Journalist
Posted:
- ETH showed renewed interest in the options market.
- Despite near-term challenges, it suggested a bullish outlook for ETH in the fourth quarter.
Ethereum [ETH] has lagged behind its major peers, such as Bitcoin [BTC] And Solana [SOL]despite approval of the US spot ETF in the second quarter. However, on Friday, September 13, there was a strong renewed interest in the largest altcoin.
According to Singapore-based crypto trading firm QCP Capital, ETH options saw high interest in contracts near the end of the year with a price target of $3,000. Part of the company’s weekend memo read,
“The options market witnessed renewed interest in ETHwith over 20,000 contracts targeting the $3,000 level by December 27. The year-end prospects for ETH could be significant.”
ETH’s bullish rebound
For context, options data and volume are forward-looking indicators that reflect future price expectations and general market sentiment.
Thus, the above-mentioned rise in the options market, including Open Interest (OI) rates, indicated bullish expectations and a potential price increase in the fourth quarter.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) facts confirmed QCP Capital’s prospects.
On September 13, ETH recorded a sharp increase in volume and OI for the first time this month. OI rose to $3.1 billion, while volume nearly rose to $700 million, reinforcing institutional interest in the altcoin.
Source: CME
Despite increased options activity, the spot market saw minimal demand for US ETH ETFs on Friday.
The products had cumulative daily inflows of $1.5 million, but this was net negative on a weekly basis. Last week they lost $12.92 million, a trend that has yet to be reversed to reinforce strong investor confidence.
Source: Sosowaarde
However, Coinbase analyst David Duong accused ETH’s moderate price performance on the current market structure. Duong noted that crypto investors were tied to other altcoin positions, limiting the flow of capital into ETH.
Another potential challenge to ETH’s price in the short term was a spike in foreign exchange reserves. About 100,000 tokens moved on the stock markets in the run-up to the Fed’s interest rate decision on September 18.
Meanwhile, ETH was valued at $2.4k at the time of writing, up 5% in the last seven trading days.
