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First Mover Americas: BTC Starts June Trading Flat, Alts Decline

The latest moves in crypto markets in context for June 1, 2022.

(KYRYLO SHEVTSOV/Getty images)
(KYRYLO SHEVTSOV/Getty images)

Good morning, and welcome to First Mover. I’m Lyllah Ledesma, here to take you through the latest in crypto markets, news and insights.

  • Price point: Bitcoin trades flat and altcoins underperform.
  • Market Moves: BTC futures now account for 63% of the open interest in the crypto futures market.

Price Point

Bitcoin (BTC) opened its first day of trading in June at around $31,800. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is trading relatively flat and hasn't seen much price movement overnight.

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Bitcoin has fallen 15% from this time a year ago, when it was trading at around $37,000.

June 1, 2021 BTC traded at a low of $35,699. (Trading View)
June 1, 2021 BTC traded at a low of $35,699. (Trading View)

Ether is trading at $1,900 at the time of writing and is down 26% from this time a year ago.

According to Charles Storry, head of growth at Phuture, a crypto index platform, the sell-off is just beginning.

“We are entering a 12-18 month bear market. I am bullish long term as this is short term fear and panic selling,” Storry said.

Altcoins saw weakness over the last 24 hours after some of the coins rallied on Tuesday. Cardano (ADA) has dropped 7%, Avalanche (AVAX) fell 5.7%, and Solana’s SOL declined 5%.

Tron’s TRX was the only gainer, climbing by 10% over the last 24 hours.

Optimism (OP), the token that powers the layer 2 Ethereum scaling tool Optimism, has dropped 65% from its listing price after its much anticipated airdrop.

Market Moves

Bitcoin Dominance in Derivatives

Open interest in bitcoin futures and perpetuals now account for 63% of the open interest in the crypto futures market. In early April, open interest was around 50%, according to data from Arcane Research. This has come as the global interest in the crypto market has seen a sharp decline.

BTC futures accounting for 63% of the crypto market are at their highest level since October 2021.

Bitcoin’s dominance in the derivatives market mirrors the cryptocurrency’s dominance in the wider market, which trended higher in May.

Open interest in crypto futures vs bitcoin open interest dominance (Arcane Research)
Open interest in crypto futures vs bitcoin open interest dominance (Arcane Research)

Joshua Lim, head of derivatives at Genesis Global Trading, said that this data suggests the speculative interest in altcoins is diminishing.

“Alts have had a rough run and a lot of liquidations and de-risking has taken speculators out of the market,” Lim said.

Latest Headlines

Today’s newsletter was edited by Lyllah Ledesma and produced by Parikshit Mishra and Stephen Alpher.

Lyllah Ledesma

Lyllah Ledesma is a CoinDesk Markets reporter currently based in Europe. She holds a master's degree from New York University in Business and Economics and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of East Anglia. Lyllah holds bitcoin, ether and small amounts of other crypto assets.

Lyllah Ledesma
Shaurya Malwa

Shaurya is the Co-Leader of the CoinDesk tokens and data team in Asia with a focus on crypto derivatives, DeFi, market microstructure, and protocol analysis. Shaurya holds over $1,000 in BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX, SUSHI, CRV, NEAR, YFI, YFII, SHIB, DOGE, USDT, USDC, BNB, MANA, MLN, LINK, XMR, ALGO, VET, CAKE, AAVE, COMP, ROOK, TRX, SNX, RUNE, FTM, ZIL, KSM, ENJ, CKB, JOE, GHST, PERP, BTRFLY, OHM, BANANA, ROME, BURGER, SPIRIT, and ORCA. He provides over $1,000 to liquidity pools on Compound, Curve, SushiSwap, PancakeSwap, BurgerSwap, Orca, AnySwap, SpiritSwap, Rook Protocol, Yearn Finance, Synthetix, Harvest, Redacted Cartel, OlympusDAO, Rome, Trader Joe, and SUN.

Shaurya Malwa
Parikshit Mishra

Parikshit Mishra is CoinDesk's Regional Head of Asia, managing the editorial team in the region. Before joining CoinDesk, he was the EMEA Editor at Acuris (Mergermarket), where he dealt with copies related to private equity and the startup ecosystem. He has also worked as an Senior Analyst for CRISIL, covering the European markets and global economies. His most notable tenure was with Reuters, where he worked as a correspondent and an editor for various teams. He does not have any crypto holdings.

Parikshit Mishra, Regional Head of Asia, CoinDesk at Consensus Hong Kong 2025.(CoinDesk)