Fear and greed says panic. The options market says something else. David Lawant of Anchorage Digital walks through the signals that matter right now.
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Bitcoin has been stuck near $60,000, more than 50% off its November 2024 highs, and Strategy's STRC preferred stock was sinking hard enough to spook the market before a sweeping 8-K aimed at stabilizing it.
David Lawant, Head of Research at Anchorage Digital, joins Steven Ehrlich to argue that the panic in STRC's price and in crypto's fear and greed index is not showing up in the options market, where he says the real signals live.
Lawant walks through Strategy's $1.15 billion ATM raise, why Bitcoin's options open interest has topped $60 billion and now exceeds futures, what the MSTR risk reversal revealed about tail risk during the selloff, and why Bitcoin's volatility term structure has stayed inverted for months. He also maps who trades these options, from retail call buyers to Anchorage's OTC desk, and argues real relief needs looser Fed policy and Bitcoin clawing attention back from the AI trade, which could take six to nine months.
Host:
Steven Ehrlich, Head of Research, SharpLink
Guest:
David Lawant - Head of Research at Anchorage Digital
Timestamps
🏛️ 01:46 Inside Strategy's high-stakes gambit to rescue its sinking STRC stock
📉 09:06 Bitcoin has no native yield, and that gap is quietly forcing Strategy to rewrite its entire playbook
📊 16:05 David reveals the moment Bitcoin's options market quietly overtook its futures market
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🌐 25:21 What Bitcoin's inverted volatility curve secretly tells you about who's really trading these options
🔮 36:00 Why alts refuse to trade like MSTR, and the exact signals David is tracking right now
🎯 41:45 David's blunt call: six to nine months of chop before the next leg up
