A positive signal has arrived from the CME Bitcoin options prices.
In fact, they turn out to be the most bull since the elections in the USA concluded with the victory of Donald Trump.
According to some analysts, the bull prices of options on Bitcoin, combined with the new capital inflows on ETFs, could indicate the achievement of new all-time highs shortly.
For now, the all-time high price of BTC is $109,100, reached for a brief moment two days ago.
Summary
Analysis of Bitcoin options on the CME
The CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) is the Chicago exchange, and it is the largest in the world for open interest on futures and options.
Founded in 1898, it allows trading on stocks, currencies, commodities, interest rates, and of course futures and options contracts. Among these, there are also futures on Bitcoin, and options on futures on BTC.
Yesterday, the options on Bitcoin traded at the CME showed the strongest bull sentiment since Trump’s electoral victory.
In particular, CF Benchmarks claims that traders are actively positioning themselves in anticipation of a rise in the price of BTC, both in the short-term and long-term maturities.
CF Benchmarks, which deals with indices on digital assets, points out that traders have mainly purchased call options, which offer asymmetric upside exposure.
As a result, the skew has risen to 4.4%, which is indeed the highest level since the beginning of November. The skew is the difference in implied volatility between calls and puts, and positive values represent a bull sentiment.
According to the head of products at CF Benchmarks, Thomas Erdösi, this reflects a strong bull sentiment, with traders actively positioning themselves for bull exposure on both short and long-term maturities. Erdösi also believes that volatility levels might slightly decrease towards the end of the month, but, barring any surprise political developments, the bull pressure on the price will remain.
The Bitcoin spot ETFs
To all this must be added the good performance of the last days of the ETFs on BTC spot.
In particular, on Friday, daily total inflows exceeded one billion dollars, which is not very far from the all-time record of 1.3 billion.
Furthermore, yesterday the overall daily inflows still exceeded 800 million dollars, of which 660 million were towards the single BlackRock ETF alone.
According to BRN analyst Valentin Fournier, these new inflows could also push prices to new highs.
The analyst states that ETF inflows have continued their accumulation streak with four consecutive days of significant inflows. In total, over these four days, more than 3 billion dollars have flowed into Bitcoin, and 74 million into Ethereum. This indicates that the two cryptos are receiving solid institutional support.
Profit-taking
But that’s not all. There are also other data showing how the short-term trend seems to be positive.
According to the data from Glassnode, long-term holders of Bitcoin are finally reducing profit-taking.
It should be remembered that after the all-time high on December 17 above $108,000, a phase began in which many long-term BTC holders preferred to take profit by selling. This phase practically lasted until last week, while for a few days now this trend seems to have started to run out.
To this must also be added that the total number of BTC on crypto exchanges available for sale is at the lowest in recent years, and this in fact keeps the selling pressure low.
The low selling pressure, however, is not sufficient to increase prices, but if it remains so, it can also allow even a minimal increase in buying pressure to make them rise. On the other hand, this is precisely what seems to have happened in recent days, as evidenced by the increase in inflows into ETFs.
Other positive signals besides the CME Bitcoin options
Other positive signals are, for example, the one coming from the US dollar. In fact, the Dollar Index has fallen below 108 points, while last week it had risen well above 109 points.
Even the interest rates of US government bonds are slightly decreasing, and this highlights a greater propensity for risk-off assets, although this still appears to be a dynamic of little significance, given the minimal extent of the decrease.
It should finally be added that even in January 2017, after Trump’s first inauguration at the White House, towards the end of the month the bull run resumed, after more than a month of substantial lateralization.
There are not only positive signals, but at this moment the negative ones seem to be few and not very evident. However, it is important to emphasize that the crypto markets are sometimes unpredictable, and it is not uncommon for them to end up doing the opposite of what is expected.