Bitcoin Slips Below $82,000 at Midday as ETHE Options Flash Defensive Skew; Stablecoin Supply Diverges

Bitcoin traded at $81,725 by midday Thursday, down 2.9% over 24 hours, with ether off 3.0% at $2,399 and the broader majors each posting intraday ranges near 2%. ETHE options showed a put-to-call volume ratio of 1.85 in Wednesday's close, the most defensive skew across major crypto ETF chains, even as perpetual funding across BTC, ETH, SOL and XRP held mildly positive.

Market Pulse

Spot prices sat broadly lower at the New York lunch hour. Bitcoin changed hands at $81,725, down -2.85% ↑ on the day with a session range of 1.94%. Ether traded at $2,399.16 (-3.02% ↓), SOL at $104.67 (-2.12% ↓), and XRP at $1.3231 (-3.10% ↓). Despite the broad red tape, Binance perpetual funding stayed positive across the four majors — BTC at +0.0013% per 8h (annualized ~+1.4%), ETH at +0.0052% (~+5.7%), SOL at ~+4.0%, XRP at ~+3.0%. The combination of lower spot and still-positive funding is consistent with measured de-risking rather than forced long liquidation.

Options Positioning

The standout print sits in ether products. ETHE's Wednesday close showed a put/call volume ratio of 1.85 against a put/call OI ratio of just 0.24 — a sharp session-level defensive tilt layered onto a longer-dated bullish book. Top ETHE put concentration remained at the $10 strike (OI 5,036, 50% below the snapshot close of $20.00). IBIT, by contrast, printed a more balanced P/C vol of 0.72 with IV30d at 38.0%; the heaviest call OI clusters at the $50 strike (74,319 contracts, 8.2% above the live ETF price of $46.19), while the $20 put stack of 166,153 contracts sits 56.7% below spot and reads as legacy tail hedging rather than active positioning. FBTC stayed call-leaning (P/C vol 0.47) with top call OI at $110 (55% above the $70.98 live price). BSOL IV30d of 60.8% and XRPC's 73.1% underline where the implied-vol bid is concentrated.

Narrative

The tape is being traded against a thin news slate. One headline flagged US M2 money supply reaching $23.3 trillion as bitcoin slipped under $82,000 — a juxtaposition that macro desks are using to frame the pullback as position-driven rather than liquidity-driven. A separate report that China is seeking recovery of 61,896 BTC held by UK authorities added a sovereign-overhang data point, though no transfer activity has been observed on-chain. Stablecoin supply is diverging: InflowScan data shows USDC market cap up +$340M ↑ over 24 hours to $72.57B, while USDT contracted -$161M ↓ to $182.63B — a mixed read on dry-powder staging that leans mildly constructive on the dollar-pegged side.

Afternoon Watch

ETHE put/call volume ratio into Thursday's close — a sustained print above 1.5 would historically be associated with elevated near-term realized vol in ether products.
The $82,000 handle on bitcoin and $2,400 on ether — levels where intraday order flow has clustered.
Next funding-rate refresh at 16:00 UTC — a flip negative on BTC perps would mark the first since the week's open.