The status of cryptography options markets after recent liquidation (report)

The beginning of this week was a bit of a bad mood for the financial market, with strong decreases in the main indices of digital shares and assets in the midst of the launch of the Deepseek artificial intelligence (AI) model.

Despite the volatility that came with mass sale, open interest in perpetual swaps for Bitcoin and other leading cryptocurrencies remained stable, while financing rates became momentarily negative before recovering. The options market also recorded an increase in commercial activity during mass sale.

Ethereum options more optimistic than Bitcoin

However, according to a report According to the exchange of Criptoes Bybit and the institutional degree research firm block the Scholes, the sequelae of the risk event sees the Ethereum options that look more optimistic than the bitcoin options. Ethereum’s options have maintained a volatility premium over their Bitcoin counterparts.

During the past month, the negotiation volume for Ethereum options has been at strong levels. Derivatives saw similar activity levels between the end of December 2024 and the beginning of January 2025. However, the latest data show more call activity. Open interest data have also been mainly inclined towards purchase options.

The sale of spot earlier this week caused investors to briefly refrain purchase options; However, Ethereum options have continued to trade at higher volatility levels in relation to Bitcoin. In particular, the same cannot be said of the spot price of Ether (ETH), which has been left behind the Bitcoin (BTC).

Bitcoin Volatility options decreases

Even Solana options are seeing a solid open interest in the positions and calls, with the commercial activity that exceeds the levels observed during a price rally driven by the launch of two presidential memecs on the network. Bybit and Block Scholes said that stable levels of freshly opened sales options in the Solana network suggest that investors are strategically buying to cover long profitable positions in other financial instruments.

As for Bitcoin, current data show few changes in the options market during the past week, except for the expiration and reopening of operations with a short date.

“Short tenor options are operated with less volatility and neutral bias, while volatility smiles with a longer date are operated with greater expectations of volatility and persistently bullish bias towards OTM calls, as they have done for great part of the period after the election “, the report explained.

Meanwhile, the Bitcoin options market recorded the negotiation volume of a single higher day for the calls this month, reaching $ 250 million during the decrease in the spot price. However, volatility has continued to decrease in terms made and implicit since then.