As Bitcoin's dominance nears the 60% mark, the cryptocurrency market is showing signs of increased risk tolerance among traders, with USDT's share falling to 6.3%.

Bitcoin's market share is rising while USDT's declines, reflecting a shift towards riskier assets.

By Omkar Godbole | Edited by Jamie Crawley Oct 2, 2026, 6:31 a.m. EDT 3 min read

Bitcoin surged 3.4%, reaching over $86,000 just before the release of the U.S. jobs report, indicating a broader appetite for risk across the crypto market.

  • Economists predict the U.S. economy added 90,000 jobs in September, down from 162,000 in August. A stronger-than-expected report could lead to higher Treasury yields, renewed bets on interest rate hikes, and pressure on Bitcoin.
  • The increase in open interest and funding rates suggests traders are taking on leveraged bullish positions, although $344 million in liquidations highlights the potential for volatility.

The crypto market is predominantly in the green ahead of the U.S. jobs report. Bitcoin traded above $86,000 at 9:10 UTC, marking a 3.4% increase over the past 24 hours. Other cryptocurrencies like Ether, XRP, Solana, and BNB also saw gains, though none matched Bitcoin's performance.

Notable movements occurred further down the list, with cryptocurrencies such as SKY, AAVE, and APT rising between 7% and 10%, making them the top performers among the 100 largest coins.

Bitcoin's dominance, which represents its share of the total crypto market, is approaching 60%. In contrast, the share of USDT, the leading dollar-pegged stablecoin, has decreased to approximately 6.3%. This shift indicates that traders may be opting for tokens over cash, reflecting a growing comfort with risk.

The upcoming nonfarm payroll report, scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to reveal that the U.S. economy added 90,000 jobs in September, maintaining an unemployment rate of 4.1%, according to FactSet's consensus estimates.

Market observers are particularly focused on how Treasury yields will respond, especially in terms of inflation-adjusted yields. Analysts are keenly awaiting the jobs data and the consumer price index report on October 14 for insights.

"I am closely watching Friday's payrolls and the October 14 CPI for their influence on longer-dated yields. I monitor a 10-year real yield around 3% as a key level; a sustained move above this could suggest a retest of $80,000 to $82,000 is more likely than a push towards $90,000," stated Oliver Carding, head of marketing at Tesseract Group, which manages $500 million in assets.

Currently, markets are pricing in a 30% chance of a rate hike in October, a decrease from 70% following dovish comments from New York Fed President John Williams and Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson. Lower expectations for a rate hike typically support risk assets like Bitcoin.

However, these odds may not change significantly unless payroll numbers exceed forecasts, as noted by some observers. A larger-than-expected increase could reignite rate hike speculation and put pressure on Bitcoin.

Derivatives Positioning

  • Bitcoin open interest rose to $22.4 billion from $20.9 billion yesterday, with funding rates on some platforms spiking to 9-10% annualized on Hyperliquid and OKX. The 3-month annualized basis on Deribit remained steady above 6%. This increase in open interest, alongside higher funding rates, suggests that leveraged long positions are being added.
  • Options flow has remained heavily skewed towards calls, with the 24-hour put/call ratio at 88% favoring calls (up from 83%). The 1-week 25-delta skew has flattened further to approximately 1.5% (from around 4%), and the at-the-money term structure is in contango, with the front end around 27-28%, increasing to about 40% by late 2027.
  • Data from Coinglass indicates $344 million in liquidations occurred over the past 24 hours (up from $100 million the previous day), with a 28-72 split between longs and shorts. Bitcoin ($132 million), Ethereum ($70 million), and others ($26 million) led in notional liquidations. The Binance liquidation heatmap shows $87,400 as a critical liquidation level to watch in case of a price rise.

Token Talk

  • Quant (QNT) was the biggest decliner after a volatile week, dropping around 15% to trade near $250. The interoperability token had previously more than tripled in a multi-day surge, but profit-taking has set in alongside a general cooling in recent outperformers.
  • LayerZero and Aave were among the top large-cap gainers, each rising about 11% and 9%, respectively, over 24 hours. LayerZero traded near $1.91, while Aave reached $182 as buying momentum built around proposed protocol upgrades and governance discussions.
  • Yesterday's top performers, Ethena and NEAR Protocol, reversed their gains, slipping approximately 9% and 8.6% respectively. Ethena dropped to around $0.25 after earlier highs, while NEAR fell below $5.00 after a strong week.
  • Memecoins showed localized resilience, with dogwifhat gaining 6.2% over 24 hours to trade near $0.26. The memecoin launchpad token pump.fun also saw renewed buying, increasing nearly 4% as speculative capital rotated within the sector.
  • Stacks and Midnight paused their sharp multi-day rallies, declining about 5% and 5.6% respectively over 24 hours. Stacks held around $0.38 following Wednesday’s executive leadership announcement, while Midnight pulled back to $0.04 after earlier gains exceeding 20% this week.

For more insights, visit Crypto Markets Today.