Bitcoin 
$106,862 successfully held above the $94,500 mark following the expiration of $7.2 billion in options contracts. On Friday, a total of 76,709 contracts expired. Despite this significant expiration event, the price remained stable, rising over 2% after a brief drop to $92,000 observed on Thursday.
Investors Are Betting on Price Increases for Bitcoin
Options data indicates that investors maintain long-term bullish expectations for Bitcoin. Of the expired contracts, 57% were call options. The most frequently traded levels recorded were at $95,000 and $100,000. CoinPanel CEO Aran Hawker regarded this trend as a sign of robust long-term optimism.
The put-call ratio stood at 0.73, indicating that bearish positions attracted less interest compared to call options. The price point with the most significant potential loss, referred to as the “maximum pain point,” was set at $86,000, suggesting that the market adopted fewer hedging strategies against declines.
Bearish positions were primarily placed at the $70,000 and $80,000 levels. These contracts served as insurance against price drops. However, with the expiration of the options, such risk scenarios temporarily receded into the background.
Whales Turn Calmness into Opportunity
Typically, such large options expirations lead to significant market volatility. However, Bitcoin remained unshaken this time. Recent data indicated that implied volatility, or the expected annual price fluctuation, slightly decreased by April 25, showing that the market did not panic in the short term.
Two primary factors contributed to this stability. Firstly, withdrawals of BTC from centralized exchanges (CEX) reached a two-year high. According to analysis by CryptoQuant, investors are transferring their assets from exchanges to long-term wallets, signaling the onset of a new accumulation phase.
The second noteworthy factor was findings from Glassnode. The analytics platform reported that large investors made purchases during the recent rally. Its “Accumulation Trend Score” metric returned to levels seen at the end of December 2024 and the beginning of the year, indicating that large wallets, often referred to as whales, are actively taking positions in the market.
The Bitfinex team emphasized that the upward resistance has decreased, particularly following the breach of the $90,000 options barrier. New buy options concentrated around $95,000 and $100,000 have drawn attention.
Meanwhile, investors are setting their sights on upcoming dates. According to Deribit data, options with expiry dates on May 30 and June 27 are already seeing high demand. Hawker noted that this is one of the signals indicating the market’s readiness to move upwards.
