Bitcoin returned to decline today after trading began with gains that turned into losses after 2:00 a.m. GMT until now, with it reaching the level of $36,250 at approximately 8:00 a.m. At the same time, Ethereum was unable today to regain the $2000 level, while it is still trying to consolidate above the $1970 level.
This relatively high volatility this week comes in light of the conflict between positive and negative sentiment in the markets. On the positive side, markets appear to remain optimistic about the possibility of the SEC approving the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs. In contrast, sellers continue to put pressure on bitcoin to abandon the levels above 37,000, and they seem to believe that these levels are exaggerated and that there are no tangible real factors supporting the recent rises other than optimism only.
This contradictory sentiment was reflected in this week’s continuous rotation of relatively large liquidations of both long and short positions. According to data provided by CoinGlass, yesterday witnessed the liquidation of more than $50 million worth of bitcoin long positions, compared to less than 9 million short positions. Yesterday’s liquidations followed liquidations of more than $50 million in short positions, which came after Bitcoin approached the $38,000 level the day before.
As for the options contracts market, according to data provided by Deribit, the markets are awaiting the expiration for the equivalent of $1.275 billion worth of bitcoin options today. While the number of open interests, which total more than 35 thousand options, for call options is more than twice that of put options.
Moreover, with investors seeming to be anticipating what might happen in the crypto market, in addition to the relatively high volatility recently, the number of open interests for bitcoin options rose to the highest level in about 20 days, at about 400 thousand options yesterday, which a value that reached a new record high of more than $15 billion.
In yesterday’s news, asset management giant, BlackRock, filed an application with the SEC to launch an Ethereum spot ETF called the iShares Ethereum Trust. This may reflect the latent interest of a segment of institutional investors in alternative cryptocurrencies to Bitcoin as well.