The options market indicates a growing bullish sentiment for ether as the largest cohort of ether options open interest approaches the end-of-April expiry date. According to data from Deribit, approximately $3.3 billion of notional ether options are set to expire, with roughly two-thirds of that amount placed on calls, reflecting bullish bets on price.
Wintermute OTC Trader Jake Ostrovskis noted that call strikes are clustered between $3,700 – $4,000, indicating an upside bias and underlying bullish sentiment in the market. He further explained that the current open interest skew shows calls trading at a premium to puts, with implied volatility experiencing an increase over the weekend, suggesting more directional bias and less reliance on writing options to finance premiums.
The ether put-call ratio for the end of April expiry is currently 0.45, slightly more bullish compared to bitcoin options. Ostrovskis attributed this to traders seeing relative value in ether, which has underperformed its larger counterpart so far in 2024.
Despite the positive sentiment, concerns remain regarding regulatory changes impacting ether. Ostrovskis highlighted the SEC’s campaign to potentially categorize ether as a security and the low probability of an ETF approval by June 30th, 2024. Additionally, recent reports of the SEC soliciting comments on spot ether ETFs have been met with market skepticism.
Ether saw a 6.8% increase in the past 24 hours, trading at $3,645 at 11:14 a.m. ET, according to The Block’s Price Page.