Bitcoin cleared $78,000, trading at $77,945.83 with a 1.9 percent gain over 24 hours, as decentralized finance and Layer-2 tokens drove a broad crypto market advance.
The DeFi Select Index surged 16 percent over 24 hours and 8.3 percent since midnight UTC, marking a decisive rotation into risk assets away from privacy and haven tokens. Arbitrum (ARB) rallied 25 percent to 20.9 cents, its highest level since January. Starknet (STRK) climbed 21 percent to reach its peak since June 19. Uniswap (UNI) gained 25 percent, while Optimism (OP), NEAR Protocol (NEAR), and Litentry (LIT) advanced 8.9 percent, 17.61 percent, and 16.97 percent respectively.
The move followed a decline in the 10-year Treasury yield below 5 percent and a drop in Brent crude oil below $103. S&P 500 futures rose 0.3 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.6 percent. Gold added 1.1 percent and silver gained 2.8 percent, signaling broad risk-on sentiment across asset classes.
Bitcoin remains 5 percent below its Sept. 4 high of $82,284 after two weeks of range-bound trading. Options positioning shows both calls and puts active on the most-traded lists, indicating mixed hedging and speculative intent.
An analyst at OKX flagged Bitcoin as the market anchor, noting that if BTC holds above $75,000, assets like UNI will bounce first. The analyst cautioned that Arbitrum's token lacks value capture despite its Layer-2 ecosystem, recommending caution on hard ARB exposure.
Spot crypto ETFs registered $590 million in net outflows during the rally, reflecting ongoing uncertainty around the CLARITY Act, a legislative proposal to define which digital assets are securities versus commodities.
