South Korea's benchmark Kospi index dropped 3.73% to its lowest close since April 7, led lower by chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics as worries about artificial intelligence spending weighed on the sector. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.31% in sympathy. Brent crude oil remained near $110 a barrel as Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia kept supply risks in view.
U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds attracted $526.6 million on Monday, their largest daily inflow in nearly a month, but the bullish catalyst failed to hold. Altcoin losses were broadly in line with bitcoin. Ether fell 0.9% to near $2,385 and the broad-based CoinDesk 80 index lost 0.34%. The DeFi sector index dropped 1.2%, giving back Monday's gains.
Options market positioning showed a pronounced bearish tilt. On Deribit, puts outtraded calls by more than two to one over 24 hours, with the October 30 $80,000 put the busiest contract. Out-of-the-money puts also cost more than equivalent calls by 2.5 to 4 volatility points across expiries, indicating traders paying for downside protection even as open interest leaned toward calls at $90,000 to $100,000 for the same date.
Bitcoin open interest on Coinalyze fell to $27.4 billion, down 0.6% over 24 hours, while the aggregated funding rate was roughly 8.8% annualized. Long positions held around 55% of bitcoin positions, with a long/short ratio of 1.24. Total liquidations across exchanges reached $155.1 million over 24 hours, down 54.7% from the previous day, with longs accounting for about 69% of the total.
Among individual tokens, Celestia (TIA) rose 2.2% to around 63 cents, the biggest gainer on the CoinDesk 100 Index, adding to a gain of about 42% over the month. Options exchange Derive chose Celestia for data availability in its V3 release. The next test is an unlock of 5.58 million TIA on October 31. Sandbox (SAND) led decliners with a 4.5% drop to about 6 cents. Layer-2 tokens were among the weakest, with Arbitrum falling 3.6% and Starknet dropping 3.2%.