The options market for ether has seen more activity than bitcoin in the past 24 hours, with ether options contracts worth $1.23 billion exchanging hands across major exchanges, including Deribit, according to data tracking website Laevitas. This is nearly 60% of the global crypto options activity and 50% more than bitcoin's trading volume. The recent pick-up in activity in the ether options market comes after Ethereum's successful implementation of the Shanghai upgrade, which has opened withdrawals of over 18 million staked ether in the network since December 2020, boosting investor interest in ether call options. The increased demand for ether calls is evident from the short-term and long-term options skew, which have flipped positive.

(By Omkar Godbole)