Could Crypto Markets Rise As $1.1B Bitcoin Options Expire Today?

Apart from a minor dip mid-week, crypto markets have been relatively inactive over the past few days and continue to trade sideways.

However, around 18,280 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on May 10, which may inject some volatility.

According to Deribit, the theoretical value of this week’s batch of expired BTC contracts is around $1.15 billion. The batch is slightly smaller than last week’s expiration event.

Expiration of Bitcoin Options

The put/call ratio for BTC options this week is 0.64, which means more calls or long contracts are expiring than puts or shorts.

Longs also dominate in open interest (OI) with nearly $700 million at the $70,000 and $100,000 strike prices. Open interest refers to the number or value of contracts that have yet to be settled.

OI for put contracts is also starting to rise at about $360 million at the $50,000 strike price, according to Deribit.

In general, open interest for Bitcoin call options is more than double the OI of put options, indicating bullish trader sentiment.

Call options give the right to buy the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a specific date.

Additionally, trading firms such as QCP Capital and Paradigm have seen a resurgence in demand for put options, including buyers closing out existing positions to incorporate higher strike calls expiring in July and September.

Bitcoin Options Expired Contracts. Source: Deribit

In addition to today’s batch of Bitcoin options, 276,000 Ethereum contracts also expire.

These have a notional value of about $840 million and a put/call ratio of 0.74. There is a lot of OI, around $636 million, at the strike price of $3,600, indicating that Ethereum derivatives traders are also bullish.

Crypto market outlook

Crypto markets have gained 2.1% on the day to reach $2.45 trillion in total capitalization. However, they have been consolidating around this level since mid-April with very little movement in either direction.

Bitcoin dipped below $61,000 on May 9, but has recovered to touch $63,000 during the Asian trading session on Friday morning. The asset has been trending down since its all-time high in mid-March and has lost 15% since then.

Ethereum prices hit an intraday low of $2,953, but have since recovered to reach $3,032 at the time of writing.

Altcoins are mostly in the green right now, with bigger gains for Solana (SOL) and Toncoin (TON).

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