(Bloomberg) Bitcoin traded up nearly 4% on Thursday, leading gains in cryptocurrencies as investors waited for the final “witching” event for the first half of the year.
Ethereum also recovered, with an almost 6% jump on Thursday as gains were registered across the board.
The gains in cryptocurrencies come ahead of the “witching,” event which occurs on Friday. The event is characterized by twin expiries of the weekly options and the futures.
Ainsley To, Gordon Grant, and Noelle Acheson of Genesis say that options open interest on Deribit shows more than $2 billion in notional for Bitcoin and $1 billion for Ether options. He says the witching marks the largest on-exchange expiry by margins of minus 39% and 33% of total open interest for BTC and ETH options, respectively.
Genesis further adds that the expiring Bitcoin options are mainly puts for strikes at the current price levels or around $20,000. Ether options have a comparable concentration of around a $1,000 strike.
The renewed gains in crypto come when the markets are under pressure following continued economic tightening. Turbulence has also been heightened by the rising collapse of protocols and crypto funds.
Genesis says that the “witching” event can potentially influence crypto’s price action. The analysts said that it could occur if Bitcoin and Ether are right around levels with a high concentration of options.
BTCUSD is up +3.88%, ETHUSD is up +5.86%.
