Bitcoin Wallets Add 88,987 BTC as Puts Carry Higher Implied Volatility

Bitcoin wallets holding 10 to 10,000 BTC added about 88,987 BTC during the month beginning Sept. 19, bringing their combined balance above 13.69 million BTC by Oct. 19. That was the group’s highest balance in six months. At the reported Oct. 19 options readings, 25-delta puts had higher implied volatility than comparable calls.

The wallet figure measures the combined BTC balance of addresses in that range. It does not count how many wallets there are, identify their owners or establish how the coins were acquired. An earlier report on whale accumulation covered roughly 84,000 BTC over one month.

November’s 25-delta risk reversal stood at −3.19 volatility points. Under the call-minus-put convention, a negative reading means puts had higher implied volatility than calls at comparable deltas. A separate one-month reading was −3.33 points at 12:31 p.m. ET (16:31 UTC) Oct. 19. That snapshot uses a different maturity from the November reading, so the two figures are distinct tenor readings.

Deribit’s DVOL index, an annualized, forward-looking measure of 30-day Bitcoin implied volatility, closed Oct. 19 at 37.33. The reading was below 92% of its daily readings since March 2021. DVOL reflects the size of moves priced into options, while the risk reversal indicates which side—puts or calls—has the higher implied volatility. Neither measure identifies the traders behind the positions.

Bitcoin traded near $83,000 at about 10:37 a.m. ET (14:37 UTC) Oct. 20. The balance increase and options readings describe different parts of the market: wallet balances track BTC held by a defined address cohort, while options measures describe derivatives pricing. The figures do not link the wallets adding BTC to traders paying a premium for puts.