In a Lethargic Bitcoin Market, BTC $110K Option Play Emerges as Top Trading Strategy

Bitcoin BTC$89,519.88 has been relatively listless this month, hunching below $100,000. However, this hasn't deterred traders from continuing to bet bullishly on the leading cryptocurrency.

This month's most preferred options play has been buying the $110,000 call expiring on March 28, with buyers paying a cumulative net premium of over $6 million for the bullish exposure, according to the Deribit options flow tracked by Amberdata.

A call option gives the buyer the right but not the obligation to purchase the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a specific date. A call buyer is implicitly bullish on the market, while a put buyer is bearish, looking to hedge downside risks.

"Looking at the month-to-date flows for on-screen traders… the buying of March $110K calls has been the most active trade," Greg Magadini, director of derivatives at Amberdata, said in a note shared with CoinDesk.

Bitcoin has mostly traded within a narrow range of $95,000 to $100,000 this month. The bulls have had some positive developments to chew on, like the continued accumulation by MicroStrategy and Abu Dhabi's recent reveal of a $436 million investment in the bitcoin ETFs.

However, renewed macroeconomic headwinds, highlighted by last week's hotter U.S. inflation data and frequent liquidity drains caused by the boom-bust cycles of memecoins and other small-cap tokens, appear to be capping the upside potential.

Over the weekend, a token called LIBRA zoomed to a market cap of over $4 billion, only to erase 90% of that within minutes. Argentina's President, Xavier Milei, initially promoted the coin late Friday but backtracked in a few hours, causing a controversy that has him facing legal issues in his home country.

"Some bullish headlines hit for BTC last week, but that didn't materialize into any real spike higher for spot prices," Magadini said, referring to Abu Dhabi's investment.

"Combine this news with bearish memecoin market drag (a source of bearish headlines) such as the $Libra drop, pump-fun mania and growing supply of alts [altcoins] and I see this market in stand-still. Together, this reinforces my 'sideways' market, lower volatility market thesis," Magadini added.