The number of bullish bets made using borrowed funds has been steadily increasing since late August.
According to one analyst, traders on the crypto exchange Bitfinex are borrowing money to place bullish bets.
Perpetual funding rates have turned positive, and over-the-counter desks are seeing increased demand for higher strike call options.
"Green lending rates and long positions have historically been a strong indicator for bullish sentiment; the last two major spikes were preceded by significant increases in rates and long positions," the crypto block trading service provider Greeks.Live told CoinDesk via Telegram. A green lending rate refers to an interest rate that is above zero.
Additionally, activity in bitcoin perpetual futures listed across global exchanges is displaying a renewed bullish bias, as indicated by a positive shift in the open interest-weighted global average funding rates. Positive funding rates suggest that perpetual futures are trading at a premium to the spot price, signaling a predominance of bullish bets.
Over-the-counter (OTC) desks are also experiencing renewed interest in bitcoin call options, which offer asymmetric payoffs during price uptrends.
"The options market is seeing a surge in block call trades, accounting for 30% of the day's total, with whales establishing long positions across the board," Greeks.Live noted.
In other developments, call spread strategies were observed on the OTC network Paradigm on Monday.
"Out-of-the-money (OTM) options were the focus today, with an 80K/100K December call spread and an ETH 27 December/28 March calendar spread. There was also a notable SOL print," Paradigm reported via a Telegram broadcast.