The biggest digital assets, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are facing the highly anticipated crypto options expiry as the market stands stable after witnessing high volatility. Spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETF) recorded inflows over the past weeks, suggesting a returning bullish sentiment among investors.
Bitcoin price stands at a crucial point in the market as it is hovering around the $60,000 zone. BTC has seen a surge of 4% in the last 7 days while holding a decline of 10% over the past 30 days.
Bitcoin, Ether face $1.5B options expiry
As per the data provided by Greeks, 18,000 Bitcoin options (approx worth $1.12 billion) are set to expire on August 23 with a Put Call Ratio of 0.83. This sets BTC’s max pain point of $60,000. The BTC options market remains steady, with positions in weekly options shrinking to under 7% of the total.
Bitcoin price saw a marginal surge over the last day to keep up the momentum. BTC is trading at an average price of $60,644, at the press time. However, its 24 hour trading volume has taken a dip of 24% to stand at $25.7 billion. BTC has tested the $61,800 level multiple times without retracement over the last week.
Similarly, 140,000 ETH options (approx worth $370 million) are moving towards their expiration too with a max pain point of $1,625. ETH price is up by 2% in the last 7 days and trading at an average price of $2,637, at the press time.
BTC open interest jumps 2%
Coinglass data shows that the total Bitcoin futures Open Interest (OI) jumped by 2.3% in the last 24 hours. BTC futures open interest surged from $30.21 billion to $32.08 billion over the last day depicting new capital flowing in. Both traditional and perpetual futures markets are seeing parallel rises. This comes in when the Federal Reserve seems to be moving ahead for a possible interest rate cut in September, as indicated by the minutes from the July 30-31 meeting.
Officials have expressed support for reducing borrowing costs, hinting at potential action during the September 17-18 meeting. However, the FOMC maintained its benchmark interest rate at 5.25%-5.50% in July. This move has the possibility of a rate cut which may fuel market speculation.
Emerging bullish sentiments can be seen through Bitcoin ETF inflow over the past week. It registered a net inflow of $64.91 million on August 22 marking 6 days of consistent inflow. The trading week which ended on Aug 22 saw an inflow of $254.37 million, while the week before it posted a positive flow of $32.58 million.
