About $11 billion in Bitcoin options expire Friday on Deribit, with Bitcoin trading near $81,500. The expiry covers roughly 135,000 Bitcoin in contracts, split between 88,700 calls and 46,500 puts.
The put-to-call ratio stands at 0.52, meaning calls outnumber puts nearly two to one. This signals bullish positioning, with traders betting more on price increases than decreases.
The $11 billion figure represents notional value, the face value of contracts at today's price. About 86% of contracts are out of the money, meaning they would expire worthless at current prices. Settling at today's level would move roughly $130 million, about 1% of the headline notional value.
Traders who sold these contracts must buy or sell real Bitcoin to hedge as the price moves. This activity can add to price swings independent of news events.
Max pain, the price at which the most contracts expire worthless and sellers pay the least, sits at $78,000 on Deribit, about $3,500 below the current market price. The heaviest call bets cluster at $95,000 and $100,000, roughly 16% and 23% above the current price. The biggest put cluster sits at $70,000, about 14% below current levels.
Friday's expiry saw more than 6,000 contracts trade over the past 24 hours, the most trading of any Bitcoin options expiry on Deribit in that timeframe. The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at 3.75% to 4.00% on Thursday, with two officials voting to raise them. The next major options expiry arrives December 25, when roughly 135,500 Bitcoin in contracts are set to expire, about the same size as Friday's batch.