Bitcoin price has held quite steady above $30,000 this week after peaking at $31,400 during the weekend. In all, the coin has outperformed American indices like the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500. It has also done better than other assets like crude oil and gold. The fear and greed index has jumped to the greed zone of 59 while the VIX index has retreated.
Bitcoin options expiry
The next important Bitcoin news will be the upcoming options expiry scheduled for Friday this week. Data shows that thousands of Bitcoin options will expire on Friday. Most of these options are calls with a target price of almost $30,000. There are also thousands of Ethereum options expiring on Friday as well.
An option is a financial derivative that gives investors a right but not an obligation to buy or sell an asset. A call option gives them a chance to buy while a put option gives them a chance to sell the coin. Data compiled by CoinGlass shows that there are now over 276k Bitcoin calls compared to 143k puts. This gives it a call to put ratio of 1.9.
Therefore, with the price target of these options expiry being at $30k it means that the BTC price will remain in a tight range in the foreseeable future. More volatility will happen before and after the options expiry period.
The news comes at a time when Bitcoin price has jumped in the past few days. The main reason for this performance is the recent application for a Bitcoin spot ETF by companies like Blackrock and Invesco. Therefore, as I predicted last week, Bitcoin could have more upside if it moves above the year-to-date high of $31,400.
Impact on other altcoins
Bitcoin’s price action will have an impact on other altcoins like Compound, Stellar, Hedera Hashgraph, and Monero. Indeed, all these tokens have jumped by more than 5% in the past 24 hours.
Historically, altcoins like COMP, Arbitrum, and Hedera Hashgraph tends to move in tandem with Bitcoin. Therefore, there is a likelihood that the coins will have some volatility ahead and after Bitcoin’s and Ethereum’s options expiry on Friday.
Interestingly, Bitcoin price is having bullish technicals. As shown below, the coin is hovering near the highest point this year. It has formed a bullish flag pattern, which is a positive sign. Therefore, a move above the key resistance point at $31,000 will point to a high of $35,000.
Read More: Bitcoin Options Expiry Bodes Well for Hedera, Stellar, Monero, IOTA, Compound