Concerns of Deeper Selling Pressure on Bitcoin! $10 Billion Worth of Options to Expire

Cryptocurrency markets are focused on the massive Bitcoin options expiry scheduled for the end of this week. According to Bloomberg, approximately $10 billion worth of Bitcoin options will expire on Friday at the Deribit crypto derivatives exchange. This figure represents roughly 37% of the total open positions in the market and reinforces expectations of increased volatility among investors.

According to the data, the put/call ratio is at 0.83. While this ratio indicates that long positions are still in the majority, it is noted that many call options in the market are remaining above current price levels and are “in the loss”.

However, the majority of put options are concentrated in the $60,000–$65,000 and $70,000–$75,000 price ranges. This suggests that short positions may become more advantageous under current market conditions.

Deribit Chief Trading Officer Jean-David Pequignot stated that current option positions were largely created with the expectation of higher Bitcoin prices in the medium term, but recent weakness in the spot market has put pressure on this scenario.

It is also noted that the pressure on the market is not limited to the option expiry date. With approximately $3 billion in net outflows from US-based Bitcoin funds in June, questions about Strategy’s financial resilience and expectations that interest rates in the US may remain high are putting additional pressure on risky assets.

Adam Haeems, Head of Asset Management at Tesseract Group, said that liquidity was weakening as the end of the quarter approached and that price movements on Friday could be extremely volatile in either direction.

According to Haeems, the truly critical phase will begin in the first week of July with the liquidation of quarterly contracts and the reduction of leverage ratios in the market. Therefore, investors are trying to prepare for more volatile price movements in Bitcoin in the coming days.

*This is not investment advice.