Are Traders Done With Ether? Options Market Now Prices Higher Risk for ETH Than BTCMarket sentiment has shifted against ether, with downside insurance premiums costlier than for bitcoin.Updated Aug 1, 2025, 4:59 p.m. Published Aug 1, 2025, 9:20 a.m.
It’s become more expensive to use derivatives to insure against a decline in ether (ETH) than in bitcoin
indicating that market sentiment has shifted against the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, data from Deribit shows.
The sentiment shift comes after weeks of big money favoring ether over its larger peer.
According to data from Amberdata, ether’s 25-delta risk reversals for options expiring in August and September were trading at -2% to -7%. That means put options, which provide protection against drops in price, carry a 2% to 7% premium over call options, reflecting an apparent concern about a potential downside risk.
ETH options metrics. (Deribit/Amberdata)
In comparison, bitcoin’s short-term put options traded at 1%-2.5% premium to calls, suggesting relatively restrained downside fears.
A put option gives the purchaser the right to sell the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a specified future date. A put buyer is implicitly bearish on the market, seeking to hedge spot market holdings or profit from a price decline. A call buyer is implicitly bullish on the market.
BTC options metrics. (Deribit/Amberdata)
The 25-delta risk reversal is an options strategy that comprises a long put position and a short call option(or vice versa)with a 25% delta, meaning the strike price for both options is relatively far from the underlying asset’s market rate.
Risk reversals are widely tracked in the FX markets to gauge sentiment across time frames. Positive values represent bullish sentiment, while negative values suggest the reverse.
Ether, the native token of the Ethereum blockchain surged 48% in July, reaching a seven-month high of $3,941 and outperforming BTC’s 8% gain by a wide margin. Most of the advance, however, occurred in the first half of the month, with the rally losing steam on concerns it stemmed purely from corporate adoption and lacked support from on-chain activity.
Ether was recently trading at $3,600, down more than 6% over 24 hours, while bitcoin had lost 3% to $114,380, according to CoinDesk data.
Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.
Omkar godboleOmkar Godbole is a Co-Managing Editor and analyst on CoinDesk’s Markets team. He has been covering crypto options and futures, as well as macro and cross-asset activity, since 2019, leveraging his prior experience in directional and non-directional derivative strategies at brokerage firms. His extensive background also encompasses the FX markets, having served as a fundamental analyst at currency and commodities desks for Mumbai-based brokerages and FXStreet. Omkar holds small amounts of bitcoin, ether, BitTorrent, tron and dot.
Omkar holds a Master’s degree in Finance and a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) designation.
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