Bitcoin Under Pressure Near $40K, Here Are 2 Reasons Why That Could Change Soon

Bitcoin remains rangebound in the high $30,000 to low $40,000 areas. The first crypto by market cap has seen its volatility reduce as several factors contribute to the slowdown across the sector. Related Reading | TA: Bitcoin Trims Gains, Support Turned Resistance At $41K At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) trades at $40,500 with a 6% loss in the last 24-hours and a 1% profit over the past week. Trading firm QCP Capital believes Bitcoin has been trading in a larger range as it reclaimed the area around its current levels. The firm claims that there are 2 main reasons behind BTC’s recent price action. In addition to the U.S. Federal Reserve (FED) hinting at an aggressive monetary policy, there are expectations of Bitcoin and Ethereum revisiting critical support at $30,000 and $2,500, respectively. These expectations were generated by former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes’s latest post, “The Q Trap”. In the options markets, traders are preparing for a potential drop as QCP Capital records a “massive selling of May and June calls, causing BTC and ETH risk reversal”. These levels dropped from negative 6% to negative 10%. Conversely, the demand for BTC and ETH puts has increased. In other words, traders seem to be hedging for the upcoming crash by buying put (sell) options. If the price crashes, they will be able to benefit. Ethereum has seen the biggest uptick in demand for put calls. QCP Capital attributed it to the delay o...