Memecoins lead crypto market gains as biggest tokens languish

Bitcoin was little changed Tuesday, while ether fell. CoinDesk Memecoin Index rose. What to know : Bitcoin is struggling to rise to $70,000 as altcoins, particularly memecoins and AI-linked tokens like Worldcoin and Virtuals, outperform despite lingering "extreme fear" in crypto sentiment gauges. Futures data show deep deleveraging and heavily negative funding rates on major exchanges, even as options markets hint at stabilizing long-term volatility expectations. Merkle Trade, a perpetual futures DEX on the Aptos blockchain, is shutting down less than two years after a $2.1 million fundraising round.