ETH's 2800 Call Build Carries Real Buyer Fingerprints, Not Dealer Noise

The ETH-27NOV26-2800-C — a strike roughly 24% above spot — shows the largest single 24h OI build of any strike on that expiry, +1,140 call contracts, against a backdrop where the expiry's aggregate flow is put-heavy (total put delta 2,504 vs call delta 506).

What separates this from an OI-delta-only read is the taker tape. Across the last 72 hours, buyer aggression on this exact instrument sat at 1.0 in most active 1h buckets, with buy premium of $3,397 against just $565 of sell premium in the sampled window, netting roughly $2,832 buyer-led. One bucket (Oct 30, 08:00-09:00 UTC) carried a $278,239 block print alongside 0.99 buyer aggression — a size trade landing in the same direction as the retail-style ticks around it, not against them.

By contrast, nearby strikes on the same expiry (2200, 2250, 2350, 2500 puts) show heavy OI growth but skew toward seller-dominant taker flow. The 2800 call stands out as a pocket of confirmed directional buying inside an otherwise put-accumulating expiry.