The cryptocurrency market extended its weekly gains but entered a more selective phase on Wednesday. The global crypto market cap rose 1.2% to $3.04 trillion, while Bitcoin traded at $86,639.13, up 1.2% over the previous 24 hours and 14.3% over seven days. Later, BTC consolidated around $86,379 after repeated rejections above $87,000, with trading volume declining 36% to $38 billion and BTC dominance holding near 59%.
Ethereum changed hands at $2,768.62, up 1.3% daily and 15.6% weekly, before slipping toward $2,750.24. BNB rose to $794.12, XRP jumped 6.7% to $1.61 and was up 25.5% over the week, while Solana gained 2.0% to $118.86. Zcash surged 10.8% to $1,603.45, bringing its weekly gain to 43.6% after briefly trading above $1,650. Uniswap rose 14.6% to $10.47.
In a notable corporate move, Binance invested $100 million in Circle, renewing a five-year USDC partnership. Meanwhile, Hyperliquid’s HYPE token reached a fresh all-time high near $98, and Bitcoin Cash traded around $351.59 after CME’s altcoin futures announcement. Trending assets included Pearl, which rose 69.2% to $1.67, and Edel, which slipped 0.7% to $0.0305.
Derivatives data pointed to caution: total crypto futures volume fell 21% to $227 billion, open interest edged 1% higher to $159.4 billion, and short positions accounted for 51% of taker volume. Bitcoin open interest remained near 710,000 BTC. Macro conditions improved slightly as Brent crude dropped below $100 for the first time since September 9, gold and silver declined, and U.S. equity futures were little changed. Anthropic also launched Claude Opus 5.5, though this was outside direct crypto market flows.
