Market: Bitcoin hovers around $ 34,200, while options traders pay for a possible ETH surge

After a record day in cash volume, the price of bitcoin rose, fell and rose again. Meanwhile, most ether options traders are pessimistic, some are paying if they come close to high records.

Bitcoin’s price had a day of ups and downs, going as high as $ 36,605 around 08:00 UTC (3h ET), dropping to $ 32,528 around 14:30 UTC (9h ET) and returning to $ 34,278 press time.

Andrew Tu, an executive at quant trading company Efficient Frontier, sees the $ 36,000 price level as “resistance”, an area where pessimistic traders seem prepared to push the bitcoin sell button. “At the moment, the bulls are challenging the $ 36,000 resistance. It failed to exceed $ 36,600 in the early afternoon hours in Asia, ”Tu told CoinDesk. “When the east coast of the United States woke up, the market started bidding the price up again.”

Monday’s bitcoin spot volumes were the highest ever seen since CoinDesk 20 data on eight major spot exchanges began to be recorded. A surprising volume of $ 13.3 billion was traded on Monday, the highest since December 22, 2017, when volumes reached $ 9.7 billion.

Still, spot volumes were much lower on Tuesday, at $ 5.1 billion at the time of this publication.

“There is likely to be a battle to overcome this $ 36,000- $ 36,600 range,” said Andrew Tu of Efficient Frontier.

Volume will likely play an important role in this battle, given the blockbuster’s local currency activity at the opening of the week. However, this was due to the high volume of sales, which caused the oldest cryptocurrency in the world to drop 20% in 24 hours.

Read More: Bitcoin whales continued to accumulate during Monday’s crash

“Bitcoin peaked at $ 42,000 just before a weekend,” said David Russell, vice president of market intelligence at trading technology company TradeStation. “The volume dries up when institutional investors are absent and other markets are closed. This left bitcoin hanging in the air, with no buyers to back it up. “

In the bitcoin options market, traders seem to like the chances of a $ 30,000 price for 1 BTC due on January 21. Market-based odds have a 62% chance of bitcoin above $ 30,000 up to that date, a 55% chance of $ 32,000 and 47% expect the oldest cryptocurrency in the world to be $ 34,000 towards the end of the month.

“Bitcoin is a volatile asset,” said TradeStation’s Russell. “You can’t expect anything to double in a few weeks and not back down.”

Read More: As Bitcoin recovers, options traders are betting on a move of $ 52,000 in late January

Michael Gord, CEO of trading company Global Digital Asset, said he expects institutions to continue collecting bitcoin, which can help sustain the asset at a price of $ 30,000 or more. “I think we are going to see a big resurgence as the big brands start to secure their treasure in the blockchain.” he said.

Ether (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, rose on Tuesday, trading around $ 1,085 and rising 6% in 24 hours from 21:00 UTC (4:00 pm ET).

On Monday, the premium amount traded on the Deribit ether options market strongly favored call options, which give owners the right, but not the obligation, to buy an asset at a given price. The all-time spot price for Ether is $ 1,448, according to data from CoinDesk 20.

While the ether options market strongly favors strikes below ETH’s $ 800 spot price point, 68% of call premiums paid on Monday are apparently from traders looking to avoid any risk of another ether parabolic increase , according to Genesis Volatility data aggregator investor note on Tuesday.

“Option traders are willing to pay a lot more for ETH’s bullish options exposure than for its bearish exposure,” wrote Genesis. “This activity indicates that traders see an asymmetry in price volatility, also known as ‘crash up risk’ and FOMO sentiment.”

The digital assets in CoinDesk 20 are all green on Tuesday. Notable winners from 21:00 UTC (16:00 ET):

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