Major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin BTC$117,250.41, ether (ETH), XRP XRP$3.1229, solana SOL$246.78 and others, are trading on the front foot following Wednesday's interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve. Still, some analysts are maintaining a cautious bias. "The Fed rate cut gave crypto a near-term lift, but the rally is not yet clean," Timothy Misir, head of research, BRN, said in an email. "Institutional flows are supportive overall, yet exchange inflows and a single-day ETF outflow signal distribution into strength." Misir suggested traders use a bitcoin price band of $115,000–$115,500 as the guardrail for tactical risk management. Derivatives Positioning by Omkar Godbole BNB, AVAX, and DOT have all seen double-digit increases in futures open interest (OI) in the past 24 hours, reinforcing their price gains of 5% to 9%. BTC's cumulative OI in USD and USDT-denominated perpetual futures continues to drop, diverging from the ascending price. Perhaps derivative traders are not participating in the rally. (Check out the Technical Analysis section.) BCH, TRX, BNB, BTC, XMR, AVAX, and SUI stand out with a positive open interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta, indicating strong buying pressure. There are no signs of overheating even in the further corners of the crypto market, as annualized funding rates for smaller speculative tokens remain at around 10%. On the CME, OI in ether futures is again closing on the 2 million ETH mark, while positioning in BTC futures remains considerably light. The annualized three-month basis for both tokens remains below 10%, offering significantly lower yield to carry traders than SOL's 17% return. On Deribit, 25-delta risk reversals reveal a neutral to bearish (put) bias in options out to March expiry. In contrast, ether options are bullish across all tenors. Block flows on OTC network Paradigm featured demand for the $116K call expiring on Sept. 19 and the $100K put expiring on Oct. 31. Token Talk By Oliver Knight The altcoin market staged a strong rebound following Wednesday's oversold RSI readings, with several tokens posting gains in excess of 10%. Leading the rally is ether.fi (ETHFI), up 12% in the past 24 hours to $1.64, the highest since January. BNB also notched a milestone, breaking through $1,000 for the first time as momentum accelerates toward fresh record highs. The bullish backdrop comes as bitcoin creeps up toward $117,300, consolidating above critical support at $110,000. Meanwhile, bitcoin dominance slipped to 56% at CoinMarketCap, its lowest since early January, highlighting investors’ growing appetite for more speculative investments. The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has been one of the largest beneficiaries of Thursday's move higher, with total value locked (TVL) across all protocols hitting $170 billion, the highest point since April, 2022. Hyperliquid's layer-1 blockchain notched a record high of $2.77 billion having risen by 3.88% in 24 hours, while Sui's TVL is up by 3% to $2.1 billion.