BTC and ETH holding up well, but the rest of the market is really suffering

I saw that Bitcoin is trading near $72.77k and Ether at $2.25k - both with small gains in the last 24 hours, but nothing special. What catches attention is that volatility has dropped significantly since that plunge in February. It seems like the market is in one of those calm periods, but the truth is no one knows if this is before another drop or if we're finally seeing a base form.

Looking at derivatives, open positions are stabilized at around $15.38 billion - after that chaos of liquidations. Funding rates have returned to positive (around 4%), showing that retail is a bit more confident. But in the options market, traders still pay a high price for short-term protection, a sign that people are still scared. And really, just look at the heat map: $218 millions in liquidations in the last 24 hours, most of them being long positions.

Now, altcoins are suffering in this low liquidity environment. WLFI dropped more than 10% after Wednesday’s event, a classic 'sell the news'. AXS is retesting lows, MORPHO gave back all its gains - practically 97 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies are in the red. The fear and greed index is at 11/100, so yes, sentiment is quite fragile. It seems that while BTC and ETH maintain some stability, altcoins are taking heavy hits. It will be interesting to see if this changes when volatility returns.