Crypto Options Expiry: Will the Markets Even Notice?

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Ah, the thrilling world of cryptocurrency options! Around 16,500 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, Feb. 21, with a notional value of roughly $1.6 billion. But worry not, dear reader, for this week’s expiry event is smaller than last week’s and one of the tiniest of the year. 😜

Bitcoin Options Expiry: A Snooze-Fest?

This means there will be virtually no impact on spot markets, which have been range-bound for most of the week. The put/call ratio is 0.75, meaning that there are slightly more call (long) contracts expiring than puts (shorts). 📈

Open interest (OI), or the value or number of BTC options contracts yet to expire, still remains highest at the $120,000 strike price, which is $1.8 billion, according to Deribit. There is also around $1.2 billion in OI at the $110,000 strike price, as derivatives traders continue to speculate that BTC prices will rise in the longer term. 🔮

“Next week’s options priced at 40% volatility again with front-month contracts falling below, indicating potential market weakness,” Greeks Live said. 😲

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Around 153,000 Ethereum contracts are also expiring today, with a notional value of $420 million and a put/call ratio of 0.48. This brings Friday’s combined crypto options expiry notional value to around $2 billion.

Crypto Market Outlook: Sideways Shuffle Continues

Markets have shown minor gains towards the end of the week, with total capitalization reaching $3.35 trillion. However, zooming out, they still remain at the lower bounds of a three-month sideways trading channel. 🎢

Bitcoin hit an intraday and two-week high of $98,750 during early trading in Asia on Friday morning. However, it faced resistance there, as it has done twice before, and pulled back slightly at the time of writing. 🕵️‍♂️

Ethereum has been a little choppier over the past 24 hours, spiking to $2,767 before pulling back to $2,744 at the time of writing. ETH has been trading sideways since it dumped below $3,000 in early February. 🎢

The altcoins were generally in the green this Friday morning, with larger gains for Solana, Sui, Avalanche, and Litecoin as ETF hope grows. 🌈

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2025-02-21 09:26