What happened?
Institutional traders bought more than $1.15 billion of downside protection in the last 24 hours, with put options making up about 28% of trades while Bitcoin stays above $110,000. The activity clustered in shallow out‑of‑the‑money puts around $104,000–$108,000 and market skew turned deeply negative, signaling heightened fear. Large on‑chain moves and massive shorts—like a whale moving 2,000 BTC and a 3,440 BTC short—added to the defensive positioning.
Who does this affect?
This mainly affects institutional options players, market makers, and large traders who are buying or selling protection and building short books. Retail traders using high leverage on perpetuals are also at risk because exchanges hold roughly $31 billion in perpetual open interest that can trigger liquidations. Exchanges with the biggest open interest (Binance, Bybit, Huobi, OKX) will be the focal points for any forced moves and volatility.
Why does this matter?
Heavy put buying and a deeply negative skew raise the chance of a short, sharp drop toward the $104k area, which could trigger broader liquidations and a surge in volatility. If $104k fails, technical warnings like RSI divergence increase the risk of a deeper correction toward roughly $96.5k and could push a fresh all‑time high further into 2026. Even if BTC holds, concentrated hedging and big short positions make markets choppier, widen spreads, raise funding costs, and shift capital away from riskier altcoins.