Around 34,000 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, June 20, and they have a notional value of roughly $3.3 billion.
This event is slightly larger than last week’s options expiry, but the impact on spot markets is likely to be minimal. They have been on the back foot all week, losing $30B since Monday, as crypto assets cool amid rising Middle East tensions.
This week’s tranche of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 1.16, meaning that there are more short sellers than longs, but not by much. There is also a max pain point of $106,000, around $1,500 above current spot prices, which is where most losses will be made on contract expiry.
Open interest (OI), or the value or number of BTC options contracts yet to expire, is highest at strike prices between $115,000 and $140,000, with more than $1.7 billion at each price, as bullish speculators remain confident, according to Deribit.
In its weekly market update, crypto derivatives provider Greeks Live said the group shows a “predominantly bearish sentiment,” with traders maintaining short positions and watching key support levels at $104,000 and $100,000.
“There’s significant concern about altcoins being ‘dead’ if $104K is lost, with geopolitical tensions around Iran adding to market uncertainty.”
They added that traders are forced to “flip sides fast in these choppy choppity chop chop times” as traditional gamma strategies underperform.
In addition to today’s Bitcoin options, there are around 215,000 Ethereum contracts that are also expiring, with a notional value of $546 million, a max pain point of $2,600, and a put/call ratio of 0.68. This brings Friday’s combined crypto options expiry notional value to around $3.9 billion.
Total market capitalization has fallen a further 2% on the day to $3.37 trillion, but it remains within a range-bound channel that formed in early May.
Bitcoin has been flat over the past 24 hours with a slight dip to $104,600 at the time of writing. However, it has fallen 3.8% from its weekly high of $108,770 on Tuesday, but support levels continue to hold despite the escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
Ethereum prices are also holding above support at $2,500, and the asset has moved very little over the past 48 hours.
The altcoins were mostly flat, with only Bitcoin Cash (BCH) gaining 7.7% while there were losses for Hyperliquid, dropping 4.8% on the day.
