How Will Markets React to $4.3B Crypto Options Expiring Today

Around 39,000 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, Dec. 12, and they have a notional value of roughly $3.6 billion.

This expiry event is pretty much the same as last week’s, which had no impact on spot markets. The US Federal Reserve dropped rates by a quarter percent this week in a move that was largely priced in by markets, hence the lack of reaction.

Bitcoin Options Expiry

This week’s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 1.1, meaning that the shorts slightly outnumber the longs. Max pain is around $90,000, according to Coinglass.

Open interest (OI), or the value or number of Bitcoin options contracts yet to expire, is highest at $100,000, which has $2.7 billion at this strike price on Deribit. There remains around $2 billion in OI at $80k and $85k targeted by short sellers.

Total BTC options OI across all exchanges is at $54.6 billion, according to Coinglass. Bitcoin positioning is tightly centered around the $90,000 level, reported Deribit.

Crypto derivatives provider Greeks Live expressed caution following this week’s rate cut. “Calling this a QE reboot or the start of a new bull market is premature,” they stated.

In addition to today’s batch of Bitcoin options, around 247,000 Ethereum contracts are also expiring, with a notional value of $768 million, max pain at $3,100, and a put/call ratio of 1.24. Total ETH options OI across all exchanges is around $12 billion.

This brings Friday’s combined crypto options expiry notional value to around $4.3 billion.

Spot Market Outlook

Markets have been mostly flat with a slight tick up in total capitalization over the past few hours, as it reached $3.2 trillion.

Bitcoin topped $93,000 again, but hit resistance again, and fell back to the $92,000 level during early trading in Asia on Friday.

Ether prices have traded in a tight range around the $3,200 level over the past day. Meanwhile, the altcoins were mostly sideways with minor gains for Solana, Bitcoin Cash, and privacy coins Monero and Zcash.

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