Will We Hold?

Bitcoin is working on defending the $92k level at this time of writing, as US markets head into close for the day. The range of $92k to $94k began yesterday, and looks set to continue. Both long and short traders have been liquidated this week from the market moving against their positions, with longs taking their turn today. 

Funding rates on BTC are mixed across venues, as market participants try and decipher what direction the market is heading in. In looking at options markets, we see traders taking positions in puts for the 26DEC25 BTC expiry today, with nearly 500+ contracts in volume on strikes from $92k down to $80k for the end of the year on Deribit. Volatility is slightly cheaper on puts for the end of the year, but we do see volume coming into calls slightly above the $100k strike. A combination of good macro and the Santa Rally will reward those positioning themselves in this manner, potentially.

ETH finally broke through $3,200 last night for the first time since mid-November, as excitement around the Fusaka upgrade brought some buzz to the Ethereum ecosystem. The second order effects for layer 2’s from Fusaka could bring some much needed momentum into the end of the year. Funding rates on perpetual futures remain mixed for ETH, with negative annualized rates on some centralized exchanges, to positive rates on decentralized exchanges. These ranging markets have presented great opportunities for arbitrage traders. 

ETH end of year options are seeing heavy flows into calls between the $3,500 to $4,100 strikes today, with thousands of contracts being traded on Deribit. There are still several traders buying puts across the $2,400 to $2,700 strike range, looking to protect themselves heading into the end of the year.