Ether Outshines Bitcoin Ahead of CPI; Traders Eye ‘Altcoin ETF Summer’

Contents

What to Watch Token Events Conferences Token Talk Derivatives Positioning Market Movements Bitcoin Stats Technical Analysis Crypto Equities ETF Flows Overnight Flows Chart of the Day While You Were Sleeping In the Ether

By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

Bitcoin (BTC) briefly rose past $110,000 after headlines out of London pointed to progress in U.S.-China trade negotiations. It’s now dropped back to remain little changed over 24 hours while the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index rose 2%, suggesting a rotation into altcoins.

One factor keeping bitcoin at bay and the preference for altcoins might be that the agreement out of London remains tentative, still needing sign-off from both Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

In traditional markets, the reaction was also mixed. Asian equities rose, with the Hang Seng index adding 0.8%, European stock indexes gained less than 0.2% and U.S. index futures pointed down.

“There’ve been several twists and turns already, and markets are getting fairly used to this uncertainty by now,” Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid said.

Meantime, investors are preparing for a fresh batch of inflation data. The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) report due later today is expected to show a 0.3% increase in core inflation for May, with annual core inflation rising to 2.9%. Producer price data, which will follow tomorrow, is also forecast to climb.

Among altcoins, ether (ETH) is showing quieter but potentially more meaningful strength. Options markets suggest traders are positioning for upside, with front-end volatility spiking and call options gaining favor, according to analysts at hedge fund QCP Capital.

Add to that the $450 million in ether ETF inflows logged so far this month, and there’s a suggestion of growing investor appetite. The shift is underpinned by the Ethereum blockchain’s expanding role as infrastructure for tokenized real-world assets.

“Looking ahead, macro tailwinds are aligning for ETH,” the QCP Capital analysts wrote. “With the GENIUS Act advancing in the U.S. Senate, Circle’s IPO discussions resurfacing, and stablecoins gaining regulatory traction, Ethereum’s native role in tokenization and settlement rails may be primed for outsized structural upside.”

Nevertheless, the CPI report is likely to dominate the conversation. A hotter-than-expected reading could reinforce concerns that inflation may remain sticky into the coming months, reducing the chance of a Fed interest-rate cut and potentially prompting a renewed run for hedges like gold.

If the data comes in cooler, it could open the door for risk assets, including crypto, to extend their gains. Stay alert!

What to Watch

Crypto
- June 11, 7 a.m.: Stratis (STRAX) activates mainnet hard fork at block 2,587,200 to enable the Masternode Staking protocol.
- June 12, 10 a.m.: Coinbase’s State of Crypto Summit 2025 (New York). Livestream link.
- June 16: 21Shares executes a 3-for-1 share split for ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB); ticker and NAV remain unchanged.
- June 16: Brazil’s B3 exchange launches USD-settled ether (0.25 ETH) and solana (5 SOL) futures contracts, approved by Brazil’s securities regulator, the Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM) and benchmarked to Nasdaq indices.
Macro
- June 11, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases May consumer price inflation data.
  - Core Inflation Rate MoM Est. 0.3% vs. Prev. 0.2%
  - Core Inflation Rate YoY Est. 2.9% vs. Prev. 2.8%
  - Inflation Rate MoM Est. 0.2% vs. Prev. 0.2%
  - Inflation Rate YoY Est. 2.5% vs. Prev. 2.3%
- June 12, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases May producer price inflation data.
  - Core PPI MoM Est. 0.3% vs. Prev. -0.4%
  - Core PPI YoY Est. 3.1% vs. Prev. 3.1%
  - PPI MoM Est. 0.2% vs. Prev. -0.5%
  - PPI YoY Est. 2.6% vs. Prev. 2.4%
- June 12, 3 p.m.: Argentina’s National Institute of Statistics and Census releases May inflation data.
  - Inflation Rate MoM Prev. 2.8%
  - Inflation Rate YoY Prev. 47.3%
Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
- June 23 (TBC): HIVE Digital Technologies (HIVE), post-market

Token Events

Governance votes & calls
Unlocks
- June 12: Aptos (APT) to unlock 1.79% of its circulating supply worth $57.11 million.
- June 13: Immutable (IMX) to unlock 1.33% of its circulating supply worth $12.82 million.
- June 15: Starknet (STRK) to unlock 3.79% of its circulating supply worth $17.97 million.
- June 15: Sei (SEI) to unlock 1.04% of its circulating supply worth $11.31 million.
- June 16: Arbitrum (ARB) to unlock 1.91% of its circulating supply worth $36.91 million.
- June 17: ZKsync (ZK) to unlock 20.91% of its circulating supply worth $43.30 million.
- June 17: ApeCoin (APE) to unlock 1.95% of its circulating supply worth $11.20 million.
Token Launches
- June 16: Advised deadline to unstake stMATIC as part of Lido on Polygon’s sunsetting process ends
- June 26: Coinbase to delist Helium Mobile (MOBILE), Render (RNDR), Ribbon Finance (RBN) and Synapse (SYN).

Conferences

The CoinDesk Policy & Regulation conference (formerly known as State of Crypto) is a one-day boutique event held in Washington on Sept. 10 that allows general counsels, compliance officers and regulatory executives to meet with public officials responsible for crypto legislation and regulatory oversight.

Token Talk

By Oliver Knight

ETF analyst Eric Balchunas predicted an “altcoin ETF summer” with the approval of a SOL, LTC and XRP exchange-traded funds.
The prediction comes as the altcoin market rebounded this week with ether (ETH) leading the pack.
CoinMarketCap’s altcoin season index has risen to 31 from 17 in the past 12 days. The maximum reading is 100.
ETH trading also dominated derivatives markets: Coinglass data shows that more than $111 billion worth of ETH contracts changed hands over the past 24 hours, while BTC’s contract trading volume just topping $87.5 billion.
Ether also experienced $131 million worth of liquidations, more than double bitcoin’s total.
ETH is currently trading at $2,760, up 2.5% in the past 24 hours while bitcoin is little changed.

Derivatives Positioning

BTC options open interest (OI) hit $36.0B on Deribit, another June high. The $140K strike remains the most active, with $1.8B notional, and the 27 June expiry continues to hold the bulk of positioning at $13.9B.
Calls make up 63% of OI, with the put/call ratio at 0.58 according to Deribit.
ETH options OI rose to $6.6B, with the $3K strike holding $521M notional. The 27 June expiry leads with $2.4B, and calls account for 70% of open interest. The put/call ratio sits at 0.43 based on Deribit data, a more bullish skew than BTC.
Futures OI across Binance, Bybit, OKX, Deribit and Hyperliquid climbed to $57.5B, marking the highest level since late January, according to Velo data. Binance leads with $24.3B. Funding rate APR remains broadly positive, with BTC at 9.8% on Binance and ETH at 10.95% on average across major exchanges.
Actual 24-hour liquidations totaled $310.7M, led by $125.7M in ETH (split $48.1M long, $77.6M short) and $55.4M in BTC (evenly split between $27.5M longs and $27.9M shorts), according to Coinglass. ETH saw the majority of trader wipeouts.

Market Movements

BTC is down 0.62% from 4 p.m. ET Tuesday at $109,259.01 (24hrs: -0.03%)
ETH is down 0.65% at $2,755.53 (24hrs: +2.57%)
CoinDesk 20 is down 0.32% at 3,262.46 (24hrs: +1.88%)
Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is down 4 bps at 3.05%
BTC funding rate is at 0.0077% (8.4063% annualized) on Binance

DXY is down 0.06% at 99.03
Gold futures are up 0.37% at $3,355.80
Silver futures are down 0.58% at $36.43
Nikkei 225 closed up 0.55% at 38,421.19
Hang Seng closed up 0.84% at 24,366.94
FTSE is little changed at 8,857.58
Euro Stoxx 50 is little changed at 5,419.20
DJIA closed on Tuesday up 0.25% at 42,866.87
S&P 500 closed up 0.55% at 6,038.81
Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.63% at 19,714.99
S&P/TSX Composite closed up 0.19% at 26,426.31
S&P 40 Latin America closed up 0.52% at 2,588.16
U.S. 10-Year Treasury rate is up 2 bls at 4.5%
E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.19% at 6,033.75
E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.17% at 21,925.25
E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index are down 0.19% at 42,829.00

Bitcoin Stats

BTC Dominance: 64.03 (-0.07%)
Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.02531 (-0.90%)
Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 900 EH/s
Hashprice (spot): $54.6
Total Fees: 5.34 BTC / $585,384
CME Futures Open Interest: 151,010 BTC
BTC priced in gold: 32.6 oz
BTC vs gold market cap: 9.24%

Technical Analysis

Ethereum remains the strongest performer among the BTC, ETH and SOL trio, closing above range highs after breaking through the $2,800 level yesterday.
The price is still trading in the daily orderblock of supply, which has capped the price since May.
A healthy pullback could see price revisit the daily fair value gap around $2,650 — an area that bulls will likely eye for a potential higher low, especially with the U.S. CPI data on deck later today.

Crypto Equities

Strategy (MSTR): closed on Tuesday at $391.18 (-0.24%), -0.81% at $388 in pre-market
Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $254.94 (-0.66%), unchanged in pre-market
Circle (CRCL): closed at $105.91 (-8.1%), +2.17% at $108.01
Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$27.35 (-4.3%)
MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $16.49 (+1.35%), 0.3% at $16.44
Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $10.45 (+3.26%), -0.1% at $10.44
Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $12.77 (+0.47%), -1.8% at $12.54
CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $10.13 (+0.1%), -0.3% at $10.10
CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $20.28 (+0.6%)
Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $31.5 (-7.33%)
Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $33.75 (+16.34%), unchanged in pre-market