Options Traders Show Little Confidence in Bitcoin Hitting $ 10,000 This Year

Until now, cryptocurrency traders seemed unconvinced in bitcoin, the flagship cryptocurrency, going back up to $ 10,000 this year, according to data from the Skew analysis firm, which tracks the data about future and bitcoin options.

For its founder, Emmanuel Goh, bitcoin exchange options have doubled since the beginning of the year and are now selling at $ 10 million a day. The options allow investors to bet on the fact that the price of the BTC will reach a specific level at a given moment, and current data shows that traders are not betting on a bullish rally of 2019.

By Goh, they place a 5% – 4 delta – change on the BTC reaching $ 10,000 by September. He told MarketWatch:

We have a September deadline of $ 10,000, the price of which is currently 5 delta.

According to media reports, a $ 20,000 call option matures within three months. These options give their holders the right, but not the obligation, to purchase their underlying asset at a specified price on a given date.

Per Goh, this trade was probably a "bullish trade established last year, while investors were still discussing the possibility of reaching new highs in the short term." According to option traders, the probability of bitcoin trading at $ 20,000 over three months is essentially zero.

The price of bitcoin has recovered since it reached a low of about $ 3,200 in December last year. The one-year bear market that saw it drop from a record high of nearly $ 20,000 to its lowest level seems to be over, even though the recovery has been slow.

At the time of the press, bitcoin is trading near the $ 4,100 mark, down 0.3% in the past 24 hours. The market capitalization of the flagship cryptocurrency is $ 72.2 billion.

While Goh noted that trades on options over $ 10,000 had "little action in recent times," he noted that a large transaction could trigger "many more transactions," with transactions at risk of to scramble to cover the bets they had placed.