Crypto Traders Brace for $1.5B Bitcoin Options Expiry Today

Around 20,500 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, May 22, with a notional value of roughly $1.5 billion. This event is smaller than usual, so it is unlikely to have any impact on spot markets.

Crypto markets have been in decline all week, with around $50 billion leaving the space as Bitcoin continues to weaken. Positive news appears to have zero impact as investors remain under macroeconomic rain clouds.

Bitcoin Options Expiry

This week’s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 0.69, meaning that there are more sellers of longs than shorts. Max pain is around $79,000, according to Coinglass, which is a little higher than current spot prices, so some could be out of the money on expiry.

Open interest (OI), or the value or number of Bitcoin options contracts yet to expire, remains highest at the $80,000 strike price on Deribit, with $1.65 billion, but short sellers still have $1.2 billion in OI at $60,000. Total BTC options OI across all exchanges has been steadily climbing this month and is at $37.6 billion, according to Coinglass.

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