Bitcoin, Ether Hover Below Key Levels While Volatility Dips

Traders tend to take less risky moves when volatility is low because price risk is down, analysts said

article-image

Silver Place/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Crypto traded sideways Thursday morning in New York after a sharp sell-off Wednesday, but continued low liquidity and volatility has traders scratching their heads. 

Bitcoin (BTC) was flat at time of publication, hovering around $28,790 while ether (ETH) rallied around 2% to just below $2,000. 

Wednesday’s drop, which traders largely attribute to a 16,000 BTC sell order on Binance, hardly nudged bitcoin’s 30-day volatility, which currently sits close to 40%, data from Glassnode showed. 

“Intriguingly, volatility did not spike as it usually does with similar drops — BTC’s 30-day realized volatility has been dropping sharply over the past couple of weeks, and is now around mid-January levels,” Noelle Acheson, author of Crypto is Macro Now and former head of market insights at Genesis, wrote in a note Thursday. 

Traders tend to take less risky moves when volatility is low because price risk is down, Acheson said. 

“Markets like company, and until volumes pick up enough to move the volatility needle, or volatility picks up enough to bring in more volume, we are likely to continue to see range-bound trading followed by head-scratching moves,” Acheson said. 

Similarly, equities are experiencing a period of low volatility, with the VIX down by close to 3.5% over the past five trading days. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was around 17.3 at time of publication. Values below 20 tend to signal more stable times in the market. 

“The VIX is trading at the lowest levels since the S&P 500 hit its standing all-time high in the early days of 2022,” Tom Essaye, founder of Sevens Report Research, said. 

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Indexes, like crypto, were trading fairly flat Thursday morning, each down less than 0.5%. Even so, Essaye said, traders are not in the clear just yet. 

“It will be hard to believe the market is poised to casually cruise towards new record highs from here,” he added. “I.e., the bottom of the bear market is not in.”


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Unlocked by Template.jpg

Research

Uniswap v4 redefines DEX infrastructure by transforming the protocol into a fully customizable, developer-first platform. With hooks, developers can build tailored AMMs, dynamic fees, MEV capture, and more. Paired with its singleton architecture and flash accounting, v4 slashes gas costs by over 99% and reintroduces native ETH trading. Early projects are already showcasing what’s possible, signaling Uniswap’s shift from AMM to a programmable platform.

article-image

Wintermute and MoonPay are among the firms looking to build out talent in new US offices with policy, compliance and product leaders

article-image

Nobody wants to accidentally spend billions of dollars on pizza, but that’s why Laszlo Hanyecz will forever be a Bitcoin Legend

article-image

Sponsored

Offering reduced risk with next-generation, security-first diversification and carbon-negative staking

article-image

Could crypto disintermediate DC lobbyists?

article-image

The resale exchange has expansion plans involving fan perks