Can Bullish Options Traders Push Ethereum to a $4,000 Level?

Despite many options traders going long on the main Ethereum token, analysts are not convinced that it will be able to find support at $4,000 or make a bull run towards $5,000. Ethereum has been the talk of the crypto space ever since it hitting an all-time high close $4,000 in late June, but its price has retreated since then. The price of the Ethereum network’s flagship currency, ether, is currently hovering around $3,500, which means that the Ethereum network is still up more than four times in a quarter, having shed some 60 percent from its all-time high.

Despite the ongoing bear market, which has seen the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and most altcoins shed roughly 60 percent in Q3, ether’s price has remained positive, having surged in the past two weeks. According to CoinMarketCap.com, ether gained nearly 22 percent against the United States dollar over the past month. In July, the ether-based tokens issued on the Ethereum network received regulatory approval for the launch of options contracts. As the second most widely traded crypto asset, some analysts have been quick to note that the addition of new products can actually hurt, as it causes price fluctuations among cryptocurrencies.

Since the beginning of July, Ethereum (ETH) has fallen approximately 10 percent against the dollar. At the time of writing, ETH is trading at $356.50 and has seen a 10 percent price increase in the past 24 hours. In a Twitter post on August 15, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell said that he felt the network’s price increase was coming from speculating on futures contracts and not so much on the actual price of ether. It is interesting to note that ether futures hit a low on August 13, but they have since bounced back as data from Bitfinex shows. This surge in Ethereum futures also coincides with the recent “Ethereum price spike”.

Some analysts believe that ether's price increase was caused by the “winding down” of the Ethereum futures market. Crypto market data provider, Bitwise, reports that the volume of ether futures contracts reached an all-time high last week and has since dropped significantly in the past two days.