As the United States faces an ongoing debt ceiling crisis, Bitcoin (BTC) options market reveals a bias towards weakness over the next six months, an occurrence that hasn’t been witnessed since early March. The six-month call-put skew, a metric comparing investors’ willingness to pay for bullish calls and bearish puts expiring in 180 days, has dropped to its lowest point since March 13 at -1. This information is derived from the prominent cryptocurrency options exchange Deribit, which obtains data from Amberdata.
A put option, as opposed to a call option, is a type of option that rises in value as the underlying asset’s price decreases. This grants the option holder the ability, but not the obligation, to sell an asset at a specific price on a predetermined date, making it possible to bet against the asset that the put option follows. Investors are currently showing a preference for put options for one-week, one-month, and three-month timeframes.
This inclination towards put options aligns with recent trends in the S&P 500 market, where traders are paying a premium for put volatility. It is possible that both crypto and traditional market traders are hedging against the risks of the US debt ceiling, taking into account Congress’s struggle to raise the $31.4 trillion borrowing limit while nearing the October 18th deadline for the government to run out of money to satisfy its obligations.
The growing uncertainty surrounding the debt ceiling negotiations has taken a toll on the bond market, with the one-month yield climbing to a record-breaking 6%. Concurrently, the 10-year yield has surged by more than 30 basis points, hitting 3.76% – the highest level in over two months. The US dollar’s appeal as a safe haven has resulted in a 10% monthly appreciation, pushing the dollar index beyond 104.00, while Bitcoin’s price fell by 10% to $26,260.
Recent minutes from the Federal Reserve’s early May meeting, released on Wednesday, strengthen expectations for a rate hike in November. According to crypto services provider Matrixport’s head of research and strategy, Markus Thielen, the macroeconomic landscape still takes precedence. Thielen advises investors to keep a close eye on the 10-year Treasury yield, stating that Bitcoin’s price has fallen by 1,000 points since the yield climbed back above 3.5% on May 15, 2023. He also suggests that investors wait for the yields to lose momentum on the upside before making a return to cryptocurrencies.
Source: Coindesk
