3 reasons why bears aim to pin Bitcoin below $30K for this week’s BTC options expiry

cointelegraph.com:

Investors were surprised by Bitcoin (BTC) price falling to $25,500 on May 12, and this shock extended to options traders. The strong correction was not restricted to cryptocurrencies and some large-cap stocks faced 25% or heavier weekly losses in the same period.

Growing economic uncertainty impacted S&P 500 index members like Illumina (ILMN), which declined by 27% over the past seven days and Caesars Entertainment (CZR) faced a 25% drop. Shopify (SHOP), one of the largest Canadian e-commerce companies also saw its stock plunge by 28%.

Traders are scratching their heads and asking whether it’s the U.S. Federal Reserve tightening to blame for the volatility. The monetary authority has been increasing the interest rates and has also reaffirmed their plans to sell bonds and debt-related instruments.

While this may be the case, traders should remember that the stock market rallied 113% between 2017 and 2021, as measured by the S&P 500 index. Keeping that in mind, the recent downturn is also a reflection of excessive valuations and overconfidence from investors.

Fortunately, not everything has been negative for Bitcoin. On May 10, Townsquare Media, a New York-based digital marketing and radio station company, disclosed a $5 million Bitcoin investment. Nubank, the largest digital bank in Brazil and Latin America, also announced that it would allocate roughly 1% of its net assets to Bitcoin.

Bitcoin's drop to $25,500 on May 12 took bulls by surprise because less than 1% of the call (buy) option bets for May 13 have been placed below this price level.

Bulls might have been fooled by the recent attempt to overtake $40,000 on May 4, because their bets for May 12's $610 million options are largely concentrated above $34,000.

A broader