Bitcoin Falls Below $114,000 Amidst Choppy Market, Ether Remains Resilient

Bitcoin falters in choppy market, reaching $113,600 after reaching $114,800 late Wednesday. Ether and most major tokens erased overnight gains. Long-term sentiment for bitcoin turned bearish for the first time since June 2023. Two mining pools now control over 50% of the network's hashrate, raising decentralization concerns. Rapper Kanye West launched a memecoin called YZY, which skyrocketed to a $3 billion market cap before quickly dropping.

Title: Bitcoin Falters in Choppy Market, Ether Erases Gains

Bitcoin (BTC) faltered in a choppy market, retreating to $113,600 after reaching $114,800 late Wednesday. Ethereum (ETH) and most major tokens also erased overnight gains as derivatives traders sought downside protection ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's highly anticipated speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium on Friday [1].

The volatility in the crypto market led to more than $335 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, according to Coinglass data. Most of the liquidations came from short bets—traders who bet that the price of cryptocurrencies would rise, amounting to around $203 million. Long liquidations were around $131 million [1].

Long-term sentiment for bitcoin, measured by an options market indicator, turned bearish for the first time since June 2023. Technical signals also pointed to a weakening short-term outlook. In a notable move, an OG wallet sold 660 BTC and opened long positions in ether worth $295 million across four wallets, reflecting a growing preference for ETH over BTC and echoing a trend seen in derivatives markets [1].

Heightened concerns over bitcoin's decentralization emerged after popular X account "WhaleWire" revealed that two mining pools, Foundry USA and Antpool, now control over 50% of the network's hashrate—the computing power validating transactions. This disclosure comes days after Qubic claimed to have executed a 51% attack on Monero and announced plans to target Dogecoin [1].

Rapper Kanye West launched a memecoin called YZY, which skyrocketed to a $3 billion market cap within minutes before quickly dropping back below $1 billion. This rapid surge and fall contrast with previous celebrity tokens like TRUMP and MELANIA, which held their hype for a day or two before crashing, indicating a steep decline in appetite for speculative tokens [2].

In traditional markets, the yield on Japanese government bonds continued to rise, increasing the risk of injecting volatility into global financial markets. Stay alert! What to Watch Crypto Macro Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data) Token Events Governance votes & calls Unlocks Token Launches 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. Space is limited. Use code CDB10 for 10% off your registration through Aug. 31. Day 5 of 5: Crypto 2025 (Santa Barbara, California) Day 4 of 4: Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2025 (Jackson Hole) Day 1 of 2: Coinfest Asia 2025 (Bali, Indonesia) Aug. 25-26: WebX 2025 (Tokyo) Aug. 27: Blockchain Leaders Summit 2025 (Tokyo) Aug. 28-29: Bitcoin Asia 2025 (Hong Kong) Token Talk By Shaurya Malwa YZY Money, a Solana memecoin tied to Ye (formerly Kanye West), debuted Thursday with a 6,800% surge in price before slipping under $1, indicative of the speculative churn around celebrity tokens. The token announcement on Ye's X account sparked speculation of a hack before posting a video in which he appeared to confirm the launch. Questions remain whether the clip was AI-generated. The token structure mirrors the TRUMP coin: 70% supply allocated to Ye, 10% to liquidity, 20% for sale. Insiders said Ye initially demanded 80% before agreeing to 70%. Wallet data shows clear advance access. Wallet 6MNWV8 spent 450,611 USDC at $0.35, later selling some of its holding for $1.39 million to reap a $1.5 million profit when price gains on the remainder are included. Another whale bought $2.28 million worth and sits on $6 million in gains. Liquidity was seeded single-sided with only YZY, allowing developers or large holders to withdraw value at will—a design critics liken to the controversial LIBRA token in Argentina. Retail buyers absorbed the losses: One wallet lost nearly $500,000 within two hours after buying at $1.56 and exiting at $1.06. The episode highlights how insider-heavy allocations and liquidity gimmicks expose fans and traders, even as hype briefly drove the token's market cap toward $3 billion [2].

Wormhole challenged LayerZero’s $110 million bid for Stargate with plans for a higher counteroffer, asking the community to delay its governance vote for five days to complete due diligence and ensure token holders evaluate both proposals on fair terms. Stargate’s appeal lies in scale: $4 billion processed in July, $345 million locked, and a treasury with $92 million in stablecoins and ether plus $55 million in STG and other assets. LayerZero’s proposal would transfer treasury and future revenue to itself, which critics say undervalues Stargate and shortchanges token holders. Wormhole argues STG holders “deserve a more competitive process” and positions its bid as delivering greater long-term value. A merger would fuse Stargate’s unified liquidity pools with Wormhole’s integrations across dozens of blockchains, creating one of the largest cross-chain hubs. The Wormhole Foundation claims such a combination would “unlock unrealized value” and drive both immediate and lasting benefits for STG and Wormhole token holders [2].

Derivatives Positioning The growth in BTC and ETH futures open interest stalled at levels above 700K BTC and 14.2 million ETH, which is consistent with the directionless trading in spot prices before the start of the central bankers' confab at Jackson Hole. Open interest in LINK futures remains near record highs, with the token price rising to nearly $27 on Wednesday, the most since January. Other top 10 tokens, excluding BNB, saw open interest fall in the past 24 hours. HYPE leads crypto majors with annualized funding rates exceeding 25%. That shows traders are increasingly seeking bullish exposure in the token. On CME, the recovery in the BTC futures noted on Wednesday has stalled, with the three-month premium receding to nearly 7%. Meanwhile, ether futures OI continues to grow and is nearing the 2 million ETH mark. These diverging trends point to a growing institutional preference for ether over bitcoin. On Deribit, the 180-day bitcoin options skew dipped to -0.42, indicating the strongest demand for put options, or downside insurance, since June 2023. Longer-dated ETH options continued to show a bias for calls. Flows over the OTC network Paradigm featured demand for BTC puts financed by selling calls and mixed activity in the ether options market. Volmex's seven-day implied volatility indices for bitcoin and ether have remained steady at around 36% and 70%, respectively, indicating that the market does not anticipate a significant volatility spike from the Jackson Hole event [2].

Market Movements BTC is down 0.84% from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $113,434.22 (24hrs: -0.4%) ETH is down 1.68% at $4,283.19 (24hrs: +1.23%) CoinDesk 20 is down 1.44% at 4,019.84 (24hrs: +0.69%) Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is down 1 bp at 2.93% BTC funding rate is at 0.0074% (8.0548% annualized) on Binance DXY is unchanged at 98.22 Gold futures are down 0.20% at $3,381.60 Silver futures are down 0.13% at $37.72 Nikkei 225 closed down 0.65% at 42,610.17 Hang Seng closed down 0.24% at 25,104.61 FTSE is unchanged at 9,280.80 Euro Stoxx 50 is down 0.3% at 5,455.71 DJIA closed on Wednesday unchanged at 44,938.31 S&P 500 closed down 0.24% at 6,395.78 Nasdaq Composite closed down 0.67% at 21,172.86 S&P/TSX Composite closed up 0.2% at 27,878.76 S&P 40 Latin America closed up 0.41% at 2,648.47 U.S. 10-Year Treasury [2].

References:
[1] https://stocktwits.com/news-articles/markets/cryptocurrency/bitcoin-h