Long-term Bitcoin Holders Deploy Covered Calls: The Hidden Force Pressuring Crypto Markets

Bitcoin's long-term believers are playing a new game—and it's sending shockwaves through the entire crypto ecosystem.

The Strategy: Income Over Moon Shots

Forget diamond hands just sitting on their stacks. Veteran holders are now actively writing covered calls against their Bitcoin holdings. They're selling the right for others to buy their BTC at a set price in the future, pocketing premium income today. It's a classic options play, repurposed for the digital age.

The Market Impact: A Stealth Sell-Off

This isn't panic selling, but it has a similar effect. Every covered call contract represents a potential future sale, creating a ceiling of latent sell pressure. It signals a shift in mindset: from pure, unadulterated speculation to generating yield in a market that's maturing—or, as some on Wall Street might sneer, becoming boring enough for their spreadsheets.

The Bigger Picture: A Maturing Market's Growing Pains

The move underscores a pivotal moment. Crypto's early 'buy and forget' ethos is colliding with sophisticated financial engineering. Long-term holders aren't losing faith; they're monetizing their conviction. But each contract written adds weight to the market's shoulders, proving that even in decentralized finance, you can't escape the iron law of supply, demand, and the human desire to get paid while waiting.

Park blames BTC OGs for recent price declines in the crypto market 

Regarding Park’s argument, sources highlighted that these major bitcoin holders establish substantial sell-side pressure via their covered call strategy. On the other hand, they noted that market makers, who play a significant role in purchasing these covered calls, are on the other side of this trade.

Therefore, this calls for an urgency for them to safeguard themselves by engaging in activities such as selling spot BTC to cover their position. This, in turn, lowers market prices, although analysts discovered a DEEP interest from traditional ETF investors.

Meanwhile, recent reports have revealed that the BTC designed to support these options has been held for several years and does not demonstrate the presence of new demands or fresh liquidity in the market. As a result, these calls bring about a reduction in prices.

To further elaborate on this point, Park mentioned that, “When you already own Bitcoin that you’ve had for over 10 years and start selling calls against it, only the act of selling calls adds new delta to the market—and that delta is negative—so you end up being a net seller of delta when you sell calls.” 

His analysis suggested that the option market has a significant influence on the price of Bitcoin. He also suggested that there is a high likelihood that this price will continue to fluctuate as long as whales continue to make short-term profits, particularly from their BTC holdings by selling covered calls. 

Meanwhile, it is worth noting that the cryptocurrency separated from the stock market in the latter half of 2025. At this time, some analysts expressed their belief that Bitcoin is closely tied to tech stocks. Moreover, while stocks continued to reach their highest point, BTC significantly declined to approximately $90,000. 

Analysts express their belief that Bitcoin will begin to rise again 

Several analysts have shared their forecasts that Bitcoin will begin to surge again when the US Federal Reserve continues to implement interest rate cuts and allocate additional funds into the financial system. According to them, this MOVE could indicate a positive sign for risky investments. 

Following their prediction, data from CME Group’s FedWatch tool indicated that approximately 24.4% of traders anticipated that the US Federal Reserve could consider another rate cut at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting scheduled for January next year.

However, some analysts speculated that BTC might experience a decline to reach a record low of $76,000, arguing that its upward trend has already come to an end.

The analysts made this assumption after trader Roman, with the username @Roman_Trading, shared an X post on Thursday of this week, publicly displaying his recent analysis and informing his followers to prepare for an additional 17% decline in Bitcoin’s price.

Following his statement, sources acknowledged that BTC/USD  has been facing difficulties in bouncing back after reaching its recent lows close to $80,000. They argued that instead, it is moving within a channel that slopes upwards. 

Get up to $30,050 in trading rewards when you join Bybit today