On Tuesday, bitcoin (BTC) options on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) showed the strongest bullish sentiment since Donald Trump’s November 5 election victory.
Traders sought to buy calls or options that offered asymmetric upside exposure, pushing the bias up to 4.4%, the most since early November, according to data tracked by digital asset index provider CF Benchmarks.
Skewness is the difference in implied volatility between calls and puts, or options that offer downside protection, and positive values represent bullish sentiment.
“Thirty-day volatility at the top of the bitcoin options market has reached levels not seen since the November election results,” Thomas Erdösi, head of product at CF Benchmarks, told CoinDesk. “This reflects strong bullish sentiment, with traders actively positioning themselves for upside exposure across both short- and long-term maturities.”
Bitcoin’s price rose as much as 5%, briefly topping $106,000 on Tuesday, after buyers defended the $100,000 support level despite President Trump failing to mention the crypto or strategic bitcoin reserve in his inaugural address the day before.
The rejection was accompanied by renewed uptake for the US-listed spot ETFs, which recorded cumulative net inflows of $802 million, according to data from SoSoValue. BlackRock’s IBIT alone drew $661.8 million, helping to bolster bullish sentiment.
“ETF inflows continue their impressive accumulation streak, marking four consecutive days of significant inflows totaling over $3 billion for Bitcoin alone. Bitcoin ($802M) and Ethereum ($74M) are receiving robust institutional support, which may driving digital assets to new heights,” Valentin Fournier, an analyst at BRN, said in an email to CoinDesk.
Also, long-term holders — wallets with a history of holding coins for over 155 days — are scaling back their profit-taking activities, according to blockchain data tracking firm Glassnode.
“Looking ahead, it is possible that volatility levels may moderate slightly towards the end of the month, but we expect the bias to the upside is likely to remain, barring any surprising political developments. This is likely to provide continued upside price pressure for the foreseeable future,” said Erdösi.
