Bitcoin traders appear cautious about the sustainability of the cryptocurrency’s swift recovery from Tuesday’s low of $53,000.

• The top cryptocurrency jumped 8% on Wednesday, erasing Tuesday's slide from $57,000 to $53,000, as the U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen backtracked on comments suggesting interest rate hikes may be needed to stop the economy from overheating.
• Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading near $58,000, representing a 21% gain on lows near $48,000 seen at the end of April, according to CoinDesk 20 data.
• The recovery, however, has failed to subdue fears of a deeper bull market correction. The one-week put-call skew remains entrenched in the positive territory for the third straight week in a sign of persistent demand for short-term put options or bearish bets.
• Traders look to be buying "protective puts" – purchasing puts against long bitcoin positions in the spot or futures market.
• The put-call skew is a gauge of the value of puts relative to calls; a positive skew implies that demand for puts (bearish options bets) is outstripping calls (bullish bets). 

• The one-week put-call skew is currently hovering near 9%, having turned positive with bitcoin's drop from $60,000 to sub-$50,000 in the second half of April.
• However, the options market continues to show long-term bullish with three- and six-month skews returning negative values. The one-month gauge is now hovering near zero.

Also read: Ether Traders Load Up on $8K Call Options in Bet Price Will Double by July 

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Bitcoin (BTC) held initial support above $43,000 during Asian trading hours as intraday charts appear to be oversold. The cryptocurrency was trading at around $45,300 at press time and is down 3% over the past 24 hours. Buyers are taking a breather after a near 13% rally month to date and will likely defend breakout support near $42,000.

• The relative strength index (RSI) on the four-hour chart is almost oversold, which suggests the current pullback could stabilize around support levels.
• Initial support is seen at the 100-period moving average on the four-hour chart near $43,000 and then at the $42,000 breakout level.
• Buyers will need to make a decisive move above $50,000 resistance to resume the uptrend.  

Bitcoin is up over $500 on a four-hour basis after testing lower supports near $44,000 during Asia’s late morning trading hours.

The rebound from 24-hour lows of $44,248 follows a period of profit-taking, seen Tuesday, on the back of short-term fatigue, as CoinDesk reported. Bitcoin is currently changing hands for around $45,000 and is down 2.9% from a 24-hour high of $47,157, CoinDesk data shows.

Bitcoin continues to cool upon multiple attempts at the $50,000 price tag, evoking moments of price action gone by, though that may be less of a concern now given demand from bigger players, according to some.

“In comparison to the bull runs in 2017 and 2018, the current movement takes a more mature trend,” said Cynthia Wu, head of sales at Singapore-based digital asset services firm Matrixport. “The market landscape has become much more institutionalized – where now you have proprietary traders in crypto hedge funds, crypto-offerings from foreign exchange brokers and institutions … that are transacting on an institutional scale.”

The ongoing price trend for bitcoin (BTC, -2.46%) and the fusion of retail and institutional interest are a sign that the search for yield by investors, big or small, has extended into crypto and “will be around for good,” Wu added.

Bitcoin’s daily price action remains relatively flat with the weight of the previously discussed 200-day moving average bearing down on prices near $45,500, a sign a further sell pressure could be lurking around the corner.

Though the altcoin market continues to hold firm with most in the top 20 by market cap remaining in the green when viewing over a seven-day period.

“Overall, the markets have seen a positive trend continue this week; altcoins are up while bitcoin has coasted flat,” said Byron Goldberg, Australian country manager at crypto exchange Luno. “Interestingly, we are seeing ether (ETH, -5.27%) slightly outperform bitcoin week-on-week.”

Over a 30-day period, ether is up 67.6% compared to bitcoin’s 46.3% over the same period, Messari data shows.

Goldberg points to Ethereum’s London hard fork as the likely catalyst for driving prices higher on the world’s second-largest crypto by market capitalization.

Indeed, futures premium on ether stands at 7.36% to bitcoin’s meagre 2.8%, meaning the crypto markets are likely anticipating ether to rise further than bitcoin over the next three months with a shift in institutional interest, Goldberg added.

All major cryptos in the top 20 posted results in the red over a 24-hour period by press time, with dogecoin (DOGE, -10.23%) having shed the most while uniswap (UNI, -10.79%), and chainlink (LINK, -10.04%) followed close behind.

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