June 26, 2023

Bitcoin (BTC) has slid about 3% after rallying to a one-year high on Friday above $31,300, trading currently at $30,300. The crypto’s roughly 20% drive higher over the past 10 days began after asset management giant BlackRock filed to launch a spot bitcoin ETF, withanalysts suspecting that’s green-lit a move from large institutional investors to push further into the space. Making a big move higher on Monday morning is NEAR Protocol’s NEAR token, up 10% on the day and the top performing digital asset. The token climbed as the company’s foundation announced it would partner with Alibaba Cloud, the Chinese tech giant’s arm for computing and storage. 

Last week, ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) – a Bitcoin futures fund offered in the U.S. – recorded the highest weekly inflow in over a year as bitcoin prices breached the $30,000 level, according to Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas. BITO allows investors to gain exposure to bitcoin-linked returns with a regulated product and the latest holdings numbers show it holds over $1 billion worth of CME Bitcoin Futures. Investors poured $65 million into BITO in the past week, breaking a previous 2023 high of just over $40 million in April. The product did not see meaningful inflows in May and most of June alongside a retreat in the price of bitcoin.

Belgium's top markets regulator is ordering embattled crypto exchange Binance to immediately cease serving local customers, according to a Friday notice. The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) said Binance is "offering and providing exchange services in Belgium between virtual currencies and legal currencies, as well as custody wallet services, from countries that are not members of the European Economic Area," which the regulator says is in violation of a prohibition. "The FSMA has therefore ordered Binance to cease, with immediate effect, offering or providing any and all such services in Belgium," the notice said.

Bullish buzz returned to the crypto market last week as bitcoin (BTC), the leading cryptocurrency by market value, jumped more than 15% in its best weekly performance since March. Now a significant event looms on the horizon.

On Friday at 08:00 UTC some 150,633 bitcoin options contracts worth $4.57 billion, and 1.23 million ether contracts valued at $2.3 billion will expire on Panama-based Deribit exchange, which controls over 85% of global crypto options activity. The bitcoin contracts due for settlement account for 43% of the total open interest, according to Amberdata.

In bitcoin's case, investors have recently bought call options with strike prices at and above $30,000. As a result, that level has the highest open interest – or the number of active contracts – and market makers/dealers who create order book liquidity by taking the other side of the investors' trades hold a significant amount of "negative (short) gamma" exposure.