Bitcoin's (BTC) toll has been ranging betwixt $46,000 and $52,000 for 26 days. Despite the big nominal $vi.1 billion twelvemonth-end options expiry, the bullish and bearish instruments were evenly balanced between $44,000 and $49,000.

Therefore, it was no surprise that the $47,175 price at 8:00 am UTC on December. 31 brought little alter to the toll construction. Even the 3% rally to $48,500 following the upshot failed to sustain itself, signaling that bears are unwilling to cede their upper manus.

Bitcoin/USD price on Coinbase. Source: TradingView

Bulls might have interpreted the 9,925 BTC leaving Coinbase in 24 hours as a positive trigger, considering fewer coins are available on exchanges for newcomers. Too, the first week of the year has been positive for the past four years, averaging 18.5% gains for Bitcoin holders.

To further support bulls' thesis, the U.s. listed tech company MicroStrategy added another one,914 BTC to their balance sheet on Dec. 30. On the negative side, regulation continues to pressure the markets as South Korean exchanges require users to verify their 3rd-party wallet addresses to comply with the Fiscal Action Task Force (FATF) travel dominion guidelines.

Bitcoin had a stellar 2022 anyway

Regardless of the short-term bearishness behind December'southward 16% toll drop, Bitcoin continues to vastly outperform both U.Due south. stocks and gold for the tertiary year in a row. Yet, that performance was non enough to avoid every $48,000 and higher telephone call (purchase) pick musical instrument condign worthless as the December. 31 expiry toll came in lower.

Bitcoin options aggregate open interest for December. 31. Source: Coinglass.com

At first sight, the $iv.0 billion call (buy) options vastly outperformed the $2.1 billion put (sell) instruments, only the 1.9 call-to-put ratio is deceptive because the 16% price drop from November.'s $57,000 close wiped out most of the bullish bets. Therefore, there is no value in the right to buy Bitcoin (call option) at $50,000 if information technology is trading below that toll.

Bulls and bears instruments were evenly marched for the Dec. 31 Bitcoin options decease, which came in much smaller than expected at $660 1000000. Yet, bears were unable to accept control as 85% of their bets have been placed at $47,000 or below. Such data partially explains why the Dec. 31 death was followed by an attempt from bulls to regain momentum.

Will the starting time week of 2022 finally be able to revert the slightly negative sentiment that has prevailed since the Dec. 3 crash? Unfortunately, according to Bitcoin options markets, there is no indication that the tide has changed.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reverberate the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves take chances. You should acquit your ain research when making a decision.