of 0.26. The call options period is mainly concentrated on September 30 and December 30 contracts, with 1.2 billion and 1.8 billion respectively.
“The upcoming Merge is a massive driver of price right now,” said Charles Storry, head of growth at Phuture, a crypto index platform. He said that about 40% of ether’s price movement today is because of the Merge, or Ethereum's shift from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake protocol. The Merge is set to take place on Sept. 19.
Head of Europe at Hashdex, Laurent Kssis, said that he suspects many investors have already taken decent positions at cheaper ETH levels to account for the potential rally. “All will be down to the Ethereum Merge in September,” said Kssis. “This is an example of position building.”