Bitcoin's bounce fails to convince options traders

Crypto Daybook Americas Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Bitcoin's bounce fails to convince options traders Your day-ahead look for Feb. 26, 2026 By Omkar Godbole | Edited by Sheldon Reback Feb 26, 2026, 12:15 p.m. Make us preferred on Google (Midjourney/Modified by CoinDesk) What to know : You are viewing Crypto Daybook Americas, your morning briefing on what happened in the crypto markets overnight and what's expected during the coming day. Crypto Daybook Americas will kickstart your morning with comprehensive insights. If you're not already subscribed to the email, click here . You won't want to start your day without it. By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) Bitcoin's BTC $ 68,056.93 price bounce sparked optimism on social media, with X users declaring the bottom is in and a new rally is underway. Options market activity, however, reveals savvy traders remain skeptical, hedging against the risk of a potential slide below $60,000. "While the bounce triggered some call buying in the $85,000 to $90,000 strikes, downside skew remains more elevated than upside, suggesting caution," Sidrah Fariq, head of retail at Deribit, told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat. The demand for call options, or bullish bets, indicates that bitcoin's Wednesday bounce to $70,000 has some traders chasing upside. However, skew, which measures prices for calls relative to puts, remains negative across all time frames. It shows that traders remain worried about price drops and are still seeking puts for downside protection. Underlying that theme, on Deribit, the $60,000 put remains the most popular position, with notional open interest (OI) of $1.48 billion. In contrast, the most popular call option, the $90,000 strike, has OI of $1.12 billion. Clearly, the overall positioning remains bearish. That said, there could be some consolidation, as dealer positioning — net exposure of those who make markets by providing liquidity — has flipped positive between $60,000 and $70,000. This means dealers could buy low and sell high to maintain a net-neutral exposure, capping swings as they do so. "Dealer positioning has shifted to neutral to slightly positive gamma, suggesting compressed volatility and range-bound price action," Fariq said. Other analysts are looking at the $74,000-$75,000 range as the level to beat for confirming a renewed uptrend. Bitcoin was recently trading near $68,500, up 4.6% on the day, while the broader market posted bigger gains, as evidenced by the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index's 5.8% advance. Ether (ETH) has risen over 8%, and XRP (XRP) and solana (SOL) both rose more than 6%. In traditional markets, futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were little changed despite the AI giant Nvidia (NVDA) posting a blowout fourth-quarter earnings report. Gold and the Dollar Index ticked higher as investors awaited details on the U.S.-Iran talks scheduled for later in the day. Stay alert! Read more: For analysis of today's activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today What to Watch For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's " Crypto Week Ahead ". Crypto Nothing scheduled. Macro Feb. 26, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. initial jobless claims for week ending Feb. 21 (Prev. 206K) Feb. 26, 10:00 a.m.: U.S. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data) Feb. 26: American Bitcoin (ABTC), pre-market, $0.01 Feb. 26: MARA Holdings (MARA), post-market, -$0.11 Feb 26: TeraWulf (WULF), post-market, -$0.15 Feb. 26: Figure Technologies (FIGR), post-market,$0.20 Feb. 26: Sui Group (SUIG), post-market, $0.01 Feb. 26: Block (XYZ), post-market, $0.49 Token Events For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's " Crypto Week Ahead ". Governance votes & calls Feb. 26: Lido DAO to host a tokenholder update call. Feb. 26: Maple Finance to host an investor call. Unlock DAO is voting to delegate 2,000,000 UP from the treasury to seven active community members to reliably secure quorum on future proposals. Voting ends Feb. 26. Unlocks Nothing scheduled. Token Launches Feb. 26: FET $ 0.1658 and Injective INJ $ 3.2237 to be listed on OKX. Conferences For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's " Crypto Week Ahead ". Day 4 of 4: Strategy World 2026 (Las Vegas) Day 3 of 4: GFTN Forum Japan (Tokyo) Market Movements BTC is down 0.52% from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $68,590.57 (24hrs: +4.67%) ETH is down 1.16% at $2,075.97 (24hrs: +8.36%) CoinDesk 20 is down 1.27% at 2,011.66 (24hrs: +5.83%) Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 2 bps at 2.85% BTC funding rate is at 0.0005% (0.5595% annualized) on Binance DXY is unchanged at 97.75 Gold futures are down 0.41% at $5,204.60 Silver futures are down 3.98% at $87.99 Nikkei 225 closed up 0.29% at 58,753.39 Hang Seng closed down 1.44% at 26,381.02 FTSE is up 0.17% at 10,824.61 Euro Stoxx 50 is up 0.25% at 6,188.91 DJIA closed on Wednesday up 0.63% at 49,482.15 S&P 500 closed up 0.81% at 6,946.13 Nasdaq Composite closed up 1.26% at 23,152.08 S&P/TSX Composite closed up 0.46% at 34,127.33 S&P 40 Latin America closed up 0.68% at 3,826.41 U.S. 10-Year Treasury rate is up 0.4 bps at 4.052% E-mini S&P 500 futures are unchanged at 6,958.75 E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are unchanged at 25,380.75 E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are down 0.13% at 49,471.00 Bitcoin Stats BTC Dominance: 58.55% (+0.12%) Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.03023 (-0.12%) Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,058 EH/s Hashprice (spot): $29.79 Total fees: 2.91 BTC / $194,801 CME Futures Open Interest: 112,135 BTC BTC priced in gold: 13.2 oz. BTC vs gold market cap: 4.57% Technical Analysis BTC's weekly price chart. (TradingView) The chart shows bitcoin's weekly price swings in candlestick format since mid-2024. While prices have bounced strongly this week, they remain well below the $73,000-$74,000 zone that is a former support-turned-resistance. The broader outlook, therefore, remains bearish. Prices need to overcome that resistance to confirm a trend reversal higher. Crypto Equities Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Wednesday at $183.94 (+13.52%), +0.95% at $185.69 in pre-market Circle Internet (CRCL): closed at $83.14 (+35.47%), +0.71% at $83.73 Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $22.83 (+5.99%), +1.40% at $23.15 Bullish (BLSH): closed at $32.89 (+6.92%), -1.03% at $32.55 MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $8.57 (+6.46%), unchanged in pre-market Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $17.08 (+3.52%), -0.12% at $17.06 Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $18.08 (+1.18%), -0.22% at $18.04 CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $10.45 (+0.97%), +0.29% at $10.48 CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $42.34 (-0.87%) Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $10.63 (+8.91%) Crypto Treasury Companies Strategy (MSTR): closed at $135.65 (+8.86%), -0.18% at $135.41 Strive (ASST): closed at $8.54 (+19.19%), -1.41% at $8.42 SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $7.44 (+13.59%), +0.27% at $7.46 Upexi (UPXI): closed at $0.83 (+35.86%), +4.53% at $0.86 Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.18 (+6.31%) ETF Flows Spot BTC ETFs Daily net flows: $506.6 million Cumulative net flows: $54.56 billion Total BTC holdings ~1.26 million Spot ETH ETFs Daily net flows: $157.2 million Cumulative net flows: $11.67 billion Total ETH holdings ~5.64 million Source: Farside Investors While You Were Sleeping The $1.6 trillion meltdown that swept through software stocks (The Wall Street Journal): Investors question whether software firms that sell to businesses can withstand competition from AI-powered rivals. Lately, the selloff has intensified with each new announcement from AI developers. A Deal or War? Crucial Talks Begin Between U.S. and Iran (The New York Times): The U.S. and Iran are in a high-stakes round of nuclear talks in Geneva. The outcome may determine whether they go to war or strike a deal. Three companies add Strategy's STRC to treasury as shares return to par (CoinDesk): Strategy said Prevalon Energy and Anchorage Digital added its perpetual preferred equity, Stretch (STRC), to their portfolios as the security returns to its $100 par value. Crypto Daybook Americas More For You These bitcoin-linked stocks are doing better than BTC By Omkar Godbole | Edited by Sheldon Reback 23 hours ago Your day-ahead look for Feb. 25, 2026 What to know : You are viewing Crypto Daybook Americas, your morning briefing on what happened in the crypto markets overnight and what's expected during the coming day. Crypto Daybook Americas will kickstart your morning with comprehensive insights. If you're not already subscribed to the email, click here . You won't want to start your day without it. Read full story Latest Crypto News Bitcoin stalls below $70,000 while DOT, UNI lead altcoin surge 45 minutes ago Three companies add Strategy's STRC to treasury as shares return to par 1 hour ago The 10 a.m. mystery: Why bitcoin’s daily ‘price slam’ suddenly vanished after a massive lawsuit 2 hours ago Bitcoin touches $70,000 before fading as altcoins lead the strongest bounce in weeks 6 hours ago Uniswap’s UNI jumps 15% as governance vote to expand fee switch gains momentum 6 hours ago Bitcoin snaps back near $69,000 but analysts warn the market may not be out of the woods yet 13 hours ago Top Stories Nvidia earnings smashed expectations as the world’s largest company CEO says AI is only getting better 14 hours ago MrBeast editor nabbed by prediction market firm Kalshi for alleged insider trading 17 hours ago A $100 million crypto campaign fund with a pro-Trump vibe so far failed to show up 19 hours ago Endowment funds eye crypto allocations amid tougher return outlook for traditional investments 21 hours ago The chief of the SEC is headlining an event sponsored by a crypto firm at war with it 22 hours ago Circle shares surge by record 35% as USDC issuance drives estimate-busting earnings 23 hours ago In this article BTC BTC $ 68,056.93 ◢ 3.83 % FET FET $ 0.1658 ◢ 5.93 % INJ INJ $ 3.2237 ◢ 1.53 %