Bitcoin touched $80,529 during early Asian trading on May 4 — its first visit above the $80,000 level since February — before slipping back to around $79,621. CryptoQuant data shows the move was driven by two aggressive taker-buy surges on Binance totalling $1.98 billion within a two-hour window, a pattern more consistent with momentum chasers forcing a breakout than with organic accumulation building underneath.
The derivatives picture adds complexity. Deribit data shows $1.7 billion in notional locked into $80,000 call options, with large clusters at $90,000 and $100,000. Yet Alphractal's Fear & Greed index dropped 10 points to 43 — squarely in "Fear" territory — even as perpetual futures funding rates held positive at +0.51%. That divergence between cautious spot holders and stubbornly long leveraged traders is historically a volatile stress phase for the asset.
CryptoQuant analyst…
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