Glassnode: Defensive sentiment in the Bitcoin options market cools down, with demand for short-term bearish hedging declining

Deep Tide TechFlow message: On July 24, Glassnode released Bitcoin options market data indicating that defensive sentiment in the Bitcoin options market is cooling. The open interest put/call ratio has rapidly fallen from about 0.76 in late June to about 0.52, suggesting that the share of bullish options open interest has increased. As the Bitcoin price stabilizes around $67k, defensive positioning has started to unwind.

Meanwhile, at-the-money implied volatility remains compressed overall: the 1-week tenor is about 34.3% and the 6-month tenor about 40.8%. The term structure remains upward-sloping, indicating that market pricing for short-term event risk has declined, while some premium for medium- to long-term uncertainty is still retained.

In addition, the 25Delta skew on the front end has fallen notably: the 1-week tenor drops to about 4%, while the 3- to 6-month tenors remain in the 11% to 12% range. This means demand for short-term downside hedging is weakening, but medium- to long-term options still retain a certain defensive premium.