First Mover Americas: Options Coming to Bitcoin ETFs Is a Big Deal
The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for November 19, 2024.
Updated Nov 19, 2024, 1:03 p.m. Published Nov 19, 2024, 1:03 p.m.
This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter, putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.
Latest Prices
CoinDesk 20 Index: 2,975.88 +1.3%
Bitcoin (BTC): $92,456.36 +2.06%
Ether (ETH): $3,144.77 +2.37%
S&P 500: 5,893.62 +0.39%
Gold: $2,636.70 +0.85%
Nikkei 225: 38,414.43 +0.51%
Top Stories
Bitcoin (BTC) is changing hands around $92,000, just 2% below record prices ahead of Tuesday's U.S. session. The largest crypto has advanced 2% over the past 24 hours, outperforming the 1.1% gain in the broad-market benchmark, the CoinDesk 20 Index. Native tokens of Chainlink (LINK), Hedera (HBAR) and Uniswap (UNI) led gains among the biggest altcoins as traders expect broader institutional adoption and less regulatory headwinds for crypto from a Trump administration. Crypto hedge fund QCP anticipates BTC attempting a run to $100,000 in the coming months, with traders rotating those gains into altcoins. "We won't be surprised to see altcoin season in full swing in the coming months,” QCP said. Still, there's a chance of a near-term blow-off top — a rapid drop following a rapid gain — as markets remain frothy, Augustine Fan, head of insights at SOFA, warned.
Bitcoin ETF options trading in the U.S. is expected to start today. Options on BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ETF cleared the last regulatory hurdle on Monday, and they could bring more institutional appetite for the largest cryptocurrency. "This marks a monumental shift," 10x Research said in a Tuesday newsletter. The products "could attract significant trading volumes, potentially driving sharp price rallies in bitcoin," it said. For example, MicroStrategy (MSTR), the Nasdaq-listed company that owns the largest corporate BTC treasury in the world, is punching above its weight due to the booming market in its share options. MSTR options open interest surpasses the firm's market capitalization, while the stock's trading volume levels with Apple's and Microsoft's, companies with around a 40-times larger market value. A similar explosion in open interest and trading volume could happen with BTC, which could be accelerated due to bitcoin's supply limit, 10x Research noted.
Bitcoin mining economics improved in the first half of November, JPMorgan analysts said in a report. The hashprice, which measures miners' profitability, rose nearly 30% in the first two weeks of the month as the BTC price climbed to record highs. Rising profitability benefited the 14 U.S.-listed miners tracked by the bank, adding about $8 billion to their combined market capitalization. U.S.-based miners' share of the network hashrate remains at record highs, accounting for about 28% of the global network.
Chart of the Day
- The chart shows daily active addresses on prominent blockchains.
- Solana is well ahead of the pack, supporting the case for SOL outperformance ahead while Near Protocol is a distant second.
- Source: Artemis
- Omkar Godbole
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Krisztian Sandor
Krisztian Sandor recently graduated from NYU's business and economic reporter program as a Fulbright fellow and worked with Reuters and Forbes previously. Originally from Budapest, Hungary, he is now based in New York. He holds BTC and ETH.
Omkar Godbole
Omkar Godbole is a Co-Managing Editor on CoinDesk's Markets team based in Mumbai, holds a masters degree in Finance and a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) member. Omkar previously worked at FXStreet, writing research on currency markets and as fundamental analyst at currency and commodities desk at Mumbai-based brokerage houses. Omkar holds small amounts of bitcoin, ether, BitTorrent, tron and dot.
