I noticed that the major Bitcoin players are doing something interesting in the derivatives market. They are buying a lot of put options with a strike of $60 thousand or less, mainly with expiration dates of 6 months to 1 year. Basically, it's a defensive bet, like insurance against drops.

What catches attention is that open interest in these put options has already reached approximately $1.5 billion on Deribit, the highest volume among all strikes and expirations. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is around $78 thousand now, but the 30-day implied volatility of put options is about 7% higher than that of call options. This shows that the market is really concerned about a possible decline.

It seems that ETF holders and treasuries are seeing risk signals and are protecting themselves. The preference for put options instead of leaving the position uncovered says a lot about the current sentiment. It could be a good hint that not everyone is as confident as it seems.