Traders Now Bets on Bitcoin To Have A Record-Shattering June Rally, Eyeing $300,000

As Bitcoin's price approaches the all-time high set earlier this year, traders in the options market are setting their sights on more aggressive upside targets, with some investors even betting that Bitcoin will surpass $300,000 by the end of June.

On the crypto options exchange Deribit, Bitcoin call options with a strike price of $300,000 expiring on June 27 have become the second−largest in open interest, trailing only those with a strike price of $110,000. Across all open positions, the June 27 expiry date has seen the highest activity.

Jeffrey Howard, head of North America at crypto brokerage Nonco, noted: "Options skew remains bullish across tenors, with OTM calls trading rich versus puts out to 1 year - suggesting upside positioning."

As of Tuesday, Bitcoin was trading around 106,000,justunder3106,000,justunder3109,200 set on January 20. Notably, the last time Bitcoin reached this level was on the day of former U.S. President Donald Trump's second-term inauguration, after which its price retreated by over 30% before staging a rapid recovery in recent weeks.

Data from crypto analytics firm Amberdata shows that over the past 24 hours, new open interest on Deribit has been concentrated in strike prices above $110,000, with much of the hedging occurring around $105,000.

The shift in trader sentiment has been partly fueled by easing U.S.-China trade tensions and April's softer-than-expected inflation data. Nikolay Karpenko, senior account manager at crypto market maker B2C2, observed: "Market sentiment improved rapidly at the start of the week after an unexpected U.S.-China tariff truce. Corporate treasury allocations and ETF inflows continue to drive crypto demand, though macro traders have yet to fully return amid rate-cut expectations."

Despite Bitcoin's recent stabilization in price volatility, the steepening call skew suggests growing demand for upside exposure. Ravi Doshi, co-head of markets at FalconX, pointed out: "As Bitcoin nears its all-time high, investors are increasing their appetite for upside risk."

Meanwhile, the surge in short-dated options with concentrated strike prices has raised the possibility of a "gamma squeeze." In such a scenario, heavy buying of call options could force market makers to hedge by purchasing more spot or futures contracts, further driving up prices and triggering a rapid rally.

Greg Magadini, director of derivatives at Amberdata, analyzed: "If we look at dealer positioning on Deribit for BTC, we see dealers being short a lot of gamma $110k as traders are buying options for new ATHs. This is showing us that the market positioning is heating up in anticipation of new ATHs and once in uncharted price territory, there's no telling how high BTC can go."