Netherland-based Deribit, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange by options volume, contributed more than 85 percent of the total daily trading volume. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which is synonymous with institutional activity, traded $832,000 worth of options contracts, a meager 1 percent of the global volume. Aggregate open interest or number of outstanding option contracts also ticked higher to $642.3 million on Thursday, having bottomed out below $400 million in March. Meanwhile, bitcoin’s price printed a high of $7,200 and closed Thursday with a 4.5 percent gain, its biggest single-day rise since April 6, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index. Importantly, the top cryptocurrency by the market value found acceptance above key average resistance at $7,000. The breakout has revived the stalled uptrend from March lows and could fuel a rise toward $8,000 in the days leading up to the May 2020 halving. The event will reduce rewards per block mined on bitcoin’s blockchain by 50 percent to 6.25 BTC. Read more: Bitcoin Halving, Explained Some observers expect the impending supply cut to bode well for bitcoin’s price. “Next month’s halving should serve as a catalyst for more bullish medium to long term price action,” said Lennard Neo, head of research at Stack. Options market activity, however, suggests investors are making bets (buying put options), possibly to hedge against a potential post-halving price drop or another March-like macro-driven crash in the crypto markets. The increased demand for put options is reflected in the rise of the put-call open interest ratio to a seven-week high of 0.63, according to Skew data.