Friday is here again and that means Bitcoin options expiry day. Crypto markets have had a volatile week, so will today’s expiring batch of contracts add to the momentum?
There are around 18,000 Bitcoin options due to expire on April 5 with a notional value of $1.23 billion.
However, today’s expiry event is much smaller than last week’s whopping $15 billion end-of-quarter crypto options expiry.
Moreover, markets have been weaker this week, with total capitalization falling 5% as $150 billion left the space.
Bitcoin Options Expiry
Today’s tranche of expiring Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 0.64. This means there are about a third more call (long) contracts expiring than puts (shorts).
Additionally, the max pain point of today’s batch is $68,000, which is about $500 higher than current spot prices.
There is also around $900 million in open interest at the $70,000 strike price, indicating that the bulls are confident of a return to those levels. Additionally, there is $840 million in OI at a strike price of $100,000, according to Deribit. However, BTC appears to be in retreat at the moment.
Crypto derivatives tooling provider Greeks Live reported that the volatile week has ended in a short-sellers win before adding that selling calls have been the most dominant trade of the week, “with implied volatility across all major terms showing a significant decline.”
“Bitcoin is coming off the halving with sentiment support, other coins have fallen into a short-term bear market, and ETF inflows have slowed recently as the market is digesting the premium from ETFs.”
In addition to the Bitcoin options, around 270,000 Ethereum contracts are due to expire. These have a put/call ratio of 0.38, a max pain point of $3,400, and a notional value of $890 million.
Crypto Market Outlook
Crypto markets went up yesterday evening, with the total cap reaching $2.67 trillion, before the trend reversed and most assets erased the gains. Zooming out shows that markets have been consolidating around this level since early March.
Bitcoin went as high as $69,000 after its mid-week dip but dropped back down to $66,500 during the Friday morning Asian session. The asset remains around 10% down from its all-time high.
Ethereum prices were not as buoyant, but ETH is still down by 1% to $3,275.
The altcoins were a mixed bag with significant gains for Toncoin (TON), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Ethereum Classic (ETC), and notable losses for Solana (SOL), Internet Computer (ICP), and Aptos (APT).