Cryptocurrency markets surged on Friday as macroeconomic pressures eased, with layer-2 and DeFi tokens leading gains following a drop in Treasury yields below 5% and a decline in crude oil prices.

Bitcoin rose 2.1% since midnight UTC and 1.9% over the past 24 hours, trading above $78,000. The broader advance extended across altcoins, with 98 of CoinDesk 100 constituents advancing. The DeFi Select Index gained 8.3% since midnight and 16% over 24 hours, signaling a rotation toward risk-on positioning after post-Fed rate hike concerns subsided.

Layer-2 Tokens Lead

Starknet (STRK) surged 18% on the day and 21% over 24 hours. Arbitrum (ARB) advanced 17% on the day and 25% over 24 hours. Optimism (OP) added 8.9%. These gains reflect a shift from privacy-focused assets, which led Thursday’s trading with Zcash advancing 7.6% over 24 hours.

DeFi Strength and Uniswap Momentum

Uniswap (UNI) climbed 13% since midnight and 25% over 24 hours, accompanying a spot price explosion of 30%. Uniswap futures open interest surged to 86.61 million tokens from 76.89 million tokens the previous day, reflecting market optimism surrounding anticipated friendly, coordinated crypto regulations from the SEC and CFTC.

Other DeFi and staking tokens showed strength. Ethena (ENA) gained 9.6%, while Lido (LDO) added 6.6%. Stacks (STX) rose 9.2%.

Solana Ecosystem Split

Solana (SOL) added 4.5% to $106.14. The ecosystem showed divergent performance: Raydium (RAY) surged 16% to $1.71, while Jito (JTO) lagged at 1.6%, reflecting stronger DEX volume relative to liquid-staking token demand.

Futures Market and Positioning

Bitcoin’s cumulative open interest expanded nearly 5% to $141.2 billion, with Bitcoin futures open interest rising to 680,000 BTC from 670,000 BTC. The increase typically signals a buildup of long positions, though current gains remain modest and open interest remains well below the 800,000 BTC peak hit early this year.

Binance top trader long-short ratio stood at 1.52 on Friday, down from Wednesday’s nearly 2. Long-short positions ratio reached 2.36. Data indicated fewer large holders leaning long, though those positioned long increased bet sizes, suggesting strong institutional conviction despite reduced aggregate long positioning.

Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility (BVIV) dropped to 36%, while daily trading volume dipped 3% to $95 billion.

Macro Backdrop and Market Sentiment

The 10-year Treasury yield fell below 5% during the period. Brent crude declined below $103 per barrel after trading as high as $109 earlier in the week. Major events including the Clarity Act vote and Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan interest-rate meetings have passed, contributing to expectations for near-term market stability.

Bitcoin remained 5% below its September 4 monthly high of $82,284 after two weeks of range-bound price action. The CoinMarketCap Altcoin Season index climbed to 44 out of 100, up from Tuesday’s low of 32 out of 100.

Traditional markets showed modest gains: S&P 500 futures rose 0.3%, Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.6%, gold added 1.1%, and silver advanced 2.8%.