Bitcoin climbed to $78,280 on Monday, rising as much as 1.9% since midnight UTC as crypto largely sidestepped a sharp selloff in technology stocks.
The move put Bitcoin among only two major asset classes trading higher, alongside oil. Ether gained 2.1%, while XRP rose 3.3%. Across the CoinDesk 100, all but six tokens were in the green, marking the broadest advance in two weeks.
The contrast with traditional markets was hard to miss. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.65%, while S&P 500 futures dropped 0.7%. Gold slipped 0.8%, silver lost 1.7%, and the Dollar Index gained 0.5%.
At the center of the technology selloff was a growing debate over how quickly artificial intelligence should be developed. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argued in a weekend essay that companies should slow work on their most capable AI models over safety concerns, drawing public support from other technology figures.
That was enough to rattle some of the market’s favorite AI names. Nvidia fell 2.4% in premarket trading, while Intel dropped 5.6% and Marvell Technology declined 6.3%. South Korea’s Kospi also slid 3.26%.
Oil had its own source of drama. Crude prices jumped nearly 4% after Saudi Arabia shut a pipeline designed to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, extending a rally that pushed U.S. crude above $100 last week for the first time since May.
Bitcoin Is Watching the Chaos From the Sidelines
For Bitcoin, Monday’s rise came without an obvious crypto-specific catalyst.
Instead, the market appears to be moving on its own rhythm as Bitcoin consolidates below September’s high of $82,284. The current range follows a short squeeze that pushed the cryptocurrency from roughly $64,000 in August.
Derivatives data also suggests the move is less frantic than that earlier rally. Aggregate open interest stood at $59.7 billion against $62.7 billion in 24-hour volume, while $127.8 million in positions were liquidated over the previous day.
That liquidation figure was about half Friday’s total, a sign that Monday’s advance looked more like a steady grind higher than another heavily leveraged squeeze.
Bitcoin’s own open interest rose 2.07% to $24.8 billion. Ether’s increased 2.97% to $14.8 billion. Funding rates were positive and rising, with the aggregate rate at 0.0066% and a predicted rate of 0.0081%, up from 0.0038% on Friday morning.
The long-to-short account ratio also leaned bullish at 1.15, meaning more accounts were positioned long on Bitcoin than short.
Futures pricing tells a similar story. Deribit’s September and November Bitcoin contracts carried annualized premiums of 5.5% and 5.8%, respectively. Binance’s September contracts were priced at premiums of 6.2% and 8.5%, compared with a federal funds target range of 3.5% to 3.75%.
That spread points to traders paying up for exposure, reinforcing the bullish tilt in derivatives markets.
Beyond Bitcoin, a few tokens made much louder moves. Filecoin’s open interest jumped 70% to $126 million as its price surged 25% over 24 hours.
Lisk was another standout. The token rose 17.9%, even as its funding rate plunged to -3.7954%, with the predicted rate at -6.3724%. Such deeply negative readings indicate heavy short positioning and could create the conditions for another squeeze.
In the broader token market, perpetuals exchange token Lighter led the CoinDesk 100, gaining 11% since midnight UTC to $4.56 and recovering losses from Thursday’s selloff.
Filecoin added another 6.5% during Monday’s session after its larger 24-hour jump. Privacy-focused Zcash climbed 7.2% to $1,138 after its open interest fell 20% on Friday during a leverage unwind.
Monero, meanwhile, lagged, falling 1% on the day and 4.9% over 24 hours.
Even the market’s AI-linked corner refused to follow the broader tech panic. NEAR, an AI-related token, rose 4.9% to $2.41 while daily trading volume increased 40% to $317 million.
The result is an unusually split-screen market. AI stocks are absorbing fresh questions about the speed and safety of development, oil is reacting to a new geopolitical pressure point, and Bitcoin is quietly pushing higher.
For now, Bitcoin is not leading the day’s anxiety. It is doing something considerably less dramatic: trading as though the chaos belongs to someone else.