How Will Crypto Markets React to $1.1B Bitcoin(BTC) Options Expiring Today?

Crypto options expiry day has here again, and spot markets have been rather calm; is this going to change? Around 18,400 Bitcoin options contracts are set to expire on Friday, August 23. They have a nominal value of around $1.1 billion. Today’s options expiry event is slightly smaller than last week’s, therefore its influence on spot markets is likely to be minor. The far larger month-end expiry event next week has a nominal value of $3.5 billion.

Bitcoin( BTC) Options Expiry

This week’s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 0.83, indicating that longs and shorts are closer together, with slightly more long (call) contracts expiring than shorts (puts). The maximum pain, or the point at which most losses will occur, is $60,000, which is quite close to current spot pricing. According to Deribit, open interest, or the total value of contracts that have yet to expire, remains high at strike prices above $70,000. Furthermore, there is almost $967 million in open interest at the $100,000 strike price, with bulls anticipating a significant increase in BTC prices. On August 22, crypto derivatives provider Greeks Live stated that this week’s macro events and data “did not cause too many waves.”

“Options data suggests that the market is in a highly calm cycle, with a solid term structure and a gradually decreasing expectation of future volatility in the options market.”In addition to today’s expiring Bitcoin options, 140,000 Ethereum options are scheduled to expire. These have a notional value of $370 million, a put-call ratio of 0.93, and a maximum pain point of $2,625.

Cryptocurrency Market Outlook

With a low options expiry event and markets continuing reasonably level, there is unlikely to be a significant impact unless there are major shocks during today’s Fed address in Jackson Hole.

Total cryptocurrency capitalization has remained steady on the day at $2.24 trillion, following a slow decline since mid-March. Bitcoin has maintained above $60,000 for the previous 24 hours, trading at $60,654 as of writing.

Ethereum was up 1.2% on the day, trading at $2,634 during the Friday morning Asian trading session. The altcoins were mostly in the green, with Binance Coin, Avalanche , and Near Protocol (NEAR) outperforming the market right now.

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