Bitcoin Eyes Upside Break above $41.5k Ahead of $760M Options Expiry

The BTC price recently reclaimed crucial support and climbed above the $41K level, taking bears by surprise. Stiff resistance has slowed down the king coin’s uptrend, but that could change due to the upcoming $760 million options expiry. The event is expected to give bulls positive momentum to continue the ascending trend seen in recent weeks. 

BTC Bulls and Bears Tug of War

A look at the BTC options aggregate open interest for March 18 shows the majority of bearish bets have been placed below the $40k level. Most bearish bets will become worthless if the price remains above that level at 8:00 am UTC on Friday.

On the other hand, bulls stand to boost their gains by about $320 million at current market prices. Buyers are incentivized to push the price above the $41.5k mark to pocket the maximum profit from the options expiry.

Over the coming trading sessions, crypto market participants can expect bitcoin bulls to defend the $40,000 support, even as bears fight to suppress the price ahead of the options expiry.

BTC Exchange Reserves Plummet to 3-Year-Low

The number of bitcoin held on centralized exchanges started to slide towards the end of last year and has gone on to hit its lowest level since 2019. According to the latest Cryptoquant.com data, the number of bitcoin stored on various trading platforms is at 2.3 million as crypto investors continue pulling coins off exchanges in greater numbers.

The current BTC reserves are lower than during the infamous Black Friday crash of March 2020, where exchanges stored just over 3 million coins. This metric indicates that investors are moving their coins into cold storage for long-term holding.

Low exchange reserves are a bullish sign, as they show that fewer market participants are willing to offload their coins at this time. The metric is seen as a positive sign in the crypto sphere as it dries up liquidity and reduces the funds available for whales to dump.

Moreover, the trend for crypto users to store coins in cold storage demonstrates that they are adhering to the industry’s golden rule of holding their private keys. Meanwhile, Ether reserves held on exchanges are also on the decline, dipping close to the 24M level.

Terra Founder to Fortify Bitcoin Reserves

Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs (TFL), has outlined plans to obtain a staggering $10 billion in BTC to fortify stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) reserves.

The Terraform Labs stablecoin is already backed by billions of dollars in BTC, and Kwon is determined to build up the reserves even further:

“$UST with $10B+ in $BTC reserves will open a new monetary era of the Bitcoin standard. P2P electronic cash that is easier to spend and more attractive to hold BTC”, he noted in a recent tweet.

Kwon explained that the purchased BTC would be used to backstop short-term UST redemptions and bolster the sustainability of the popular stablecoin. The announcement marks the second time this month that the Terra (LUNA) founder has shared plans to add to his project’s BTC reserves.