Reading BTC and ETH Futures, Volatility, and Options Skew

Summary

This weekly market report reviews BTC and ETH derivatives after a period of spot-price weakness followed by a recovery. It describes front-end futures yields rising and flattening the yield curve, while short-dated implied volatility increased more sharply than longer-dated volatility. The report also compares perpetual funding, at-the-money volatility, and 25-delta risk reversals across the two tokens.

The observations distinguish ETH’s persistently put-tilted short-dated options from BTC’s more neutral short-term skew after a decline and rebound. The report presents these as snapshots of market pricing and sentiment, supported by charts and exchange comparisons, rather than as a systematic trading strategy or causal analysis. It does not provide underlying datasets, detailed calculation methods, trade entry rules, or performance evidence. Its conclusions are time-specific and should be read as a descriptive account of derivatives conditions during the reported week, not as forecasts or general rules about how volatility, yields, or skew respond to spot moves.

Key ideas

• Short-tenor BTC and ETH futures yields rose as spot prices began to recover.
• Short-dated implied volatility climbed more than longer-dated volatility, flattening the volatility term structure.
• ETH short-tenor options retained a stronger put bias than BTC options.
• BTC short-term skew moved back toward neutral after falling toward puts.
• The report is a market snapshot and does not test a trading strategy.

Tags

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.