Over $3.7B in Bitcoin Options Expire as BTC Trades Above $76K ATH

Today marks a significant event in the crypto derivatives market, with large expirations of Bitcoin options as well as Ethereum options amid notable price rallies in the spot market.

A total of 49,000 BTC options and 295,000 ETH options officially expired today, November 8.

For Bitcoin, the expiration shows a Put-Call ratio of 0.72, indicating a slightly more bearish outlook among options traders who had initially bet on a significant price correction. The notional value of the 49,000 BTC options that expired worthless stands at $3.7 billion.

Notably, last Friday—when the market was in a bearish phase—28,000 Bitcoin options, valued at around $2 billion, expired. This expiration coincided with Bitcoin dipping to $68,000. At the time, the options market was almost evenly split between bearish and bullish traders.

$3.7 Billion in Bitcoin Options Expire as BTC Trades at ATH

Meanwhile, the latest event comes when Bitcoin is trading near an all-time high with a larger number of options traders betting on a pullback. However, Bitcoin has maintained its uptrend, setting higher highs each day for the past four consecutive days.

At press time, Bitcoin is trading at $76,300 after reaching an all-time high of $76,950 last night. This represents a massive gain of approximately 20% from the $66,000 price level Bitcoin traded at on Monday.

This positive market sentiment is spilling over into Ethereum, with ETH trading at $2,950—around its highest intraday price.

Ethereum Expiry

Meanwhile, in the Ethereum derivatives market, 295,000 ETH options expired with a Put-Call ratio of 0.65, reflecting a neutral to slightly bullish bias. The total notional value of the expired ETH options is approximately $860 million, while the Max Pain is $2,500.

Last week, 137,000 ETH options contracts also expired worthless, with a notional value of $350 million, after the token’s price fell to $2,467. Since then, Ethereum has surged, up about 20% from those levels.

Max Pain and Market Outlook

Commenting on the latest expiry data for Bitcoin and Ethereum, Greeks.Live noted that the Max Pain point this week was reached because many positions accumulated earlier remained unchanged. Additionally, the options expiring today represented 15% of the total open positions.

Moreover, they noted that the conclusion of the U.S. election led to a sharp drop in short-term options implied volatility (IV). At the same time, IV for longer-term options also declined across the board. With the market now more optimistic, the outlook for the Q4 2024 suggests that the strong trend is likely to continue, according to Greeks.Live.