The cryptocurrency market experienced a relatively quiet weekend with major tokens such as bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) showing little change in prices, according to data from CoinGecko. The overall market capitalization grew marginally by 0.4% during the past 24 hours, as observed on Monday.
Bitcoin traded slightly below $26,700 while ether exchanged hands at $1,630 during Asian afternoon hours on Monday. Both cryptocurrencies showed marginal gains of 0.5% in the past 24 hours. The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) mirrored this sluggish trend, rising by a mere 0.3%.
Crypto futures liquidations were recorded at their lowest since mid-August, amounting to only $48 million. Meanwhile, open interest, which refers to the number of futures contracts, grew by 4%, indicating a subdued market sentiment.
Among the major tokens, Toncoin (TON) experienced a drop of 1% over the past day. This decrease is likely due to traders cashing in on the 40% surge last week following Telegram's announcement that it would integrate a TON-based app on its platform.
However, the crypto environment could face some turbulence in the coming days with key decisions looming in traditional markets. "Markets could move nervously in the next few days as we await major data prints from the U.K. and U.S., with both countries' central banks due to announce new rate decisions later this week," said Simon Peters, a market analyst at investing platform eToro, in a note to CoinDesk.
Peters further noted that despite falling inflation rates in both economies, there are signs that this retreat might not be fully felt yet. He added that like other risk assets, crypto assets are sensitive to rate expectations and any hardening in tone could leave investor sentiment bearish.
Analysts at the on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant highlighted that recent price moves have not impacted the estimated leverage ratio on bitcoin and ether. This ratio, which measures an exchange's open interest divided by their coins reserve, indicates how much leverage is used by users on average. A flat value suggests low trading interest from futures traders.
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