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The price of Bitcoin hit an all-time high on Monday as positive market factors converged. Meanwhile, ether options traders are paying hefty premiums on the asset’s potential to hit new records as well.
- Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $ 19,436 at 9:00 p.m. UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). 6.6% gain in the last 24 hours.
- 24 Hour Range of Bitcoin: $ 18,093 – $ 19,850
- BTC above its 10 and 50 day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians.
The price of Bitcoin hit an all-time high in the past 24 hours, trading as high as $ 19,850, according to data from CoinDesk 20. The price then fell and was $ 19,436 at the time of publication.
Read more: Bitcoin Price Sets New High Above $ 19,783
“Institutional inflows may have been a big part of the driving force behind this rally, but it is retail investors who have helped bitcoin gain momentum in recent weeks,” said Zac Prince, chief executive of the BlockFi crypto lender. “Our retail account balances have increased by over 25% over the past 30 days, compared to just under 10% for institutions,” he added.
Major spot exchanges, where retail clients casually buy the world’s oldest cryptocurrency, have seen a rise. The combined daily volume of Coinbase, Bitstamp, Kraken, Gemini and ItBit was $ 1.5 billion at the time of going to press on Monday, well above the average of $ 488 million for the past six months.
The steady rise in the price of bitcoin since Saturday followed a drop on a public holiday in the United States last week, bitcoin as low as $ 16,242 on Thursday. The $ 3,608 price gain over the past week shows just how volatile cryptocurrency can often be.
“Bitcoin investors sitting on the sidelines of this recent rally received a Thanksgiving gift as bitcoin fell from $ 19,500 to $ 16,300,” noted Jason Lau, COO of San Francisco-based OKCoin. “Derivatives liquidations led to the decline, with some derivatives exchanges losing more than 20% of open interest,” he added.
Indeed, the closeouts on the BitMEX derivatives exchange, while smaller from one location than they once were, clearly had an impact on Thursday’s drop ($ 10 million in sell-offs in an hour) and Monday’s hike ($ 4 million in liquidations in an hour). A liquidation on BitMEX is akin to a margin call where a long is sold or a short triggers a buy to close a position if it moves enough to clear the margin.
Bitcoin’s recent rise was not just down to retail investors. Rich Rosenblum, who heads trading at crypto firm GSR, noted how well the infrastructure is in place for institutions to invest compared to Bitcoin’s latest bull run in 2017.
“Trading, settlement and custody services are all much more sophisticated and mature, which builds trust,” he said. “The [Federal Reserve] continues to fuel the flames with its monetary strategy, which appears to remain in place for the coming year. With so much excess liquidity in the system, the initial investment case for bitcoin is justified. ”
Ether traders pay for bullish bets
The second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ether (ETH), rose $ 605 and 8.5% on Monday in 24 hours at 9:00 p.m. UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Read more: Launch of ‘Basis Cash’ brings defunct Stablecoin into the DeFi era
The put / call ratio of ether options on Deribit, the largest derivatives exchange in the crypto ecosystem, has tilted sharply in favor of calls in the past month. The put / call ratio indicates the number of puts, which are down-price option bets, versus calls, which are up-price option bets.
“Over the last month, when we look at the put / call ratio in terms of the premium traded, we can see an unusually high call-trading ratio,” notes Greg Magadini, CEO of Genesis Volatility.
The bullish activity is so strong that traders are handing out high premiums to make bullish bets on the ether, Magadini noted. “Traders quickly started paying higher prices for calls,” he told CoinDesk. “So much so that… the puts are 25 points of implied volatility cheaper. This level of differential is rare and quite extreme.“
The all-time high for ether is $ 1,432, according to data from CoinDesk 20.
Other markets
Digital assets on CoinDesk 20 are all green on Monday. Notable Winners at 9:00 p.m. UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
Read more: Canaan reports third quarter loss of $ 12 million, says there is ‘rebounding demand’
- Oil was down 0.80%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $ 45.20.
- Gold was in the red at 0.62% and $ 1,776 at time of release.
- The yield on 10-year US Treasuries climbed Monday, jumping to 0.846 and in the green at 0.77%.
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