Several large, deliberate trades hit the tape recently, building up this concentration of open interest at the $70,000 and $72,000 levels. Laevitas identified a large bullish call spread structure, which involves buying the $70,000 call and simultaneously selling the $72,000 call.
The bull call spread, as its name suggests, bets on a moderate increase in the prices of the underlying asset, in this case up to $72,000.
“The structure represents approximately 49% and 50% of the total call open interest on the $70,000 and $72,000 strikes, respectively,” Laevitas noted.
Other notable trades included calendar spreads, a strategy used to profit from volatility changes in near-term and short-term maturities.
Another trader or group of traders bought a large number of calls at $70,000, paying $3.4 million in premium to gain upside exposure.
Jimmy Yang, co-founder of Orbit Markets, an institutional digital asset liquidity provider, pointed to similar trades and said they have been fueled by Clarity Act optimism.
“Earlier this month, we saw decent demand for BTC top calls, with the July 31 $70,000 and $72,000 strikes being particularly popular. Much of this positioning was driven by expectations that the CLARITY Act could be passed before the end of the month,” Yang said.
