Over the past two weeks, Bitcoin price appears to have lost momentum and some analysts are suggesting that bears will be in control for the foreseeable future. Taking a look at derivatives market data provides a clearer picture of what is happening on the institutional side and how the moves of larger players may impact the spot markets. After peaking at $10.6 billion on Jan. 14, the open interest on Bitcoin (BTC) scaled back to $8.4 billion. The Jan. 29 monthly expiry continues to stand apart, totaling 47% of the options in play. Although a $4 billion expiry could be …

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is continuing to reject the $35,000 resistance level, falling below $30,000 briefly overnight on Jan. 22. BTC has pared some losses since, bouncing above $31,500. At these prices, however, BTC/USD is headed for its worst week ever, losing over $5,000 in the past four days, as the bulls attempt to establish $32,000 as new support. There are three main reasons why the price of Bitcoin dropped so steeply overnight. First, the options market was overheated with growing put options. Second, a critical resistance area was rejected. Third, the speed of the sell-off possibly led to …

In the last 24-hours Bitcoin (BTC) price dropped 14% and tested the $32,000 support for the fifth time this year. Traders probably became even more worried as the price fell to $31,050 but at the time of writing the 4-hour chart suggests that the selling could be slowing down. Currently the shorter-term charts indicate that Bitcoin is still flirting with bearish territory but a number of derivatives indicators and the top traders flow reflect neutral to bullish levels. The last three times Bitcoin price fell below $32,000, an extensive rally of up to 30% followed. Data shows that the top …

Bitcoin (BTC) price tumbled more than 10% today to hit a low near $31,000 and at the time of writing it looks like the sell-off has a bit further to go. In a weekly report from crypto fund provider, CoinShares, some institutional investors seem to be booking profits and the analysts also cited the strengthening (trade-weighted) U.S. dollar. Another indicator that points to professionals selling Bitcoin is the drop in "Coinbase Premium." As markets continue lower, an increasing number of investors may dump their positions with the intent to buy again at lower levels. Guggenheim Partners chief investment officer Scott …

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, could be preparing its entry into the Bitcoin (BTC) derivatives market, according to a pair of filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. The two prospectus filings — BlackRock Funds V and BlackRock Global Allcoation Fund, Inc. — appeared on the SEC website on Wednesday. Both filings mention the possibility of using Bitcoin derivatives and other assets as part of its investment scheme. However, neither filing makes a definitive statement about the use of Bitcoin futures now or in the future. The prospectus states: “Each Fund may use instruments referred …

Over the past two months the open interest on Bitcoin options has held reasonably steady even as the figure increased by 118% to reach $8.4 billion as (BTC) price rose to a new all-time high. The result of Bitcoin’s price appreciation and the rising open interest on BTC options has resulted in a historic $3.8 billion expiry set for Jan. 29. To understand the potential impact of such a large expiry, investors should compare it to the volumes seen at spot exchanges. Although some data aggregators display over $50 billion to $100 billion in daily Bitcoin volume, a 2019 report …

Roughly $500 million worth of cryptocurrency futures positions were liquidated in the past 24 hours. The mass liquidation of positions happened before the price of Bitcoin (BTC) dipped below $34,000 on Jan. 17. Why were so many positions liquidated? Overnight, the price of Bitcoin rose by 6.7% from $35,500 to nearly $38,000. Meanwhile, the futures funding rate sharply increased, indicating an overleveraged market. Across major exchanges, the funding rate of the Bitcoin perpetual swap futures contract surged to around 0.07%. Considering that the average funding rate typically hovers at around 0.01%, the futures market was overcrowded on the way up …

Bitcoin (BTC) price recovered by 27% just three days after testing the $31,000 support and earlier today bull recaptured the $40,000 level. This quick recovery occurred despite the digital asset facing one of the largest buy-side liquidations in a single day as $1.5 billion was wiped off the books. Interestingly, futures contract traders appear to have returned with an even larger appetite. After such a large liquidation event, an increased appetite from futures traders is somewhat unexpected but professional investors are skilled at hedging their positions and executing complicated strategies involving options. To measure the impact of the recent liquidations …

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, or CME, has recorded significant volume for its Bitcoin (BTC) futures trading product over the course of the last 12 months. “More than 2.2+ million contracts were traded in 2020,” a CME representative told Cointelegraph. Each cash-settled Bitcoin futures contract at the CME is worth the dollar value of 5 Bitcoin. The trading hub recorded higher than normal numbers as Bitcoin’s price heated up in December 2020 following a break of its 2017 all-time price high of $19,892 on Dec. 1. “BTC average daily volume (ADV) reached 11,179 contracts (55.9K equivalent bitcoin) in December, up 114% …

Nearly $1 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) futures contracts were liquidated on Jan. 13, a day after the big shakeout. The continuous loop of liquidations is causing extreme volatility and large price swings in the cryptocurrency market. What are futures liquidations, and why are so many Bitcoin positions being liquidated? In the Bitcoin futures market, traders borrow additional capital to bet against or for Bitcoin. The technical term for this is leverage, and when traders use high leverage, the liquidation threshold gets tighter. For example, if a trader borrows 10 times the initial capital, a 10% price move to the …

Canadian investment fund manager Arxnovum Investments has filed a prospectus for a new Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund, or ETF, in Canada. On Monday, the company filed a stack of preliminary documents for the Arxnovum Bitcoin ETF with Canada’s Ontario Securities Commission. According to a preliminary long-form prospectus, Arxnovum plans to list its new Bitcoin ETF on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The listing is subject to the approval of the TSX in accordance with its original listing requirements. “The TSX has not conditionally approved the listing application of the Bitcoin ETF and there is no assurance that the TSX will approve …

This week’s $11,000 drop occurred in just 32 hours and this definitely an important milestone for Bitcoin (BTC) price. Many mainstream media outlets perceived the correction as the start of a new bear market but data simply does not support this line of thinking. Bitcoin price may have corrected 26.5% as if dropped to retest the $30,300 support but it has since shown significant strength amidst a record-high $160 billion in derivatives volume. Spot exchanges also outpaced their previous record high that was set just three days ago on Jan.9 as BTC soared to a new all-time high at $41,950. …