$11.5B Crypto Options Expiry Looms—Will Markets Buckle or Bounce?
Today’s the day: A staggering $11.5 billion in crypto options contracts hit expiry. Traders are sweating bullets—will this trigger another leg down, or is the market primed to shake it off?
Wall Street’s usual ’risk management’ playbook looks about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. Meanwhile, crypto’s degenerate gamblers are already placing bets on the next swing.
One thing’s certain: Volatility isn’t asking permission. Buckle up.
Crypto Options Expiry
This week’s batch of bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 0.87, meaning that there are slightly more long contracts expiring than shorts as sentiment cools. There is also a max pain point of $100,000, around $6,000 below 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 the $120,000 strike price, which has $1.7 billion, and there is an additional $1.6 billion in OI at the $110,000 strike price as bullish speculators remain confident, according to Deribit.
Options Expiry Alert
At 08:00 UTC tomorrow, over $11.7B in crypto options are set to expire on Deribit.$BTC: $10.03B notional | Put/Call: 0.87 | Max Pain: $100K$ETH: $1.67B notional | Put/Call: 0.83 | Max Pain: $2,300
Calls dominate OI at higher strikes, reflecting… pic.twitter.com/VlISVbmL8t
— Deribit (@DeribitOfficial) May 29, 2025
In a recent update on May 30, crypto derivatives provider Greeks Live said, “The market is still more optimistic about BTC breaking out to new highs in the NEAR future.”
It added that the put/call ratio for delivery is falling, and “above $100,000, this price has lasted for the entire first half of the year.”
“Crypto institutions are not showing much reaction to the new highs in the pie, with low expectations for a near-term surge, and more expectations for a steady, moderate rise.”
In addition to today’s batch of Bitcoin options, there are around 624,000 ethereum contracts that are also expiring today, with a notional value of $1.62 billion, a max pain point of $2,300, and a put/call ratio of 0.81. This brings Friday’s combined crypto options expiry notional value to around $11.5 billion
“The upward shock of the ETH [move] has begun to slow down, and the market has recalibrated the price of the ETH and volatility, which has risen slightly overall,” Greeks commented.
Crypto Market Outlook
The crypto market decline has accelerated over the past 24 hours, with total capitalization dumping 4.4% to $3.46 trillion.
Bitcoin is leading losses, with the asset dropping below $106,000 during the Friday morning Asian trading session in a 2% daily dive.
Ethereum’s momentum is waning as ETH dumped 5% on the day, dipping below $2,600 on Friday morning.
As usual, the altcoins are a sea of red with larger losses for Solana, Dogecoin, Cardano, Hyperliquid, Chainlink, and Avalanche.
