Markets Today: OKB, FART Surge as Ether Races Toward Record Highs

The crypto market was a sea of green early Wednesday, with altcoins including OKB, PUMP, BNSOL, JITOSOL and SOL chalking out double-digit gains alongside ether's rapid surge toward record highs.

"Bitcoin rose by a modest 0.4% during the day and remains 2% below the levels of 30 days ago — clear evidence of the market's switch to altcoin-mode," Alex Kuptsikevich, the chief market analyst at the FxPro said.

"We suspect that investors are selling the first cryptocurrency to finance purchases of altcoins. And it is hardly reasonable to talk about a reversal in sentiment, given the rally in altcoins and the historic highs of the S&P 500 and Nikkei 225," he said.

Derivatives Positioning

• Ether's (ETH) price rise is accompanied by fresh capital inflows into CME-listed futures, where open interest in standard contracts sized at 50 ETH has increased to 1.85 million ETH, up from 1.5 million ETH just over a week ago.
• Traders appear to be positioning for an upside as the annualized three-month basis has topped 10%. In bitcoin's (BTC) case, CME basis remains near 7.5%.
• The altcoin market shows no signs of overheating despite ether surging toward record highs. That's evident from perpetual funding rates on offshore exchanges, which remain pinned near annualized 10% for most major tokens.
• Open interest in privacy-focused Monero (XMR) rose to the highest level since December, as the token's price dropped to $245, the lowest since April. The data indicate that traders sold the rally to profit from the price drop.
• On Deribit, ether traders chased calls at strike $5,000 and higher in a sign of bullish market sentiment. ETH calls traded at a premium relative to puts across all tenors. Still, ether's 30-day implied volatility index, ETH DVOL, remained pinned in recent ranges around 70%.
• BTC's implied volatility also remained relatively steady. Flows on the OTC network Paradigm featured demand for higher-strike OTM calls, particularly the $ 160,000 strike.

Token Talk

• OKB surged to a record $142 (+200%) after OKX announced a permanent supply cut to 21M tokens — one of the largest in its history — alongside a “PP upgrade” to its Polygon-powered X Layer chain.
• The upgrade boosts throughput to 5,000 TPS, cuts gas fees to near zero and adds gasless USDT withdrawals.
• OKX will also decommission OKTChain, halting OKT trading on Aug. 13 and converting balances to OKB from Aug. 15.
• Eden Network is shutting down all services, including Eden RPC and Bundles, citing unprofitable competition in the MEV relay and block-building space.
• Starting in 2021 to optimize MEV revenue for miners and validators, Eden saw early success but lost ground post-Merge as the market consolidated around a few operators.
• FARTCOIN rose 17% as whale wallets with $1M+ in holdings increased supply by 2% over 24 hours, while “smart money” addresses boosted holdings by 3%.
• MACD momentum on the daily chart is bullish, with the token eyeing a breakout above $1.74 if buying persists. Key support sits at $0.74 if momentum fades.