Highlights
- On-chain data from Santiment indicates that Binance traders are opening new short positions.
- Bitcoin options worth $1.12 billion are set to expire, with a put/call ratio of 1.17.
- BlackRock’s IBIT continues to see substantial inflows, amassing over 325,000 BTC in just six months.
With a more than 20% rally in the last two weeks from the lows of $53,500, the Bitcoin price seems to taking a breather at this point. Bitcoin is facing another partial retracement dropping by 1% in the last 24 hours and moving closer to $64,000. On-chain data shows Binance traders opening fresh short positions for Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Short Positions Building Up
On-chain data provider Santiment stated that there’s a significant drop in the positive commentary surrounding Bitcoin despite a mid-sized bounce in the market this week. As per the Santiment data, there’s a 66% drop in Bitcoin-positive comments from four months before. As a result, many Binance traders have opened up new short positions anticipating another BTC price correction.
However, Santiment believes that these factors combined could actually increase the likelihood of a BTC price surge. It notes that the counterintuitive nature of market sentiment often plays a crucial role in price movements, hinting at a potential upswing for Bitcoin in the near future.
Interestingly, the recent price rally has also given BTC miners the opportunity to offload some of their holdings. Just as the BTC price rallied past $60,000, miners have reportedly offloaded nearly 2,000 BTC.
On the other hand, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju has highlighted a significant decline in Bitcoin retail investor demand, which has reached a three-year low. This metric is measured by the 30-day change in total transfer volume for transactions under $10,000. However, as reported, Bitcoin institutional players have been active throughout 2024 leading to 100K weekly inflows via OTC Desks.
BTC Options Expiry and ETF Inflows
As per data from the derivatives trading platform Deribit, Bitcoin options worth $1.12 billion are set to expire later today with a put/call ratio of 1.17 and a max pain point of $62,000. A high put-call ratio (above 1) signifies bearish sentiment, indicating that investors are more inclined to purchase put options, likely anticipating a market downturn.
On the other hand, inflows into spot BTC ETFs have continued with BlackRock’s IBIT clearly leading the trend. On Thursday, July 18, the total inflows into US Bitcoin ETFs stood at $84 million with IBIT alone seeing over $100 million inflows. In the last ten trading sessions, BlackRock’s IBIT has registered over $1.1 billion in inflows. So far, IBIT has amassed 325,000+ BTC in just six months of launch.
