Bitcoin Options Show Bull Target of $115,000 by Year-End

**Bitcoin Bulls Pin Hopes on $6B Dec 25 Options; Extreme Bets Both Sides Noted** May 8 — Bitcoin bulls are pinning high hopes on the Dec 25 year-end options, which involve roughly $6 billion in capital. Since hitting a Feb 6 year-to-date low of $60,130, BTC has rallied 33%, fueling a return of bullish market sentiment. But a surge in bullish (call) options with strikes at $115,000 and above has sparked questions about whether longs are overly optimistic. Deribit holds 92% of December Bitcoin options open interest (OI), totaling $5.5 billion. On the platform, bearish (put) OI is 56% lower than call OI — a skew in the put-call ratio driven by crypto traders’ historic preference for long positions. Still, $1.85 billion in calls at $115k+ is a significant sum, while $1 billion in puts at $55k and below is also notable. This means extreme bets on both sides (seen as unlikely to hit) are similarly sized, each accounting for ~50% of their respective OI segments. If bulls look overly optimistic, shorts appear equally extreme in their pessimism. Options skewness — a measure of professional traders’ comfort with upside/downside risk — tells a clearer story: puts trade at a 9% premium to call options with the same strike distance, signaling moderate concern about BTC’s downside volatility. (Neutral market conditions typically see skewness between -6% and +6%.) Derivative metrics show investor sentiment remained largely unchanged as BTC rose to $80,000. Ultimately, the $18.5 billion in December call OI should not be interpreted as a sign of overconfidence among bulls.