Bitcoin, ether fall, equities rally with broader crypto market on track for best month in a year

On the final day of July 2026, Bitcoin's price declined by 1.31% to $63,870, while ether fell 1.40% to $1,890, showing a notable divergence from global equities performance. In contrast, South Korea's Kospi index surged more than 15%, and Nasdaq 100 futures increased by 1.23%. Despite this short-term weakness, the broader crypto market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index, posted its strongest monthly gain in a year with an 8.7% increase since June, marking its first positive month in three.

Several macro factors contributed to this mixed performance, including geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve committee, which have dampened crypto market recovery hopes this week. The derivatives market reflected a bearish sentiment, as the taker long-short futures volume ratio favored short positions, indicating traders’ bias toward downside risk. Specifically, XRP saw its futures open interest rise to 2.27 billion tokens, the highest since late June, even as the token's price dropped from $1.13 to $1.07, a combination confirming a confirmed downtrend with increased shorting activity.

Bitcoin's futures open interest remained stable at about 750,000 contracts, suggesting hesitance among traders to use leverage despite signs of market stability, as prices hovered between $62,000 and $65,000. Meanwhile, Uniswap (UNI) led in open interest growth for three consecutive days, reaching 75.8 million UNI, a level last observed in mid-February. This was associated with positive newsflow, notably BlackRock's launch of a tokenized Treasury fund on the Uniswap platform.

Other token movements included a 9.3% price gain for UNI, driven by its Robinhood layer-2 integration, and a rise for ADA by 4.09%, extending its recovery from a sharp June decline. Smaller tokens such as Athena (ENA) also gained while Lighter (LIT) and Zcash (ZEC) retreated after earlier rallies. Notably, Bitcoin's 30-day implied volatility index (BVIV) dropped to 37%, the lowest since May, with a historically negative correlation to price since the introduction of ETFs in 2024, suggesting that any volatility bounce could coincide with a further price decline. Additionally, $10 billion worth of Bitcoin and ether options expired that day, with the most popular remaining open interest being a $60,000 put option, reflecting market bearishness.