Bybit & Block Scholes Report: BTC and ETH Options Reflect Bearish Tilt Despite Strong Funding Rates

Bybit, the worlds second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has released the latest edition of its Crypto Derivatives Analytics Report in partnership with Block Scholes, delivering deep insights into market sentiment and structural dynamics across major tokens including BTC, ETH, and SOL.

Despite consistently positive funding rates in perpetual futures markets, short-term BTC and ETH options are flashing early bearish signals, suggesting growing caution among traders amid a dip in spot prices.

Key Insights:

• Bearish Divergence in Derivatives: Short-tenor options on both BTC and ETH have moved toward volatility premiums for out-of-the-money (OTM) puts, pointing to a bearish-to-neutral stance. This contrasts with the bullish bias seen in perpetual swaps, where funding rates have remained positive since early July across BTC, ETH, DOGE, and XRP.
• BTC Faces Resistance at $120K: BTC has remained range-bound between $115K–$120K, briefly touching the lower bound on July 25 after a major sell-off of 80,000 bitcoins linked to a Satoshi-era wallet. Open interest in BTC and altcoin perpetuals surged past $15.5B on the same day, underscoring heightened trading activity.
• ETH Holds Ground as Options Bullishness Cools: ETH continues to outperform BTC in spot markets, gaining 3.5% over the past week and hovering just below $3,800. While options volume remains strong at over $120M, the market is showing signs of cooling—implied volatility has compressed to 64%, and the skew on 7-day options has shifted to -3.6%, hinting at tempered bullishness. Still, long-term sentiment remains supported by consistent ETF inflows, with $218.6M added to spot ETH ETFs on July 29 alone.
• Altcoin Season Stalls: Hopes of an altcoin breakout faded this week as profit-taking set in. SOL saw a 9% weekly decline alongside an inverted options term structure. XRP and DOGE—previous outperformers—fell 11% and 10% respectively, despite briefly surging on news of the GENIUS Act passage in the US. TRON and ETH bucked the trend, gaining 5% and 3%, respectively.