The options block market experienced a surge in activity yesterday, with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) leading the way. According to a tweet by Greeks.live, a level known source for financial news, block trades for BTC alone were worth over $350 million, with most of the trades comprising put options.
The rise in BTC block trades reflects the growing interest in cryptocurrency as a mainstream investment. Investors are exploring options to hedge against possible market downturns or capitalize on market volatility.
Put options are a type of financial instrument that allows investors to protect their investments by providing a predetermined price for selling an asset in the future.
On the other hand, ETH block trades amounted to almost $230 million, with most of the trades dominated by selling calls. The high demand for calls suggests that investors are bullish on ETH, anticipating a price rise in the near future.
The overall market trends indicate that investors are actively exploring options in the cryptocurrency market. The increased activity in the options block market reflects a shift towards sophisticated investment strategies, indicating a maturation of the crypto market.
Bitcoin Leads Finance Sector Gains In Q1
Despite facing negative headlines, the crypto markets have closed the quarter as one of the best-performing sectors in finance, according to a recent report by Kaiko.
Bitcoin (BTC) was a leader with gains of 70% year-to-date (YTD), benefiting from bullish narratives stemming from the banking sector crisis combined with low liquidity.
The report also provides an analysis of the liquidity of Ethereum (ETH) compared to BTC. With the Ethereum network set to undergo a key upgrade on April 12th, market activity is expected to surge.
However, when charting the number of bids and asks within 2% of the mid-price on USD/USDT order books, ETH market depth hit its lowest level since last May, while BTC’s downward trend is more extreme.
The report also highlights BTC’s correlation with gold, which hit a multi-year high last week and is currently around 50%, surpassing its correlation with US equities.
BTC’s volatility gap with the Nasdaq has also hit a yearly high, partly due to regulatory pressures faced by the largest and most liquid exchange, Binance.
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