The involvement does not end there. According to Imran Lakha, founder of Options Insights, dealers have “net long gamma exposure” in excess of $70,000. This means that traders, striving to maintain neutral exposure to the market while making money on the bid-ask spread, would short or sell at strength above 70,000 to remain neutral or covered.
“That hedge acts as a brake, limiting how fast BTC can run once it gets there,” Lakha said, adding that ether (ETH) is not as exposed to trader gamma dynamics and can rip off much faster.
Bitcoin recently changed hands near $64,100, down almost 1% since midnight UTC. Other major cryptocurrencies, including ether, XRP (XRP), and solana (SOL), suffered similar losses, while Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 0.5%.
“As always, there is a risk of a sudden sell-off amid shocks to financial markets, which could send BTC or global stock indices into a tailspin, but waiting for such moments is a thankless task,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro. “Under such conditions, buying into a calm market at less than half of peak levels seems a perfectly reasonable tactic for the coming days or weeks.”
Stay alert!
Read more: For an analysis of current activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today. For a complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
