Bitcoin drops after a run at $64,000, shrugging off Strategy's $213 million BTC sale
ARP Digital partner Yusuf Fakhro tells CoinDesk the institutional bid had thinned, with options skew near record highs as traders paid up for protection.
ARP Digital partner Yusuf Fakhro spoke to CoinDesk on 7 July about derivatives positioning as bitcoin recovered from a 21-month low.
Fakhro's reading was that the institutional bid had largely withdrawn, citing CME futures open interest at a 32-month low and a term structure at its tightest since early 2023. He pointed to six-month options skew — a measure of what traders pay to protect against a decline — having risen to its fourth-highest reading on record, with the only comparable instances in June and November 2022, both of which arrived near major cycle lows. His conclusion was that when downside insurance becomes this expensive, the market is paying for protection at the point where much of the risk may already be reflected in price.
