Bitcoin surpasses $90,000 again, options market signals a change in sentiment.

Bitcoin prices have climbed to over $90,000 for the first time in nearly a week. After experiencing over a month of sell-offs, Bitcoin is regaining lost ground, with widespread risk assets rebounding and volatility easing providing room for traders to push up prices. As the market becomes increasingly convinced that the Federal Reserve may soon resume rate cuts, although the increase is not significant, this rally has once again put higher price levels in focus, with digital assets fluctuating in sync with the stock market. BlackRock's American Bitcoin ETF has attracted new inflows of funds, putting an end to a series of redemptions. Market liquidity remains thin ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, but with volatility decreasing and almost no new evidence of forced selling, bulls seem to be testing whether the worst of this decline is over. "This sharp volatility is likely related to the holiday market. Essentially, current liquidity is low, which means that much less funds are needed to drive market changes," said Kaiko research analyst Adam McCarthy. Bitcoin rose 4% to $90,460 on Wednesday, narrowing its decline from the historical high of just over $126,000 touched in early October to about 28%. Although it fell by as much as 36% since hitting an all-time high in early October, implied volatility has been kept under control, reflecting how institutionalization of the token has reshaped risk transmission mechanisms. In the early days of Bitcoin, its value was mainly driven by speculative activities of traders seeking to profit from its frequent and large price fluctuations. "This week, the $80,000 high-to-mid range has acted as a consolidation area support -- emerging after several weeks of negative downward trends," said Jasper De Mar, a Wintermute trading strategist. The reversal of bearish sentiment is reflected across the entire derivatives market. According to Coinglass data, demand for long positions in Bitcoin perpetual futures (a key market where traders make leveraged crypto bets) is increasing, with open interest at a moderate level. Positive funding rates of such contracts indicate that bullish bets have regained dominance after turning negative earlier this week. According to data from Deribit, a cryptocurrency exchange under Coinbase, the most open interest now lies in call options with a strike price of $100,000, while protective put options with strike prices at $80,000 and $85,000 have dominated the market for the past week. "In the past few weeks, speculative long positions have significantly decreased, and the decline in open interest and funding rates of perpetual contracts confirms this, preparing the crypto market for the uptrend," said Spencer Harlan, global head of OTC trading at cryptocurrency investment firm GSR. In early October, Donald Trump's threat to raise tariffs roiled the global financial markets, causing cryptocurrency prices to plummet. This drop wiped out over $1 trillion in digital asset market value and triggered a wave of forced liquidations. Investors now seem to be cautiously testing the market. According to data, Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded inflows of approximately $130 million on Tuesday. However, investors withdrew nearly $3.6 billion from 12 publicly listed Bitcoin funds in November, the most severe monthly outflow since the launch of these products and a true stress test of the ETF era.