Solana Outperforms in Quiet Midday Tape; IBIT Call Skew Builds at $45 Strike

Solana led major crypto assets into Monday's midday session, gaining 3.5% to $73.89 while bitcoin and ether posted muted moves under 0.6%. IBIT options activity concentrated in upside calls at the $45 strike, where open interest of 85,818 contracts dwarfed every other line on the chain — a positioning skew that points to longer-dated upside hedging rather than near-term conviction, given spot trades at $33.97.

Market Pulse

Bitcoin trades at $59,809, up 0.39% over 24 hours with a 2.86% session range. Ether sits at $1,580, up 0.51%. Solana is the standout, adding 3.49% to $73.89 on a 4.59% range. XRP is essentially unchanged at $1.0492.

Perpetual funding tells a low-conviction story. Binance perpetual funding prints BTC at +0.0087% per 8h (~+9.5% annualized) and ETH at just +0.0021% (~+2.4%). SOL funding runs +0.0042% despite the spot rally — consistent with spot-led buying rather than leveraged chase. XRP funding is mildly negative at -0.0021%.

Options Positioning

IBIT's chain shows a split signal. P/C volume runs hot at 1.99, but open-interest P/C sits at 0.834, and the standout open interest is the $45 call (85,818 contracts) against $33.97 spot — well out-of-the-money upside. Top puts cluster at $33 (65,076 OI) and $55, the latter likely covered-call mechanics. IV30d at 44.7% is unremarkable.

ETHA tells a more defensive story. Volume P/C of 1.86 and OI P/C right at parity (1.002) mask the put concentration: the $10 strike holds 67,901 contracts, nearly 3x the largest call line at $20. With ETHA at $11.90 and IV30d at 54.9%, that's downside protection sitting close to the money. FBTC and ETHE skew the other way, with OI P/C at 0.518 and 0.174 respectively — call-tilted, though active contracts are thinner.

XRPC remains the outlier: P/C OI of 0.029 and IV30d at 94.2%, with virtually all open interest stacked in $20-$32 calls. Positioning is consistent with directional upside expression rather than hedging.

Narrative

Two storylines are driving the tape. Strategy is preparing to sell up to $1.25 billion in bitcoin under a new capital framework — the first material supply-side headline from the largest corporate holder in months, and a likely cap on BTC upside intraday. Separately, AMBCrypto flags whale flows of roughly 550,000 ETH being distributed, which aligns with ETHA's put-heavy positioning at $10.

An IMF note highlighting tokenization and naming the XRP Ledger is circulating, though XRP spot is flat — suggesting the headline is already in the price or institutional readers are discounting the framing.

Afternoon Watch

Strategy's $1.25B BTC sale framework — any 8-K or filing detail on timing would be a material supply signal
4 PM ET options close: IBIT $45 call OI and ETHA $10 put OI are the lines to track for any late-session repositioning
16:00 UTC funding print across BTC/ETH/SOL — a SOL funding shift above +0.02% per 8h would be consistent with leverage joining the spot move