$640M in Bitcoin Options Expire Today; Here’s What to Expect

Cryptocurrency markets have faced a challenging week, with the significant players experiencing a downturn. All eyes are now on an upcoming derivatives expiry event, and market participants are curious if it will lead to a much-needed change.

Wondering why this event is so important? Read on.

Options in the Spotlight

As we near October 13, approximately 24,000 Bitcoin options contracts, worth around $640 million, are set to expire. What’s striking is that this week’s options expiry is about 50% larger than the previous week’s. When these 24,000 BTC options expire, they’ll bring with them a Put-Call Ratio of 1.23 and a maximum pain point of $27,000.

In addition to Bitcoin, roughly 190,000 Ethereum options are also approaching their expiration. These contracts have a Put-Call Ratio of 0.71, a maximum pain point of $1,600, and a notional value of $290 million. What’s significant about the Ethereum contracts is their put/call ratio of 0.71, indicating that more calls are being sold due to the bearish pressure on ETH.

Bitcoin Holds its Ground

Bitcoin continues to maintain its dominance in the market. This week, positions in BTC options have surged by nearly 70%. Interestingly, 60% of these positions are BTC Put options, which is somewhat unusual. Meanwhile, Ethereum is struggling to gain traction.

Greeks Live wrote on X, “IVs across all major terms remain at all-time lows with no sign of a rebound, and with liquidity continuing to deteriorate of late, the big one looks to be getting closer.”

Understanding Past Trends

Back in June, about 150,000 BTC options contracts, valued at around $4.5 billion, and 1.2 million ether contracts, worth $2.3 billion, expired on the major cryptocurrency options exchange, Deribit. During that time, the most valuable cryptocurrency traded within a narrow price range and recorded only a 1% gain, reaching $30,700.

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Now, investors are closely watching to see if history will repeat itself as these options contracts approach their expiry once again.