Ether Options Indicate Bullish Market Sentiment for End of April

The options market appears to have taken more bullish positions in the largest cohort of ether open interest options by expiration date, contracts expiring in late April. Some $3.3 billion in notional ether options set to expire, Deribit says dataand about two-thirds of that amount was placed on calls or bullish price bets.

“The bids are between $3,700 and $4,000, which shows an upward bias and underlying bullish sentiment in the market,” Wintermute OTC trader Jake Ostrovskis told The Block.

The Wintermute analyst added that the current open interest bias shows that calls are trading at a premium to puts, while implied volatility jumped over the weekend. “Overall, this indicates a more directional bias and less reliance on option writing to fund premiums,” Ostrovskis added.

The put-call ratio is bullish

According to Deribit data, ether’s put-call ratio for end-April expiration is currently 0.45, which is a slightly more bullish position than Bitcoin options, which have a put-call ratio of 0 .48.

“I think this is because traders are seeing the relative value of ether, which has underperformed its larger counterpart so far in 2024,” Ostrovskis added.

A put-call ratio less than one indicates that call volume exceeds put volume, signifying bullish sentiment in the market. It is assumed that a trader who buys call options is implicitly bullish on the market, while a put buyer is bearish.

Zooming out, the put-call ratio of ether on Deribit for all expirations on Monday fell to 0.4, a low not seen since late February, according to The Block’s data dashboard,

However, Ostrovskis added that the perceived negative impacts of regulatory changes on Ether still pose an overhang for the digital asset.

“It appears the SEC is still waging a campaign to classify it as a security, alongside the market’s view that the chance of an ETF being approved by June 30, 2024 is only 17%. Even the “Last week’s report that the SEC is seeking comment on spot ether ETFs, a trigger that should have been well received by the market, appears to have been ignored,” he said.

Ether is up about 6.8% over the past 24 hours and was changing hands for $3,645 as of 11:14 a.m. ET, according to The Block’s price page.

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