Traders Made the Largest Bet on Ethereum at $6,500

• Ethereum option rates are shifting towards $6,500.
• Traders have already wagered more than $380 million on this price.
• This is the largest amount of investment compared to other call options on the asset.

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Demand for a high strike price on Ethereum options has grown sharply: the most popular contract on Deribit is the $6,500 call option, which has seen nominal open interest exceed $380 million, the highest value of any coin option on the exchange.

The open interest in Ethereum at the strike price of the options. Source: Deribit Metrics.

Other popular contracts include call options with strike prices of $4,000, $5,500, and $6,000. The $6,500 option reflects traders’ bets that the Ethereum price will exceed this level in the future, which is an expression of confident bullishness despite the current market weakness.

It is worth noting that November was one of the weakest months for the coin in years: according to market statistics, Ethereum dropped by 22.38%, recording its worst decline since 2018.

However, in early December, the market stabilized somewhat, with Ethereum regaining its footing above $3,000.

Not only option traders, but also major financial figures have expressed support for the second-largest cryptocurrency. For example, former BlackRock executive Joseph Chalom said that Ethereum is “the infrastructure on which the future of the financial system will be based.”

As a reminder, 2025 was an extremely volatile year for the second-largest cryptocurrency by capitalisation. In particular, in March, crypto analyst Alessandro Ottaviani called the situation with ETH/BTC a “falling knife” when the asset’s price fell to $1,892, the level of November 2023.

However, in August, Ethereum set a new local record, exceeding $4,880, the highest level since 2021. This resulted in liquidations of more than $769 million, with half of them coming from Ethereum.

Against this backdrop, Deribit’s options data demonstrates that some traders continue to bet on a significant recovery of the second-largest cryptocurrency by capitalization. The high demand for call options with a strike of $6,500 indicates that traders expect the price to return to levels that have previously been included in research firms’ forecasts.

Investment and analytical companies also remain optimistic about Ethereum’s further growth:

• Back in June 2024, Steno Research predicted that the asset price could reach $6500 due to the demand for spot ETFs
• At the same time, VanEck said that it could grow to $22,000 by 2030, citing the development of scaling and ETFs
• Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, also suggested that the coin could rise to $10,000-$20,000, noting that the asset is “more reliable than Solana” and that its future price will depend on institutional investment.