Will Markets Break Resistance When $2B Crypto Options Expire Today?

Around 22,200 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, April 17, with a notional value of roughly $1.66 billion. This event is a little smaller than last week’s expiry, so it is unlikely to have any impact on spot markets.

Crypto prices have been climbing slowly this week, with around $150 billion being added to total capitalization since Monday.

Bitcoin Options Expiry

This week’s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 1, meaning that sellers of longs and shorts are evenly matched. Max pain is around $71,000, according to Coinglass, which is a little lower 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 $1.5 billion as bullish bets take over, but bears still have $1.4 billion in OI at $60,000.

Total BTC options OI across all exchanges has been steadily climbing this month and is at $35.6 billion, according to Coinglass.

“Positioning has shifted from last week. BTC flipped from call-heavy to puts leading, while ETH OI grew week-on-week despite the broader market move,” commented Deribit.

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