Bitcoin clears $75,000 as put hedges unwind and shorts close
BTC hit $75,800 after breaking a $73,750–$74,400 resistance corridor, with broader crypto rising alongside
Bitcoin pushed above $75,000 early Tuesday, March 17, 2026, reaching as high as $75,800. The move cleared a long-term resistance corridor between $73,750 and $74,400 and coincided with traders unwinding bearish derivatives positioning, including put hedges and short exposure.
Derivatives positioning has been a key focus for traders as BTC approached a level that had repeatedly capped rallies. The break above the $73,750–$74,400 corridor mattered because that zone had reversed bitcoin’s trend three times since 2024, turning it into a widely watched trigger for systematic flows and hedging adjustments.
Price action in the move was tied to bearish exposure being reduced rather than fresh upside risk being added. The breakout occurred as traders closed bearish short positions that were initiated during the early February sell-off, adding buy pressure as those positions were covered.
Options flows were also central to the setup. Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, wrote that the rally was “driven largely by sizeable put selling around the $55,000 and $60,000 strikes,” as traders judged those contracts were unlikely to finish in the money with only days remaining. He linked the shift to the earlier wave of demand for downside protection when bitcoin sold off sharply.
That earlier demand was concentrated in early February, when traders “aggressively bought put options at $60,000 and lower levels” as BTC fell and nearly hit $60,000 on some exchanges. With sentiment stabilizing afterward, those hedges became candidates to close, changing dealer positioning and the market’s near-term supply and demand balance.
Thielen described a second-order effect from that unwind. “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.
Even with BTC above $75,000, Thielen said the move had not been accompanied by “significant upside call buying.” That detail matters for interpreting the rally’s character, since it points to hedges coming off and shorts being covered, rather than a wave of new bullish leverage expressing itself through calls.
The move in bitcoin lifted the broader market over the same window. The CoinDesk 20 Index rose 5% to 2,202 points over the past 24 hours, while ether gained nearly 8% to $2,360 and XRP rose about 8%. Solana gained 4%, with ZEC, PEPE, DOT and VIRTUAL also cited among the stronger performers.
What remains unclear is the size of the options and short-covering flows behind the move, since the available information does not quantify how much put selling occurred or how much dealer hedging was required. The next milestone for traders is whether price can hold above the former $73,750–$74,400 resistance corridor as positioning continues to reset.
