Has BTC peaked yet? Call Option Open Interest Rises and the Number of Whale Addresses Increases

Looking at the cycle of capital rotation between new and existing investors, at previous cycle peaks, short-term holders (<1 month) accumulated up to 53% to 66% of the total liquid capital in the bitcoin market. Currently, holders of less than one month hold 26% of the total realized market capitalization, while holders of less than one to two years hold 11%.

Meanwhile, the rise of futures options should not be ignored, even though this is a spot market. Open interest in BTC call options at the $80,000 and $100,000 strikes rose 12% in the past 24 hours, Bloomberg reported, citing AmberData. "Players affected by FOMO (the fear of being the only one left in the market) will soon jump in. It's not impossible that BTC will break $80,000 by the end of the month." "Unlike Tuesday, when the Binance futures funding rate spiked, the previous day's BTC gains were driven by the spot market," said CoinShares researcher Luke Nolan.

The whales are still buying. "Despite bitcoin's rally, the number of whale addresses holding more than 1,000 BTC has been on the rise," Cointelegraph reported, citing data from on-chain data resource LookIntoBitcoin. The data shows that as of March 7, the number of whale addresses holding more than 1,000 BTC continues to grow, with 2,104 as of local time. However, the number is still below the previous peak of 2,489 during the February 2021 bull run. "On-chain data also shows that whale addresses are not dumping BTC," Cointelegraph reports. US BTC spot ETFs continue to drive demand for BTC," Cointelegraph added. On CoinMarketCap, BTC is up 0.31% at $68,332.97.