Huobi Basis Deviates, Options Skew Signals Positive Outlook, OpenSea Hits ATHs

OCT 05, 2021 • 3 Min Read

Ashwath Balakrishnan + 1 other

Disclosure: Delphi Ventures and members of our team are invested in BTC. This statement is intended to disclose any conflict of interest and should not be misconstrued as a recommendation to purchase any token. This content is for informational purposes only and you should not make decisions based solely on it. This is not investment advice.

Metus vulputate eu scelerisque felis. Nulla facilisi cras fermentum odio eu. Scelerisque fermentum dui

faucibus in ornare quam viverra orci sagittis. A iaculis at erat pellentesque adipiscing commodo elit. In

fermentum et sollicitudin ac orci. Ultrices sagittis orci a scelerisque purus. Faucibus ornare

suspendisse sed nisi lacus sed viverra tellus in. Mauris cursus mattis molestie a iaculis at erat

pellentesque adipiscing. Volutpat diam ut venenatis tellus in metus vulputate. Eu consequat ac felis

donec et odio pellentesque. Eu mi bibendum neque egestas congue quisque egestas diam. Quam

lacus suspendisse faucibus interdum posuere lorem. Quam id leo in vitae. Ut faucibus pulvinar

elementum integer enim neque. Id ornare arcu odio ut sem nulla pharetra diam sit. Molestie ac feugiat

sed lectus vestibulum mattis. Ipsum nunc aliquet bibendum enim facilisis. Euismod nisi porta lorem

mollis aliquam ut porttitor.

Iaculis nunc sed augue lacus viverra vitae congue eu consequat. Gravida neque convallis a cras.

Nunc scelerisque viverra mauris in aliquam sem. Non odio euismod lacinia at quis risus sed vulputate

odio. Purus faucibus ornare suspendisse sed. Turpis egestas maecenas pharetra convallis posuere

morbi. Nec feugiat nisl pretium fusce id velit ut. Nunc congue nisi vitae suscipit tellus mauris a diam.

Posuere sollicitudin aliquam ultrices sagittis orci. Urna nec tincidunt praesent semper. Turpis nunc

eget lorem dolor sed viverra.

suspendisse sed nisi lacus sed viverra tellus in. Mauris cursus mattis molestie a iaculis at erat

pellentesque adipiscing. Volutpat diam ut venenatis tellus in metus vulputate. Eu consequat ac felis

donec et odio pellentesque. Eu mi bibendum neque egestas congue quisque egestas diam. Quam

lacus suspendisse faucibus interdum posuere lorem. Quam id leo in vitae. Ut faucibus pulvinar

elementum integer enim neque. Id ornare arcu odio ut sem nulla pharetra diam sit. Molestie ac feugiat

sed lectus vestibulum mattis. Ipsum nunc aliquet bibendum enim facilisis. Euismod nisi porta lorem

mollis aliquam ut porttitor.

Iaculis nunc sed augue lacus viverra vitae congue eu consequat. Gravida neque convallis a cras.

Nunc scelerisque viverra mauris in aliquam sem. Non odio euismod lacinia at quis risus sed vulputate

odio. Purus faucibus ornare suspendisse sed. Turpis egestas maecenas pharetra convallis posuere

morbi. Nec feugiat nisl pretium fusce id velit ut. Nunc congue nisi vitae suscipit tellus mauris a diam.

Posuere sollicitudin aliquam ultrices sagittis orci. Urna nec tincidunt praesent semper. Turpis nunc

eget lorem dolor sed viverra.

lacus suspendisse faucibus interdum posuere lorem. Quam id leo in vitae. Ut faucibus pulvinar

elementum integer enim neque. Id ornare arcu odio ut sem nulla pharetra diam sit. Molestie ac feugiat

sed lectus vestibulum mattis. Ipsum nunc aliquet bibendum enim facilisis. Euismod nisi porta lorem

mollis aliquam ut porttitor.

Market Update

This week started off with positive price action across crypto. BTC broke $50k again, signaling some optimism. However, today DeFi and L1 tokens saw a small sell-off. Meanwhile, SHIB is outperforming everything else, up over 70% in the last 24H.

The Basis Shock
  • As BTC began to rally into October, basis didn’t rise as aggressively as one would’ve imagined. BTC has become a perpetuals and futures-dominated market. The lack of aggression in futures indicates that sentiment may still be fragile and traders aren’t too comfortable upping their leverage right now.
  • Notably, basis on Huobi detached from the rest of the market. Huobi is a Chinese exchange, with a presumably large concentration of volume in mainland China. The Chinese government’s efforts to further clamp down on crypto in the country is no doubt causing Huobi’s futures pricing to deviate from other exchanges. OKEx seems to have fared well in this regard, which could possibly indicate that their user base isn’t as tied to China, or perhaps there is another underlying reason.

Options Recover Post Rally
  • Open interest for BTC options is on the rise again, increasing by over $2B following last month’s $3.2B expiry. The uptick coincided with BTC’s rally into the beginning of October.
  • After a large expiry, open interest tends to bounce back as freed-up capital from expirations moves back into the market. But with Sept. options expiring, and with the market in a tight spot, it took longer than usual for that capital to start re-entering the market.

Options Skew Signals Optimism
  • Option skews help us establish a rough base for forward-looking market sentiment. The Oct. 2021 skew has a tail towards lower strikes (higher implied volatility) but not towards the higher strikes. Typically, this means the options market isn’t too positive in the near term.
  • However, Nov. and Dec. 2021 skews look positive with higher implied volatility for strike prices above the current market price. Skews for expiries in 2022 are more balanced and signal a more neutral outlook given how far out these options are dated.
  • Note: This chart was taken from the Delphi Chartbook — a monthly report that highlights key trends in crypto and traditional markets in an extremely comprehensible manner. If you want access to Delphi Digital’s advanced markets content, consider subscribing to Delphi Insights.

OpenSea is Still Thriving
  • OpenSea volume hit a local maximum at the end of August, with activity peaking and then quickly cratering. However, transaction volume and count started reverting higher over the back half of September.
  • The daily transaction count on OpenSea hit an all-time high of nearly 90k txs yesterday, despite lower trading volume in dollar terms relative to August. Smaller-cap NFTs have been the main catalyst for more trading activity as floor prices for select collections soar relative to higher market cap NFT collections.

Notable Tweets

Sky Mavis closes a Series B round.

StarkNet Alpha is coming!

Episode 1 of the Terra Autumn Delphi Podcast series is out!

Create a free account to continue reading

Go Pro at 40% off

Immediately access the entire catalog of research for Delphi, Office Hours & private Discord

Ashwath Balakrishnan + 1 other