Smaller altcoins shine as bitcoin stills trades around $85,000

• Bitway’s BTW token rose 25 percent in 24 hours and 170 percent over the past month, leading a broader rally among smaller cryptocurrencies.
• Bitcoin traded near $85,900, with analysts warning that a drop below $84,000 could open the way for a swift decline toward $80,000.
• Bitcoin derivatives positioning stabilized as open interest held near $21.9 billion, funding rates cooled and 24-hour liquidations reached $163 million.

Smaller coins are stealing the spotlight again as bitcoin , ether and other major cryptocurrencies are still trading in a choppy range, while

Leading the gains is BTW, the native token of Bitway, a bitcoin-compatible layer-1 blockchain with proof-of-stake consensus and decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure. The token has jumped 25% in the past 24 hours and is up 170% over the past 30 days.

BTW has also been drawing attention on social media, following the end of Binance Wallet's "Booster Season 5" campaign on Oct. 2. The campaign offered rewards for deposits and may have boosted retail engagement.

The rally also appears to be part of a broader shift toward smaller altcoins. Filecoin's FIL and LayerZero's ZRO have gained 12% and 10%, respectively, in 24 hours, and both are up 50% or more over four weeks. Midnight's NIGHT token has added 8% over the same 24 hours.

At the other end, SKY, VVV and DASH are the three worst performers among the 100 largest tokens by market value.

As for bitcoin, it remains stuck in its range. The leading cryptocurrency is trading at $85,900 as of this writing, after putting in lows near $85,000 earlier in the day.

"A break below $84K would signal a victory for the bears, and a break below the recent local lows at $83K would confirm this with even greater certainty. In this scenario, the leading cryptocurrency could fall to $80K fairly quickly," said Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at TheFxPro.

• BTC open interest held roughly flat at $21.9B (from $22.0B), while funding rates cooled a touch - now broadly 0–5% annualized across venues, down from the elevated 4–10% range. The 3-month annualized basis held steady in the 5–6% range. Positioning is stabilising after Friday's build: leveraged longs still in place, but the heat is coming off funding.
• Options flow stayed call-skewed, the 24-hour put/call volume ratio at 62/38 in favour of calls. The 1-week 25-delta skew remains negative at ~-2%, and the ATM term structure is unchanged - still in contango, front end ~24–25% rising to ~39% by late 2027
• Coinglass data shows $163M in 24 hour liquidations, with a 63-27 split between longs and shorts. BTC ($51M), Others ($21M) and ETH ($19M) were the leaders in terms of notional liquidations. Binance liquidation heatmap indicates $87,150 as a core liquidation level to monitor, in case of a price rise.