Bitcoin News Today: Ethereum Futures Open Interest Surges 56% as Altcoin Season Begins

Ethereum’s derivatives market has seen a significant surge in the past week, with the trading desk at QCP Capital in Singapore attributing this to the start of an anticipated altcoin season. The firm noted that the total perpetual open interest (OI) in ether futures has jumped from under $18 billion to over $28 billion in just seven days. This substantial increase has pushed the composite altcoin-season index above the critical 50-point threshold for the first time since December.

QCP Capital suggests that while retail investors may be chasing the momentum, institutions are leading the charge this cycle. This shift is driven by changes in narratives and structural developments, as evidenced by the unusually large sizing of recent block trades on various platforms. The firm highlights the signing of the GENIUS Act as a pivotal moment behind this rotation. The law establishes a comprehensive federal regime for dollar-backed stablecoins, requiring issuers to hold 100 percent short-term Treasury or cash reserves and submit to Bank Secrecy Act oversight. The White House described the statute as historic legislation that will position the United States at the forefront of the global digital-currency revolution.

With regulatory clarity now in place, corporate treasuries are rapidly building their stockpiles, viewing ether and other smart-contract platforms as the infrastructure layer that will benefit most from an explosion in stablecoin issuance. This strategy is compared to the hard-money playbook adopted by publicly listed bitcoin bellwethers. The note from QCP Capital argues that the policy tailwind is already reshaping capital flows. Spot ether ETFs attracted $602 million on July 17, outpacing bitcoin ETFs’ $522 million and marking the first daily flow victory for ETH in the eighteen-month history of US crypto ETPs. BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust recorded the single largest subscription, signaling confidence that its pending amendment to allow on-chain staking will secure SEC approval later this year. Industry analysts concur that the agency is widely expected to rule on the batch of staking amendments before year-end despite BlackRock’s late filing.

Derivatives positioning mirrors the spot-market exuberance. QCP Capital highlights aggressive demand for out-of-the-money call spreads and a persistent bid for call-side risk reversals across all listed tenors. Implied volatility skews now favor calls by their widest margin since the April 2024 meme-coin frenzy, signaling traders’ willingness to pay up for upside exposure through the fourth quarter—precisely the window in which ETF staking approval could drop.

The Ether surge has already reduced bitcoin’s market-share lead by four percentage points, driving BTC dominance down to 60 percent while lifting ETH’s share from 9.7 percent to 11.6 percent. If this trend continues—and QCP Capital stresses that sustained follow-through in the options market is a key litmus test—the next leg of altcoin season may already be in motion. For now, QCP Capital is monitoring three metrics: perpetual OI growth, the altcoin-season index, and relative ETF flows. A decisive break of bitcoin above $121,000 could delay rotation, the desk concedes, but the structural forces unleashed by the GENIUS Act and the prospect of yield-bearing ether ETFs give institutions a tangible reason to diversify. As QCP Capital puts it, “we’ll be watching these signals closely—and if anything else confirms the thesis, you’ll be the first to know.”