The borrow market for QTUM has deteriorated sharply since this morning's earlier report. Availability has dropped to 13.1% — the tightest reading in nearly a year — as the cost to borrow doubled in a single week.
When ORTEX last covered this ETF, availability stood at 23.5%. It has since fallen to 13.1%. That means roughly one share remains available to borrow for every seven already lent out. The 52-week low is 12.8% — QTUM is almost there.
Cost to borrow has moved in lockstep. CTB stood at 1.10% in the previous report. It now sits at 2.08% — a doubling in less than a week and more than double its one-month-ago level of ~1.03%.
This is a meaningful shift in borrowing conditions within a matter of hours.
Short interest dipped 8.4% on June 23, retreating from a peak of ~526,000 shares short. The current estimate is ~482,000 shares. That is still 57% above levels seen just one week ago.
SI sits at 1.76% of free float. By itself, that level is not extreme for a thematic ETF. But the lending dynamics tell a different story. The speed of the drawdown in available shares — availability fell 64% in a single week — reflects intense repositioning pressure rather than a gradual drift.
The put-call ratio is 0.73, sitting roughly 1.9 standard deviations above the 20-day mean. Elevated put demand has persisted across the past two sessions. The PCR 52-week range runs from 0.30 to 1.38 — current levels are not extreme, but the recent move is notable given how stable the ratio had been through most of May and early June.
Availability at 13.1% is within a fraction of the 52-week low of 12.8%. If borrowing demand picks back up — or if shares are not returned quickly after yesterday's partial unwind — QTUM could breach that low. A further CTB spike would follow.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open QTUM on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
