According to CoinDesk data, Bitcoin lost more than 1% in the last 24 hours, falling to $64,500. This is a significant decline from the recent peak of $72,000. However, there is an interesting movement in Bitcoin options traded on the leading cryptocurrency exchange Deribit. Investors focus on call options at levels well above the market price (strike price). This indicates that experienced investors are thinking that the current price decline may actually be a pause before a larger rise.

Singapore-based cryptocurrency fund management company QCP Capital emphasizes this situation in its market analysis: “In the last 24 hours, we have observed an abnormally high buying activity in call options worth $ 90,000-100,000 with December and March expiry dates. This situation may lead the market to find the bottom and possibly reach 2025.” “We believe it has positioned itself for a potential uptick that could extend as long as.”

Options give investors the right to buy (call option) or sell (put option) an asset (in this case, Bitcoin) at a specific price on a specific date. Buying a call option means making a bet that the price of Bitcoin will increase.

Looking at the transaction history on Deribit, the most traded Bitcoin options in the last 24 hours are the $65,000, $68,000, and $70,000 call options expiring in June, the $110,000 call option expiring in July, and the $95,000 call option expiring in December. This intense call option activity indicates that investors have a strong expectation that the price of Bitcoin will rise significantly in the coming months.

In the options market, it can be useful to look at “call-put skewness,” which is an indicator of how much protection investors are seeking against upward or downward price movements. According to Amberdata data, despite the recent Bitcoin price decline, the one-, two-, three- and six-month call-put skew remains positive. This shows that investors are more interested in call options, that is, upward movement. The fact that only the seven-day skewness is negative may suggest that investors are looking for protection against downside risks in the short term.

In recent weeks, Bitcoin has followed a divergent trend from the Nasdaq’s upward trend. There may be several reasons for this situation. One of these is that long-term investors and miners have recently sold Bitcoin. Another reason is the increasing view that the inflow of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) into the cryptocurrency market is not direction-dependent, that is, it can increase regardless of general market movements. Finally, the German government’s recent transfer of $425 million worth of Bitcoin to another cryptocurrency may have created selling pressure in the market.