Analysis: Options market braces for BTC downside

Options traders are increasingly positioning for a near-term BTC pullback even as U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs drew $754 million in net inflows in the first week of August, CoinDesk reported. Over the past 24 hours, 53.8% of BTC options trading volume was in put options, or bearish bets, and most of the most actively traded contracts were puts with strike prices of $62,000 to $63,000. At the same time, 60.7% of total open interest remained in call options, or bullish bets, suggesting longer-term upside expectations still dominate while hedging against short-term downside risk has increased ahead of the July U.S. employment report. Luke Deans, senior research analyst at Bitwise, said the market appears to expect limited volatility for now, but thin trading means even a small increase in buying or selling could move BTC more sharply than expected. Deans added that a lack of price movement does not mean the market is risk-free.