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The S&P 500 has barely moved in five days, but crypto assets are gaining some momentum in the background. Bitcoin jumped on Tuesday to hit its highest level since mid-June.
Could this be the comeback crypto bulls have been waiting almost a year for? Options traders in stocks tied to the digital asset class seem to think so, piling into calls in the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), Michael Saylor’s Strategy, and most of all – trading platform operator Coinbase Global.
Coinbase shares in the past day
Shares of Coinbase rallied roughly 11% to trade around $178 Tuesday after dipping below $150 earlier this month, a level the stock has tested and held multiple times since early 2024. Options flows in the stock were resoundingly bullish, with more than 114,000 calls traded versus just under 50,000 puts. More calls were bought than sold, with more than four times as many calls bought versus puts.
More than $100 million in options premium on Coinbase traded by midday Tuesday, with $80 million tied to call contracts, according to data from SpotGamma. The most popular contract by volume was the 190-strike call expiring Friday, a trade that needs a 7.5% rally to pay off.
Options in Robinhood Markets mirrored the bullishness in Coinbase. Of the 170,000 total contracts traded on the brokerage stock, 125,000 were calls, with six times as many calls bought as puts bought, according to data from ThinkOrSwim.
Bullish bets on the brokers are most likely to pay off if crypto prices recover, and options flows around bitcoin ETF IBIT suggest that could be the case. In that fund, more than twice as many calls were bought than puts, though more calls were sold than bought, suggesting a more neutral-to-bullish outlook.
One point of possible relief for bitcoin bulls: Traders bought twice as many calls as puts in Strategy, the bitcoin treasury company that’s down more than 75% in the past year and arguably a main source of crypto strife.
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