📍Retail leverages into Bitcoin options – the market enters a distressing noise zone
📌Retail investor options trading has risen to ~22% of total volume, nearly double that of 2022. Both call and put options have increased -> this is a bet on short-term volatility.
📌Thin order book, high gamma. Prices remain elevated but trading liquidity is weak. Retail increasing options positions forces market makers to hedge quickly -> volatility is amplified, making it very easy to sweep both sides.
📌Volatility comes from political shocks – tariffs, trade retaliation – rather than from the inherent characteristics of the crypto market. US-EU trade tensions elevate policy risk. This type of instability directly impacts implied volatility, causing put demand to swell and skew to distort.
📌Retail options explosions often occur during periods of sideways accumulation. Large liquidations typically follow. $BTC
