Bitcoin traders load up on bearish bets all the way down to $52,000
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- Bitcoin traders purchased heavy volumes of short- and near-dated put options on Deribit across expirations from June 22 to July 31, with strikes as low as $52,000, per data tracked by Laevitas
- Notable Deribit flows included 314 contracts of July 31 $52,000 puts, 540 contracts of July 10 $55,000 puts, 380 contracts of July 3 $55,000 puts, 116 contracts of July 3 $60,000 puts, and 337 contracts of June 22 $61,500 puts
- Strategy, the largest publicly listed bitcoin holder, faces mounting pressure as its STRC preferred stock plunged to record lows well below its $100 par value, complicating its BTC accumulation strategy
- Arca CIO Jeff Dorman said Strategy faces a stark choice: sell enormous amounts of BTC and MSTR to lift STRC back near par and buy time, or watch every part of its cap structure melt
- Bitcoin traded near $62,400, down 0.8% since midnight UTC, after hitting highs near $67,000 earlier this week
- The bearish flow is driven by a hawkish Federal Reserve bolstering the U.S. dollar alongside persistent outflows from spot bitcoin ETFs
Why it matters: With BTC already sliding from $67,000 to $62,400, options traders are hedging for roughly a 17% further drop to $52,000 by late July — a strike level that would represent a far more severe breakdown than current spot action implies. Strategy's STRC preferred stock collapse below par adds structural risk to the market's largest corporate BTC accumulator, since a forced response to defend STRC could ripple into selling pressure on spot bitcoin.
