Bitcoin has returned to $50,000 USD after over 25 months in which cryptocurrency trading saw a significantly lower price. Here are the perspectives of industry experts:
Michael Saylor, co-founder and executive chairman of Microstrategy, publicly explained that the rally in recent days is justified by an increase in demand coming from bitcoin ETFs.
Peter Thiel, a well-known successful investor, has revealed that he was heavily exposed in the crypto market even before the bull run.
Meanwhile, derivative market traders see opportunities to place buy orders for call options with a strike price of 75,000 USD and above.
All the details below.
Summary
Bitcoin above $50,000 for the first time since December 2021: Michael Saylor notes significant market demand
Bitcoin is officially back to being traded in a range above $50,000, with the bulls of Wall Street who are thirsty for satoshis and are emptying the supply on the market.
The crypto had not seen this value since December 2021, when instead it was the bears who were in control of the situation: in that circumstance, just 1 month before FTX had triggered panic by declaring bankruptcy and inaugurating the bear market.
Yesterday, thanks to the last 8 consecutive positive daily candles, bitcoin has regained the 50,000 USD, rekindling the bullish spirits that are preparing for the April halving.
At the time of writing, the currency seems to want to try a bullish follow-up of prices, continuing the rally.
Michael Saylor, co-founder and executive chairman of MicroStrategy, believes that the reason for this encouraging phase in Bitcoin trading is mainly due to the increase in demand from spot ETFs, recently approved.
According to Saylor’s view, who controls the largest publicly traded company by the number of BTC on its balance sheet, the market is pricing in a decade of pent-up demand for a retail-available cryptographic product.
In an interview with CNBC, he revealed that:
“There is ten times more demand for bitcoin coming into these ETFs than the supply coming from natural sellers who are the miners. There are ten years of pent-up demand that people have been waiting for these ETFs and finally traditional investors are able to access Bitcoin, and I think that’s what’s driving the capital increase in this asset class.”
The bitcoin ETF spot, in the first days of trading, led to a retracement of the crypto asset prices of over 20%, with Grayscale liquidating barrels of +10,000 BTC per day.
However, as soon as the outflows calmed down and other operators such as BlackRock, Fidelity, Ark, and Hashdex continued to attract capital, trading activities pushed prices to a new two-year high.
Since January 29th, the total netflow of these investment products has always been positive, driving the recovery of the digital currency market.
Saylor, who with Microstrategy is recording an unrealized profit of over $3.5 billion, stated that his software development company will rebrand itself as a bitcoin development company, reflecting his strategy to accumulate as many BTC as possible and promote the growth of the cryptographic network.
Comparing itself to a real estate or oil development company, the same Bitcoin Maximalist explained to CNBC that:
“It is a natural decision for us, given the success of our Bitcoin strategy and our unique status as the world’s largest publicly traded company holding Bitcoin”
Peter Thiel and his major investment in Bitcoin and Ethereum trading
Peter Thiel, well-known American investor and politician, as well as co-founder of PayPal, is heavily betting on Bitcoin trading in pursuit of significant profits.
It is revealed by a Reuters report that indicates an investment of about 200 million dollars through its Founders Fund, made in BTC and ETH before the market took an unexpectedly bullish turn.
Thiel is famous for his appreciation for the world of digital currencies, having contributed to enriching the cryptographic markets with his orders in the past.
In particular, the Founders Fund had invested an amount ranging from 15 to 20 million dollars during the bullish market of 2017-2018, and then continued to purchase during the upward trend of 2021.
The famous billionaire investor then sold his cryptocurrency holdings in March 2022, before Bitcoin dropped below the $35,000 trading level, managing to take home approximately $1.8 billion.
Now even Thiel’s new bet seems to be going in the right direction, considering that BTC has more than doubled in the last year, with ETH following in the footsteps of the market king with a 75% growth.
However, it is not said that Thiel is not already thinking about liquidating his profits, while the herd in the crypto sector expects an instant pump of bitcoin to 100,000 USD.
We are waiting for new information on the trading behavior of the fund managed by the US investor, which has a total AUM of 11 billion dollars.
Bitcoin trading: options experts call for a strike at 75,000 USD
While Bitcoin puts a smile on the faces of its investors, trading options experts are pushing positive forecasts by opening call options with very high strike prices.
Despite the BTC-USD chart on major exchanges showing an overbought RSI on daily and weekly time frames, there are those who believe that there is still room for a strongly bullish movement.
It is worth noting how on derivative markets such as Deribit, several traders are making low-cost out-of-the-money (OTM) bitcoin calls or bullish bets at levels close to the cryptocurrency’s all-time high.
In particular, over the weekend we witnessed a strong purchase of call options expiring in the coming weeks, with a strike price of 65,000, 70,000, and 75,000 USD.
On Deribit, we can clearly see how on the expiration date of March 29, 2024, there is a high open interest in call contracts with strikes higher than the historical maximum of $69,000. There are also those who have bet on seeing a price higher than the long-awaited $100,000 by the fateful expiration date.
We remind the less experienced in the field that call options give investors the right (but not the obligation) to purchase the underlying asset at a specific price within a set date, while put options confer the right to sell.
An option buyer is implicitly bullish on the market, but operates by covering any losses caused by the depreciation of the asset in question.
Kelly Greer, responsible for American sales at Galaxy, stated in an interview with CoinDesk:
“These flows demonstrate the belief of buyers willing to pay a premium to take on these positions, suggesting that investors have a constructive view on bitcoin.”
Despite the evident optimism of experts in the field of Bitcoin trading, we remind you that the cryptoasset could also disappoint expectations by experiencing a price contraction as usually happens before the halving.
In addition, more speculative traders could take advantage of the graphic extension of the currency, which has grown by 130% compared to a year ago, and take profits before reaching the highs.
Even during the last bull run when optimism was at its highest, several options traders mistakenly bet on reaching $80,000 and sometimes even $100,000. History teaches us that those who want too much end up with nothing.
