80% of SOL Trades Concentrated in Bearish Options on Deribit: Strong Bearish Sentiment from Whale Traders

80% of SOL Trades Concentrated in Bearish Options on Deribit: Strong Bearish Sentiment from Whale Traders

80% of SOL Trades Concentrated in Bearish Options on Deribit: Strong Bearish Sentiment from Whale Traders

Whale Positions Itself in Bearish SOL Options
Market sentiment leans bearish with 80% of trades focused on PUT options
SOL price plummets, market sentiment turns bearish
March 1st SOL unlocking event could exacerbate selling pressure

Whale Positions Itself in Bearish SOL Options
As the price of Solana (SOL) continues to decline, the volume of SOL options trading on the derivative trading platform Deribit has surged, with large investors (whales) betting on further price declines.
According to CoinDesk, block trades of SOL options on Deribit amounted to $32.39 million last week, accounting for nearly 25% of the exchange’s total options trading volume of $130.74 million. According to data from Amberdata, this is the “second-highest” proportion of block trades in history, with the remaining trading volume coming from “screen trades” conducted through the exchange’s order book.


Block trades refer to large-scale options trades that are privately negotiated and registered on an exchange, usually executed by whale investors through over-the-counter (OTC) transactions to minimize impact on market prices.

Market sentiment leans bearish with 80% of trades focused on PUT options
Options are a type of derivative financial instrument that allows holders to buy or sell assets at agreed-upon prices before a specified date. Among these, call options allow the buyer to purchase at a fixed price, while put options allow the holder to sell at an agreed-upon price.
Greg Magadini, derivatives director at Amberdata, pointed out that “approximately 80% of block trades for SOL are focused on put options, far higher than the proportions for BTC (40%) and ETH (37.5%) during the same period.” This shows that investors are actively hedging against further downward risks for SOL.

SOL price plummets, market sentiment turns bearish
Over the past five weeks, SOL’s price has dropped by 46% to $160, leading to a pessimistic market sentiment. The Solana blockchain had attracted a large number of traders during the meme coin craze, especially after the launch of the TRUMP token on January 17th, which reached its peak trading volume. However, daily trading volume for Solana and DEX transactions subsequently decreased significantly, further weakening market confidence in SOL.
A report from blockchain data analysis firm Artemis shows a significant decline in transaction activity on the Solana network, creating a vicious cycle with the decline in SOL price.

March 1st SOL unlocking event could exacerbate selling pressure
Lin Chen, Head of Deribit’s Asia-Pacific business, warned that a significant token unlocking event on March 1st could further impact SOL’s price.
“Solana will unlock 11.2 million SOL tokens on March 1st (worth approximately $2.07 billion), accounting for 2.29% of the total supply. These tokens mainly come from the FTX bankruptcy liquidation and the Solana Foundation’s sales.”
Chen pointed out that the scale of this unlocking event is close to 59% of SOL’s daily spot trading volume, which could cause significant market volatility in the short term. As a result, investors are buying PUT options in large quantities to hedge risks and profit from volatility trading (long Volatility).
In summary, the recent decline in SOL’s price, weakened blockchain activity, and the upcoming large-scale unlocking event have led to a generally pessimistic outlook for its future performance.