When stocks plunge, institutions may not like to buy put options to short them

$Coinbase Global, Inc.(COIN)$ After a two-day plunge, the iv of COIN's January expiration options rose above 100%. The most active trading volume is in options expiring in the current week, because options become more expensive due to iv and are more suitable for sellers.

It is worth noting that yesterday's call/put was still not low. Most call options are traded, and even buying call options is higher than selling call options. This situation may also be because the iv is too high and the put price is expensive, so institutions prefer to short sell call. However, around 4:00, some people bought puts expiring at 145 this week $COIN 20240105 145.0 PUT$

The most traded option by delta on Tuesday was $COIN 20240119 155.0 CALL$ , direction sell. Consider that it may be a new opening on the unclosed position, and close the position with a small probability. But either way, it means that 155 dollars are gone.

What is interesting is that this order was completed at 12 o 'clock in the day, when the COIN stock price was 166.

On the whole, the sell call exercise price that expires this week is selected in the range of 185 ~ 170. There are also a small number of sell put transactions, the exercise price is selected at 120 ~ 140, the expiration date is also this month. My suggestion is to look again today and see if the put option is sold at a lower strike price.