Bitcoin bracing for huge $4B price earthquake this week. Excitement is building ahead of a hotly-anticipated virtual “bitcoin corporate strategy” summit.
The following written content by Billy Bambrough
Now, with excitement building ahead of a hotly-anticipated virtual “bitcoin corporate strategy” summit in the first week of February, a record near-$4 billion worth of bitcoin options are set to expire this Friday, January 29.
Bitcoin options contracts—which allow investors to buy or sell the cryptocurrency at a specified price within a set time period—worth around 107,000 bitcoin, or $3.5 billion at today’s prices, will expire on Friday, according to data from cryptocurrency analytics provider bybt.com. This coming options expiry is significantly more than the previous $2.4 billion record, set in late December.
Trading data shows that speculators are feeling upbeat about bitcoin, despite recent surveys that have suggested Wall Street investors think bitcoin looks like a bubble. There is currently more open interest in “call options” (bets that the bitcoin price will rise) than in “puts” (bets the price will fall).
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Bitcoin’s looming record options expiry could spark a bout of price volatility, as previous large expiries have caught investor attention. The size of the bitcoin open interest market has also soared recently, more than doubling since the summer.
Bitcoin’s surge over the last few months, climbing almost 250% since October, has failed to dampen its extreme volatility, with its price regularly swinging more than 10% over a 24-hour trading period. Currently, the bitcoin price is more than 20% off its early-January all-time high of just over $40,000.
Last week, survey data revealed investors are fearful bitcoin could halve over the coming year, with 50% of respondents to a Deutsche Bank survey rating bitcoin a 10 on a 1-10 bubble scale. Bank of America BAC-2.1% said bitcoin is currently the world’s most crowded trade among investors it surveyed, knocking tech stocks off the top spot for the first time since October 2019. Read more from Forbes.
