Bitcoin (BTC) price has rallied 22.5% in March, but as the price moved up, some buyers began to use excessive leverage, according to derivatives data. Meanwhile, futures open interest reached a $22.5 billion record-high, causing investors to question how sustainable the current rally is. Being optimistic, especially during a bullish market, can't be deemed worrisome. Still, a yellow flag is raised when buyers use excessive leverage because this could lead to large liquidations during a sell-off. After peaking at $58,300 on Feb. 21, Bitcoin faced a 26% correction over the following week. That move wiped out over $4.5 billion worth …

The most basic Bitcoin (BTC) options contracts involve buying a call which gives the holder the opportunity to acquire the asset at a fixed price on a set date. For this privilege, the buyer simply pays an upfront fee, known as a premium, to the contract seller. Although this is a great way to use leverage while avoiding the liquidation risk that comes from trading futures contracts, it comes at a cost. The options premium will rise during volatile markets, causing the trade to require even further price appreciation to generate a reasonable profit, so the premium is a metric …

With BTC again edging toward all-time highs, a large volume of money is flowing into the Bitcoin derivatives markets. According to crypto market data aggregator Glassnode, outstanding futures contracts pushed into new all-time highs on March 11, with open interest across exchanges approaching $20 billion. More capital is flowing into the derivatives markets, as the amount of outstanding #Bitcoin futures contracts reaches another ATH. Open interest across major exchanges is currently sitting at the verge of the $20B mark. Chart: https://t.co/ygoffzMSJW pic.twitter.com/BiJIpyTKDD — glassnode (@glassnode) March 11, 2021 Options have also surged to see record volumes in 2021, with Derebit …

Bitcoin (BTC) price might have re-established $50,000 as a support, but the optimism of professional traders is nowhere near the levels seen before the 26% drop to $43,000 on Feb. 28. The current scenario is far from bearish, but derivatives indicators do not reflect the substantial purchases from institutional clients, including Microstrategy, Meitu, and most recently, Aker ASA, a Norweigian oil conglomerate. The longer Bitcoin stays above a certain threshold, the more confident investors get. For example, the last daily close below $45,000 was 28 days ago. Therefore it might take a couple of weeks until a more robust support …

Peter Brandt, a popular veteran trader and CEO of proprietary trading firm Factor LLC, recently gave his thoughts on Goldman Sachs potentially restarting its cryptocurrency desk. Us old-timers have learned that whenever @GoldmanSachs enters a market niche it is time to guard your money. $BTC pic.twitter.com/tHfRkS4igb — Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) March 1, 2021 On Dec. 21, 2017, a similar Bloomberg piece stated that Goldman Sachs would set up a cryptocurrency trading desk, although the bank was “still trying to work out security issues.” Although Brandt’s chart seems significant, one needs to understand that such speculation had been ongoing for a …

Bitcoin's (BTC) severe 26% drop from its $58,300 all-time high on Feb. 20 injected a bit of bearishness into the market, but from a technical perspective, this was purely psychological, as the digital asset held the $43,000 support with ease. This downside move caused indicators like the Crypto Fear & Greed Index to hit 38, its lowest level in five months. Even though a $15,400 downside move might seem unusual, 25% and even larger corrections happened on six separate occasions during the 2017 bull run. Moreover, when BTC first made an all-time high at $42,000 on Jan. 8, a 31.5% …

On Feb. 3, Cardano conducted a hard fork and successfully integrated the Mary upgrade to the testnet, transforming the blockchain into a multiasset network similar to Ethereum. This event seems to be one of the reasons for the impressive 475% year-to-date rally of ADA, and the altcoin is now causing unexpected ripples in the derivatives markets. Since the end of December 2020, ADA's $81-million aggregate futures open interest hiked to the current $580 million, becoming the third-largest derivatives market, behind Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). Data indicates this was not purely a technical adjustment, as Cardano's on-chain and trading metrics …

Bitcoin’s price rose significantly in January. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, or CME, also hit record Bitcoin (BTC) futures trading numbers in the same month. “In January, BTC average daily volume (ADV) reached a monthly record of 17,549 contracts (87.7K equivalent bitcoin),” a CME representative told Cointelegraph. Each CME Bitcoin futures contract is worth the value of 5 BTC paid out in dollars. “In December 2020, BTC average daily volume (ADV) reached 11,179 contracts (55.9K equivalent bitcoin),” the representative added. “This represents a +57% increase.” In January, Bitcoin rose from $30,000 up to almost $42,000, according to TradingView data. The month …

In the past 48 hours, Bitcoin's (BTC) price has dropped by $13,360 and more than $2.6 billion worth of futures contracts have been liquidated. When including altcoins, the total sum of liquidations equaled $5.9 billion. After marking a record-high open interest at $19.5 billion on Feb. 21, the metric has stabilized at $16.5 billion. This means that half of the terminated leverage positions have been reopened. According to the top traders' long-to-short data and various funding rate indicators, retail traders took the largest hit. Top traders bought the dip The top traders' long-to-short indicator is calculated by using clients' consolidated …

Bitcoin's (BTC) sudden $11,500 drop liquidated more than $1.64 billion worth of BTC futures contracts. This massive figure represents 8.5% of the total $19.5 billion in open interest, which coincidentally had just reached its all-time high. Although these are significant figures, they are proportionally lower than the $1-billion futures liquidation on Nov. 26, 2020. At that time, the 16% correction that followed Bitcoin price testing a $16,300 low reduced the open interest by 17%. In light of today's big price move, investors' positive expectations regarding Bitcoin remain unfazed, as both the futures contracts funding rate and the options 25% delta …

An important Chicago Mercantile Exchange Bitcoin (BTC) futures gap closed as BTC/USD suddenly dropped below $54,000 on Feb. 22. A CME gap forms when the price of Bitcoin moves either up or down after the CME closes during the weekend or holidays in the United States. Unlike most cryptocurrency exchanges, because the CME Bitcoin futures exchange is not open at all times, a gap forms between CME and many Bitcoin trading platforms. Why is the CME Bitcoin gap significant? The CME gap is sometimes considered an important gap to fill for the Bitcoin rally to continue in the near term. …

Bitcoin (BTC) breached the $50,000 level on Feb. 16. But while failing to cleanly break the psychological barrier, it undoubtedly displayed the potential for even higher valuations. Meanwhile, futures and options indicators are misaligned, signaling excessive buyers' leverage, while options markets remain calm. After analyzing both markets, one might theorize what has caused this apparent incongruence. Options skew remained neutral-to-positive When analyzing options, the 25% delta skew is the single-most relevant gauge. This indicator compares similar call (buy) and put (sell) options side by side. It will turn negative when the put options premium is higher than similar-risk call options. …