Bitcoin breaks $75,000 as put-hedge unwinds drive derivatives-led rally
BTC hit $75,800 and cleared a $73,750–$74,400 resistance corridor as market makers re-hedged. Ether and XRP gained about 8%
Bitcoin pushed above $75,000 early Tuesday, March 17, hitting a session high of $75,800. The move cleared a long-running $73,750–$74,400 resistance corridor and coincided with traders unwinding bearish put-option hedges around the $55,000 and $60,000 strikes.
Derivatives positioning has been a key driver of the latest leg higher, with flows tied to options hedging spilling into spot demand. That matters for traders watching whether the breakout can hold, because mechanically driven moves can fade if the hedging impulse exhausts.
The $73,750–$74,400 area has acted as a ceiling multiple times, reversing bitcoin’s trend three times since 2024. Clearing that corridor removes a reference point that had repeatedly capped rallies and can change how both discretionary traders and systematic strategies size risk around the level.
Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, pointed to downside hedges being taken off as the catalyst. “In bitcoin, the recent move has been driven largely by sizeable put selling around the $55,000 and $60,000 strikes, as traders increasingly recognized that these options were unlikely to expire in the money with only days remaining. The unwinding of these downside hedges has contributed to the latest bullish price action,” he said in a note to clients.
Those puts were built earlier in the year when price action deteriorated. Traders had aggressively bought put options at $60,000 and lower in early February as bitcoin sold off and nearly hit $60,000 on some exchanges, then reassessed those bearish positions as sentiment stabilized.
Thielen described a feedback loop that can amplify a spot move once hedges start coming off. “The selling or closing of Bitcoin put options reduces downside hedging pressure and forces market makers to buy BTC to rebalance their exposure, creating supportive flows that can push prices higher,” he said.
So far, the rally has not been accompanied by significant upside call buying, leaving the balance of positioning skewed toward hedge unwinds rather than fresh bullish leverage. Thielen said that absence of call demand suggests the move has been driven more by closing existing protection than by aggressive new upside bets.
The breakout in BTC lifted majors and higher beta tokens over the past 24 hours. The CoinDesk 20 Index rose 5% to 2,202 points, while ether gained nearly 8% to $2,360, XRP rose 8%, and solana gained 4%.
The next checkpoint is whether upside call demand emerges as price holds above the former resistance corridor, or whether the move stalls as the put-unwind and market-maker re-hedging flows run their course.
