Bitcoin Volatility Hits 23-Month Low as the Cryptocurrency Shrugs Off BitMEX, Trump's Illness

Bitcoin’s 180-day volatility dropped to its lowest mark since November 2018, reaching a 23-month low of 0.028 on Sunday, as the market was mostly unfazed by a week of unsettling news.

• Bitcoin (BTC) started to stumble through Thursday and Friday after the U.S. Commodities and Futures Trading Commission and Department of Justice leveled charges against BitMEX’s founders and President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19.
• But both news items resulted in a drop of less than 5% for the leading cryptocurrency, continuing a period of uncharacteristic calm in a frequently volatile and fickle market.
• According to data from Coin Metrics, bitcoin volatility has dropped 43% in the past 30 days.
• Many traders have stayed bearish through the weekend, as indicated by perpetual futures funding rates on leading derivative exchanges OKEx, BitMEX and Huobi.
• Funding rates on all three exchanges turned decidedly negative Friday as traders took on an increasing amount of short positions, according to data from Skew, with negative rates continuing through the weekend.
• As the market digests a lot of news at once over a quiet weekend, some buyers moved to start reversing earlier declines, pushing BTC above $10,640 early Sunday morning, up 2.5% from last week’s low of $10,375.