Anchorage Digital says MicroStrategy’s options market is signaling caution, not panic — even as investors load up on downside protection.
In a June 25 research note, Anchorage’s head of research David Lawant found that options traders across Bitcoin (via Deribit), BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and MicroStrategy (MSTR) were paying a premium for protection against losses. But crucially, MicroStrategy’s options activity hasn’t hit the extremes that historically accompany company-specific crises or forced deleveraging.
Key takeaways from the report
- Put skew — a measure of how much traders pay for downside protection — is elevated across Deribit and IBIT options, reflecting a preference for hedging over chasing upside. Defensive positioning sits in the 82nd percentile for IBIT and the 84th percentile for Deribit over their respective histories.
- Bitcoin options spent nearly half of 2026 with one-week implied volatility trading above one-month implied volatility, an unusual short-term volatility structure Anchorage links to a stream of macro events, geopolitical developments, and crypto-specific shocks that have kept traders focused on near-term risk.
- Anchorage argues that a reversion to one-month implied volatility trading higher than one-week would signal growing investor comfort looking past immediate uncertainty.
Why that matters for MicroStrategy
Anchorage’s read: traders are bracing for volatility — not pricing in a severe, company-specific breakdown for MicroStrategy. Put skew has climbed because investors want protection, but it hasn’t reached the extreme levels Anchorage associates with expectations of forced liquidations or a broader corporate crisis.
That analysis arrives as MicroStrategy’s capital structure and stock have come under fresh pressure. Its perpetual preferred security, STRC, fell to $82.53 on June 22 — roughly 17% below $100 par — before rebounding after the company said it had boosted fiat reserves to $1.3 billion. By Thursday STRC was trading near $75, about 25% below par. MicroStrategy’s common shares also remain under strain: Yahoo Finance showed MSTR trading near $85 on Thursday after roughly a 78% drop over the past year and a new 52-week low.
Legal and governance friction
Outside of the options market, MicroStrategy has attracted increased legal and investor scrutiny. Rosen Law Firm announced an investigation into whether the company made materially inaccurate disclosures and is evaluating potential securities claims and a possible class action on behalf of shareholders. Those developments followed comments from Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff suggesting that holders of STRC could have legal grounds to pursue claims related to Michael Saylor’s promotion of the company’s Bitcoin strategy. Separately, MicroStrategy director Jarrod Patten sold another 1,500 MSTR shares as the stock declined.
Still, Anchorage’s bottom line is that options traders appear to be buying protection for near-term volatility rather than pricing in an imminent collapse. MicroStrategy remains the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, with 847,363 BTC on its balance sheet after popularizing the corporate Bitcoin treasury model in 2020.
Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news
