Bitcoin traders have spent the past month reducing protection against a price decline while the Fed has made its next decision harder to predict. The Bitcoin options put-to-call open-interest ratio has fallen to approximately 0.52 from 0.76 in late June, meaning about 52 put contracts remain open for every 100 calls. Meanwhile, Fed Funds futures […]
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Traders spent most of July with a pretty good explanation for why Bitcoin wouldn't move. A dense cluster of options contracts had the price boxed in, they argued, because the dealers who sold those contracts were buying every dip and selling every rally to keep their own books balanced. Clear the contracts away, and Bitcoin […]
The post Bitcoin traders ran out of excuses for the market’s flatline – and now a $2.5 billion bet is running out of time appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Two Wall Street trading desks can hold economically similar exposure to Bitcoin and still pay materially different amounts to keep that exposure open. That's not because one desk made a better market call, but because the regulated products carrying the positions are inside collateral systems that don't always recognize them as parts of the same […]
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For most of the month, traders had a pretty good explanation for Bitcoin's refusal to budge. A dense cluster of options contracts, they argued, was holding the price in a cage between $60,000 and $65,000, with dealers buying dips and selling rallies to stay hedged. Friday's expiry cleared roughly $1.2 billion of that exposure, and […]
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The Wyoming-based firm launched USD-settled bitcoin and ether options, saying product design, not demand, has held back adoption.
The SEC has approved a NYSE Arca rule change that raises position and exercise limits for options on BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, giving institu
The product, called BTC Yield, is designed exclusively for people who already hold bitcoin.
Ethereum Options Traders Pay Up For Downside Protection As Skew Turns Cautious: what the validated data shows, why it matters for crypto markets, and the.
Bitcoin and the wider crypto market faced a heavy risk-off session as ETF redemptions, leverage liquidations and a large Deribit options expiry converged.
Bitcoin price faces back-to-back tests this week, with May PCE coming out on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. EDT and more than $10 billion in Bitcoin options settling on Deribit at 08:00 UTC Friday in the quarterly expiry that closes the second quarter. Bitcoin is trading near $62,500 after a rough June that briefly pushed it […]
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Bitcoin dropped below $60,000 by mid-June after a punishing start to the month, but the figure drawing the most attention across trading desks is the June 26 Bitcoin options expiry, with over $10 billion of contracts set to expire and roughly 80% currently sitting out of the money. In equity markets, zero-days-to-expiry options now make […]
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Deribit’s bitcoin open interest has overtaken BlackRock’s IBIT as traders brace for a showdown between $75K max pain and $80K call positioning.
The trader collected about $224,500 in premiums and will keep the full amount if XRP remains close to $1.40.
Bitcoin’s brief drop below $80,000 during the last 24 hours has exposed a more fragile market after weeks of gains, but options traders are not yet treating the pullback as the start of a deeper breakdown. According to CryptoSlate data, the retreat erased part of a rally that had carried Bitcoin about 37% higher since […]
The post Bitcoin briefly slips below $80,000, but options traders are betting the dip won’t last appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Bitcoin is trading below a key cost threshold that short-term holders paid to acquire it — a sign that many recent buyers are sitting on losses heading into one of the largest options expiry events of the month. Related Reading: 23 Billion+ XRP Already Quantum Safe, According To New Wallet Analysis Bitcoin: Bears Hold The Edge Going Into Expiry Glassnode data shows Bitcoin is currently priced under the Short-Term Holder Cost Basis of $78,900, and also below the True Market Mean of $78,000. Support is seen further down, in the $65,000–$70,000 range. That backdrop sets a cautious tone as roughly 23,000 Bitcoin options contracts — worth $1.74 billion — are set to expire today on derivatives exchange Deribit. The put-call ratio for those contracts sits at 1.10, meaning more traders are betting on price declines than on gains. Bitcoin’s max pain price — the level where the greatest number of options expire worthless — is $76,000, slightly below where it was trading at press time around $77,200. Deribit has flagged the settlement as one to watch closely, with data showing a 95% probability that Bitcoin options expire above that $76,000 mark. Heavy volume is concentrated at the $75,500 and $77,000 strike prices. ???? May 1st Options Expiry Alert. At 08:00 UTC today, ~$2.14B in crypto options are set to expire on Deribit.$BTC: ~$1.74B notional | Put/Call: 1.10 | Max Pain: $76,000$ETH: ~$394M notional | Put/Call: 0.95 | Max Pain: $2,325 BTC spot pinned right at max pain. ETH trading… pic.twitter.com/UC2GkTnBMb — Deribit (@DeribitOfficial) May 1, 2026 In the past 24 hours, the put-call ratio for Bitcoin trading activity climbed to 0.73, while overall volume dropped. The Federal Reserve’s decision to hold interest rates unchanged contributed to the slowdown. Ethereum Sits Below Its Own Pain Point Ethereum is facing similar pressure. More than 175,000 ETH options worth $400 million are expiring on Deribit today, with a put-call ratio of 0.95. In the last 24 hours alone, put volume rose sharply past call volume, pushing that ratio to 1.17 — a sign traders are adjusting for potential downside. What makes Ethereum’s situation slightly different is where it’s trading relative to max pain. The ETH max pain price is $2,325, but the token was changing hands around $2,284 at the time of writing — already below that level. Its 24-hour range ran from $2,232 to $2,293. Trading volume fell 45% over the past day. Broader Pressures Weigh On Crypto Markets The options expiry is not happening in a vacuum. US PCE inflation came in at a three-year high of 3.5%, rattling broader markets and prompting profit-taking across crypto. Oil prices rose to $106 a barrel as the US maintained a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Reports indicate US President Donald Trump has rejected Iran’s offer to end the standoff, with reports of a possible escalation adding to market unease. Related Reading: Bitcoin Bull Run Brewing: ATH In Sight By Late 2026: Analyst Together, those factors have kept buyers cautious. Crypto markets saw widespread selling after the inflation data dropped, and uncertainty around the geopolitical situation has not eased. Whether today’s options expiry adds to that pressure — or passes without incident — may depend on whether Bitcoin can hold above the $76,000 mark when contracts settle. Featured image from Gemini, chart from TradingView
IBIT options open interest topped Deribit on Friday, signaling rapid institutional adoption of regulated crypto derivatives in the U.S.
On March 31, 2026, Wall Street saw its best trading day in nearly a year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained over 1,100 points, the S&P 500 rose 2.9% for its best single-day performance since last May, and the Nasdaq jumped 3.8%. The mood, as one market recap cheerfully dubbed it, was “Hormuz Hope,” a […]
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Options on Hashdex’s diversified NCIQ ETF now let investors hedge, generate income and manage risk across a broad basket of digital assets.
The changes mean crypto ETF options are now treated identically to other commodity-based ETF options at every major exchange in the U.S.
Bitcoin entered the weekend hovering near $71,000, well off the previous week's spike above $74,000, but far below the highs it touched at the beginning of the year. On price alone, the market looks pretty composed. However, underneath, its structure looks much less comfortable. Data shows spot activity fading while derivatives keep doing more of […]
The post Bitcoin’s $71k rally has a problem most traders aren’t watching appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Bitcoin’s rebound on March 4 looked odd if you only watched it through the usual “risk assets are breaking” lens. Oil was jumping, shipping insurers were repricing war risk, and traders were treating the Strait of Hormuz like a live wire. All of the headlines had the cadence of a full-blown crisis. However, Bitcoin climbed […]
The post Why Bitcoin keeps snapping back to $70k — and the $13B options “magnet” behind it appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Cboe wants to bring back all-or-nothing options, a contract that pays a fixed amount if a condition is met and pays zero if it isn't. While that might sound like a small product refresh, the timing makes it hard to ignore. Prediction markets have trained a new retail reflex: turn a belief into a number […]
The post Wall Street is desperate to copy crypto’s prediction markets as Cboe files for “Yes/No” options appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Bitcoin’s next big options gravity well sits on Mar. 27 (260327), and the reason is simple: this is where the market has parked a thick stack of conditional bets that will need to be unwound, rolled forward, or paid out as the clock runs down. The Mar. 27 expiry carries about $8.65B in notional OI […]
The post Bitcoin bears could sleepwalk into a $8.65 billion trap as options max pain expiry nears $90,000 appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Bitcoin and ether options worth billions of dollars are set to expire this Friday.
A rare streak of four consecutive declines collides with January options expiry that could influence short term price action.
Data from decentralized trading venues points to potential for a deeper price crash in coming months.
Bitcoin options open interest continues to outpace futures, marking a move away from leverage-driven speculation toward volatility and risk-management strategies.
Dominant call positioning is shaping bitcoin’s price dynamics as bitcoin breaks out of its sideways range.
Institutions are increasingly using bitcoin options strategies on altcoins to manage price volatility and enhance returns, STS Digital told CoinDesk.
A year-end options expiry for bitcoin is suppressing volatility just as macro and risk-asset positioning turns supportive for a higher price.