traded Bitcoin options on Deribit over the past 24 hours were **put options**.

The top contract was the **Nov. 27 expiry with a $58,000 strike price**.

Put options can be used to hedge against price declines or to take a position betting on a decline. The $58,000 figure here is the contract’s strike price; on its own, it does not mean the market expects Bitcoin to fall to that level.

Although the relative cost of downside protection, which had risen after the Binance attack, eased, puts remained more expensive than the call options used for comparison. This means demand for protection cooled but did not disappear entirely.

The picture was more balanced in Ethereum options. Among the most-traded contracts were three calls and three puts, with the **Nov. 6 expiry call option with a $2,650 strike price** ranking first.

### Open interest in BNB declined

As BNB’s price fell 1.12%, open interest in futures trading **declined 5.31%**. CoinDesk linked this contraction, which exceeded the price movement, to positions being closed.

Funding rates remained positive for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB; traders holding bullish positions continued to pay those on the short side. Even so, flat open interest and the prominence of protection in Bitcoin options showed that the cautious outlook in the derivatives market persisted.