Bitcoin traded near $64,600.00 after rebounding from levels below $58,000.00 earlier in July, while large options positions indicated a potential move towards $72,000.00 as the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision approaches, according to CoinDesk.
Bitcoin was trading up 1.15% at $64,717.20 as of 9:02 AM. Traders bought 20,000 Bitcoin call options with a strike price of $70,000.00 expiring on July 31, while selling a similar number of call options at a strike price of $72,000.00. This bull call spread strategy represents approximately $2.5 billion in nominal value.
This strategy benefits from a moderate rise above $70,000.00, but limits gains when Bitcoin reaches $72,000.00. The size and structure of these trades suggest they reflect institutional rather than individual investors.
These contracts expire two days after the Federal Reserve's anticipated decision on July 29, 2025. Futures markets are pricing in a 75% to 80% probability that officials will keep interest rates at 3.5% to 3.75%, following June inflation data that showed a decline in price pressures.
Renewed US-Iranian tensions and rising oil prices could complicate these forecasts by reviving inflation fears.
On another note, Michael Saylor, chairman of Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR), warned that the proposed Bitcoin Improvement 110 (BIP 110) could threaten network neutrality, according to RootData.
BIP 110 proposes a one-year soft fork update that restricts data-intensive transactions, limiting OP_RETURN output to 83 bytes and capping some payloads at 256 bytes, while exempting outputs created before it is activated.
Proponents argue that these restrictions will reduce the storage of random data and ease the burden on node operators. In contrast, Saylor stated that Bitcoin's consensus rules should not dictate which valid transactions deserve access to block space.
Support from miners remains virtually nonexistent, far below the activation threshold of 1,109 out of 2,016 mined blocks. Saylor and Blockstream co-founder Adam Back have warned that imposing controversial rules without broad support could lead to a network split.
The concentration of mining operations is a governance concern related to this issue. Four mining pools controlled more than 70% of Bitcoin's hashrate, according to a data snapshot dated June 23, 2025, reported by CryptoSlate.
Foundry Digital held a 31% share, followed by AntPool at 18%, ViaBTC at 13%, and F2Pool at 10%. In a seven-day data snapshot published on July 16, 2025, Foundry came in first with 27%, while F2Pool and AntPool tied for second place with 17.2% each.
Nakamoto's Bitcoin mining factor reached three in June, meaning that just three mining pools were enough to control more than half of the blocks produced by the network.
Cryptocurrency prices today: Altcoins trade stably amid light trading on Sunday
In terms of broader cryptocurrency prices, most alternative currencies rose amid light trading on Sunday.
Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, rose 1.53% during the day, while XRP rose 1.19%.
Cardano recorded a gain of 0.12%, while BNB and Solana rose by 0.07% and 1.91% respectively.
In the meme currency market, Dogecoin rose by 0.82%, while $TRUMP fell by 1.80%.
