Bitcoin price today is close to where it was last night: about $79,640 at 06:27 UTC on Tuesday 27 October, down 0.37% over 24 hours, according to Coindaro’s market feed. On Binance’s BTCUSDT perpetual the Asian session ran from $80,364 just after midnight UTC to a low of $79,600 in the 03:00 UTC hour, a range of about 1%. The price barely moved. Positioning did. Open interest on that contract rose to about 97,140 BTC in the 06:00 UTC reading, the highest since 22 October, and 70.4% of Binance accounts holding the contract were long at that hour, a higher share than in any four-hourly reading of the past 30 days.
That build-up comes a day and a half before the Federal Reserve decides, on Wednesday at 18:00 UTC. It is one exchange, and the ratio counts accounts, not dollars. It still marks a change from Monday evening, when our US session report found positions being rebuilt rather than flushed, with open interest at 95,638 BTC at 15:00 UTC. The ETF side was calmer: US spot bitcoin funds took in a net $110.3 million on Monday, all of it through BlackRock’s IBIT.
A fourth day inside the same $1,800 range
Over the last 72 hourly candles the Binance perpetual traded between $79,178.60, Saturday’s low, and $80,999.90, a box of about $1,821, or 2.3%. Monday’s high was $80,819.40, in the 15:00 UTC candle.
The Tuesday daily candle opened at $80,116.00 and printed its high of $80,364.20 in the first hour. Prices then drifted lower: the 02:00 UTC candle fell from $80,041.80 to $79,789.70, and the 03:00 UTC hour reached $79,600.00. A bounce to $80,017.80 came in the 05:00 UTC hour, and the mark price was $79,729 at 06:40 UTC. We found no news that explains the slide from $80,364 to $79,600, and for a $764 move there may not be one.
Ether followed the same line, between $2,304.37 and $2,333.37 on its Binance perpetual overnight, and at $2,305 at 06:27 UTC in Coindaro’s feed (-0.31%). Solana was the weakest of the large coins at $99.71 (-1.11%). XRP was the exception, up 0.92% at $1.30, the morning after Ripple announced final approval for its trust bank; no source we read connects the two.
The feed’s total market value, $2.69 trillion at 06:19 UTC, fell 2.18% in 24 hours because the wider list of coins fell more than bitcoin. The Fear and Greed index was 48, “Neutral”, from 50 on Monday morning.
| Market reading | Value | Time (UTC) and source |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | $79,640 (24h -0.37%, 7d -2.61%) | 27 Oct 06:27, Coindaro feed |
| BTCUSDT perpetual, Tuesday range | $79,600.00 to $80,364.20 | 00:00 to 06:40, Binance |
| BTCUSDT open interest | 97,144 BTC ($7.77 billion) | 27 Oct 06:00, Binance |
| Accounts long on BTCUSDT | 70.4% (ratio 2.38) | 27 Oct 06:00, Binance |
| BTCUSDT funding rate | 0.0100% per 8 hours | settled 27 Oct 00:00, Binance |
| Ether | $2,305 (24h -0.31%) | 27 Oct 06:27, Coindaro feed |
| Total market value | $2.69 trillion (24h -2.18%) | 27 Oct 06:19, Coindaro feed |
| Fear and Greed index | 48, Neutral | 27 Oct 06:19, Coindaro feed |
Bitcoin futures open interest climbs to 97,100 BTC as the crowd leans long
Open interest, the number of contracts still open, on Binance’s BTCUSDT perpetual went from 93,090 BTC at noon UTC on Sunday to 93,685 BTC at noon on Monday, then 94,889 BTC at 20:00 UTC, 95,514 BTC at midnight and 96,721 BTC at 04:00 UTC. The 06:00 UTC reading was 97,144 BTC, and the live figure was about 97,200 BTC at 06:37 UTC. That is a rise of about 4.4% since Sunday noon, while the price slipped from about $80,400 to $79,700.
Against the past month, the level is high but not extreme. In the exchange’s four-hourly series since 27 September, open interest peaked at 99,669 BTC on 2 October and bottomed at 90,948 BTC on 14 October, after the mid-month flush. The last time it was above today’s level was 22 October at 00:00 UTC (98,002 BTC), when bitcoin traded between $82,000 and $84,000. Leverage is coming back, then, but has not reached its early-October level.
Who is opening those positions? Every contract has a buyer and a seller, so open interest adds longs and shorts together. Binance’s account ratio is the nearest thing to an answer. In its hourly series, at 06:00 UTC, there were 2.38 long accounts for every short one, 70.4% of accounts long. The four-hourly series rose from 2.08 on Sunday at 08:00 UTC to 2.28 at midnight and 2.35 at 04:00 UTC, the highest of its 180 readings since 27 September. The average over those 30 days was 1.53, and the low was 0.90 on 2 October.
Two limits apply. The ratio counts accounts, so a thousand small longs weigh more than one large short. And Binance’s size-weighted series for its top traders was lower, 1.94 at 06:00 UTC: the largest accounts lean long too, but less than the crowd. Ether’s crowd is more one-sided still, with 77.3% of ETHUSDT accounts long (ratio 3.40) at 06:00 UTC and open interest up to 2,364,980 ETH at 04:00 UTC from 2,304,850 ETH on Monday at 01:00 UTC.
Funding, the payment that keeps a perpetual futures contract close to the spot price, does not show a crowded trade. The BTCUSDT rate settled at 0.0100% for the eight-hour periods ending Monday 16:00 UTC and Tuesday 00:00 UTC, which is Binance’s baseline rate. Longs pay shorts about 0.03% a day at that level. On Monday at 00:00 UTC it was only 0.0017%, and the lowest of the last 90 settlements was -0.0041%. The next settlement is at 08:00 UTC.
Where the trip wires sit
A crowd long near the bottom of a range has its stops and liquidation prices below it. Saturday showed what that looks like: about $150 million of long positions were liquidated in two hours as bitcoin fell to $79,145, Cointelegraph reported on Monday. The same report, citing CoinGlass order book data, put a $73 million bid wall above $79,300 and sell orders bunched near $81,000.
So the levels to watch are close. Below, Saturday’s low, between $79,107 and $79,179 depending on the venue, and then $78,000, a support level cited from Glassnode data. Above, Monday’s $80,819, then the $82,400 to $82,500 band. The average cost of US spot ETF holders, about $81,500 according to Glassnode data to 19 October, is roughly 2% above this morning’s price. We found no total for liquidations overnight: Binance’s public liquidation feed is closed and CoinGlass did not load.
Bitcoin ETF flows: $110 million back in on Monday, all through IBIT
US spot bitcoin ETFs took in a net $110.3 million on Monday 26 October, ending two sessions of withdrawals, according to SoSoValue data reported this morning by TokenPost and PANews. BlackRock’s IBIT was the only one of the 12 funds with any flow. The funds held $102.84 billion in total net assets, and cumulative net inflows since launch stood at $57.29 billion, on the same data. Farside’s own table refused our requests, so we could not cross-check it there.
Spot ether ETFs went the other way. They lost a net $88.6 million on Monday, with $104.7 million leaving BlackRock’s ETHA and $16.1 million going into Fidelity’s FETH, according to figures published by ChainCatcher.
Set against the end of last week, Monday’s bitcoin inflow is small. $635.5 million left the funds on Thursday 22 October and $137.9 million on Friday 23 October, $110.3 million of it from IBIT, according to TFTC’s SoSoValue figures. Monday’s money came back through a single fund and was about a fifth of the $526.6 million that arrived on 19 October. Tuesday’s figures should be out on Wednesday, before the Fed decides.
Today’s agenda: US data, Robinhood, a Franklin launch, Swell
The Federal Open Market Committee started its two-day meeting this morning. Nothing comes out of it today. The decision is due Wednesday at 18:00 UTC, with Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s press conference at 18:30 UTC (19:00 and 19:30 in Paris). The range stands at 3.75% to 4.00% after September’s quarter-point hike. The Fed’s calendar shows no economic projections for this meeting, so no new dot plot until December. Futures markets put the odds of no change at over 90%, according to CME FedWatch data quoted by Cointelegraph on Monday; we could not load the CME page today. The times and what to watch are on our FOMC October 2026 event page.
Today’s US calendar:
- 12:30 UTC: September durable goods orders, forecast +1.6% after 0.0% in August, according to the ActionForex calendar.
- 13:00 UTC: the FHFA house price index for August.
- 14:00 UTC: the Conference Board’s October consumer confidence index, forecast at 81.2 after September’s 81.9, which was 6.7 points below August.
- 14:00 UTC: September new home sales, forecast at 649,000 after 684,000.
Consumer confidence is the release the Fed will have in hand when it decides on Wednesday.
Robinhood reports its third-quarter results after the US close. The company said in its 1 October announcement that Vlad Tenev and Shiv Verma will host the call at 5:00 PM ET, which is 21:00 UTC. Bernstein expects revenue of about $1.5 billion, up 13% on the quarter, Cointelegraph reported this morning.
Franklin Templeton’s two ETFs that turn stock dividends into bitcoin, FBEQ and FIBT, take effect today on Nasdaq, with fees of 0.09% and 0.19% and a 5% starting weight in bitcoin; the details of the filing are in our report on Franklin’s dividend-to-bitcoin ETFs. We found no trading data or launch statement yet.
Ripple’s Swell conference opens in New York today, the day after the company said the OCC gave final approval to Ripple National Trust Bank, which will hold reserves for its RLUSD stablecoin: our report on the Ripple bank charter has what the bank can and cannot do.
Later this week: Fed, ECB, GDP and an $11 billion expiry
Wednesday brings the Fed at 18:00 UTC, with Microsoft and Alphabet reporting after the US close. Thursday is the busiest day: the European Central Bank decides, the BEA publishes the advance estimate of third-quarter GDP and September personal income and outlays, with the PCE price index, at 12:30 UTC, and Coinbase and Strategy report after the close. The Bank of Japan decides on Friday 30 October.
Friday at 08:00 UTC also brings Deribit’s monthly options expiry, about $11 billion of contracts. Some traders are already looking past it. According to CoinDesk’s Crypto Daybook of 26 October, one wallet bought 800 bitcoin calls at a $90,000 strike expiring 6 November on the Derive platform on 20 October, about $68 million in face value. Derive called it “the largest open Bitcoin position on Derive.” The wallet paid for it by selling 400 calls at $100,000 for March 2027 and 400 at $90,000 for 30 October, collecting about $940,000 net. The $68 million is notional, not cash spent. The strike is about 13% above this morning’s price, and the expiry falls three days after the US midterm elections on 3 November.
What we do not know yet
At 06:40 UTC we had no liquidation total for the night, no Farside table to check the outlets’ ETF figures against, and no figures for Tuesday’s Asian stock markets, the yen, Treasury yields or Monday’s final Wall Street closes. Binance’s data does not say how many dollars the new positions hold on each side.
The first test is the US data at 12:30 and 14:00 UTC; the bigger one is Wednesday’s statement at 18:00 UTC.
This article is information, not investment advice. Leveraged futures can lose more than the initial margin.