Options traders have lowered their expectations for Bitcoin’s (BTC) recovery.
Call options that expect Bitcoin’s price to reach $70,000 U.S. are currently the most popular on Wall Street, with open interest of $1.63 billion U.S., according to market data.
The new $70,000 U.S. call option is down from $80,000 U.S. a week ago and about 9% higher than where Bitcoin is currently trading.
A call option is a bet that an asset’s price will rise over a set period of time. A put option is a bet that an asset’s price will decline.
Over the past six months, $80,000 U.S. had been the most popular bet among options traders on Wall Street. But now, traders appear to be lowering their expectations for Bitcoin.
At the same time, the $60,000 U.S. put option remains the most popular bearish bet for BTC and represents a possible floor for the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Essentially, Wall Street now sees Bitcoin trading in a range of $60,000 U.S. to $70,000 U.S., down from a range of $60,000 U.S. to $80,000 U.S. over the previous six months.
The diminished expectations for Bitcoin come as the cryptocurrency has traded in a range of $60,000 U.S. to $65,000 U.S. since the end of June.
The price of BTC had fallen as low as $58,000 U.S. in mid-June of this year, its low for the year.
Bitcoin hit an all-time high of just over $126,000 U.S. at the start of October last year. Since then, the price has been cut nearly in half with BTC currently trading at $63,800 U.S.
