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Another Friday has arrived, which means Bitcoin options are about to expire. This time, it’s notable that altcoins in the crypto markets are closing the week strongly with significant gains within a robust structure.
Approximately 25,000 Bitcoin option contracts are expiring today, a lower level than last week’s expiration event. Additionally, unlike this week, there is a massive year-end expiration happening next Friday.
Expiration of Bitcoin Options
The value of Bitcoin option contracts expiring today stands at $1.11 billion. Moreover, the put/call ratio is at 0.70, indicating that a larger portion of long positions (calls) are expiring compared to short positions (puts).
According to data shared by Deribit, there is an increasing concentration in the $40,000 and $45,000 regions. Approximately 22,400 calls are at the $50,000 level.
Data provided by Greeks Live on December 21st reflected mixed signals from the option market, with BTC remaining at the $44,000 level.
Both BTC and ETH block trades were dominated by put purchases, with over half of the block trades totaling $100 million, respectively $13 million for BTC and $88 million for ETH. Large whales are adding to their short positions during a period of high market sentiment, and traders need to be cautious of the downside risk.
Another piece of data from Deribit showed that the total open interest nominal value was $16.4 billion.
In addition to Bitcoin options, approximately 217,000 Ethereum options are also expiring today, with a nominal value of about $491 million as of writing time.
Cryptocurrency Market Outlook
The Bitcoin options expiring today are unlikely to affect spot markets. Bitcoin’s price gained 2.5% in the morning hours, and the total market capitalization reached its highest level since early May 2022, at $1.74 trillion.
Currently, the BTC price is trading at $43,376 as of writing time. More importantly, compared to last Friday, the crypto asset has increased by 3.6%. Ethereum was trading at $2,290, up 2.31% at the time of writing.
Contrary to Bitcoin and ETH, Solana, Cardano, Avalanche, Polkadot, and Chainlink were the volume-heavy altcoins that reflected the most daily gains. During this period, Solana surpassed BNB, rising to the 4th position in the crypto market.
