Ether call options concentrate on $2,550 for Friday's expiry on Deribit

Ether call options are concentrated at $2,550 ahead of Friday's expiry. Image: Deribit.

The presence of a significant number of call options at $2,550 indicates that a substantial portion of traders anticipated an increase in the price of ether above $2,550 by the mid-January expiration date. However, the price of ether has fallen by almost 1% in the past 24 hours to trade at $2,516, according to The Block's Prices Page .

The ether price has fallen almost 1% in the past 24 hours. Image: The Block.

Ethereum spot ETF anticipations

Ether's price has declined in the past 24 hours, but the asset has still outperformed bitcoin in the week after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved multiple spot bitcoin ETFs . Bitcoin's value has fallen by around 10% in the past week, whereas ether's price has declined by just over 5%. According to Wednesday's Market Update from QCP Capital the ETH -1.13% /BTC exchange rate has risen from 0.05 to 0.06 over the same time frame. QCP Capital analysts also expect ether to continue outperforming bitcoin over the medium term as the market narrative rotates to the potential approval of spot ether ETFs.

CoinShares Ethereum Research Associate Luke Nolan sets the probability of spot ether ETFs being approved in 2024 at 70%. "However, it is possible that the market is getting excited a little bit too quickly, our view is that Q4 2024 would be the earliest time for approval, and it is, in our view, unlikely to materialize before then," he told The Block.