Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) options worth a combined $3.12 billion are set to expire today, potentially impacting market trends.
As Bitcoin remains below the $100,000 threshold, market watchers are keen to see if the billion-dollar-plus notional value expiry will influence the price.
The notional value of expiring Bitcoin options is $2.56 billion, with data from Deribit showing 26,251 expiring Bitcoin options.
The put-to-call ratio stands at 0.57, indicating a prevalence of purchase options (calls) over sales options (puts).
The maximum pain point for these options is $99,500, representing the price at which the greatest number of holders would face financial losses.
Alongside Bitcoin, 204,376 Ethereum options contracts are expiring today, with a notional value of $557.04 million. These options have a put-to-call ratio of 0.46 and a maximum pain point of $2,950.
Significant decrease
Comparing this to last week’s data, there is a significant decrease in the number of expiring options. Last week featured 80,179 BTC options and 603,426 ETH options, contributing to a cumulative expiration surpassing $10 billion.
- This marginal difference arises from last week’s options representing the month’s total expirations. Consequently, the total number of expiring options last week exceeded $10 billion.
- Market analysts are closely monitoring these economic releases, which could influence trading dynamics. An increase in unemployment might drive interest in Bitcoin as a hedge against economic instability, while positive payroll numbers could shift attention back to traditional asset classes, potentially reducing the appeal of cryptocurrencies.
Total market capitalization has fallen just below 2% on the day to $3.3 trillion, remaining within the lower bounds of a range-bound channel that formed in mid-November.
What you should know
Bitcoin dipped below $96,000 in an intraday low during late trading on Thursday but managed to recover slightly, reaching $97,400 during the Friday morning trading session. The asset has been in a downtrend over the past week, losing 7% since the same time last week.
- Ethereum also struggled, falling 3% to below $2,700 early on Friday and struggling to reclaim that level.
- The altcoin market remained largely negative, with only Tron (TRX) bucking the trend with a 4.5% gain on the day.
- Amid market turbulence, TRON (TRX) emerged as a rare outperformer, buoyed by robust ecosystem growth. In contrast, XRP experienced a decline of over 3%, trading at $2.36 after hitting an intraday low of $2.29 and a high of $2.46. Despite the decline, notable whale activity suggests a potential recovery, as 520 million XRP tokens were accumulated during the dip. Analysts believe this could signal a rebound above $3 in the near term.
- Separately, the CBOE stock exchange filed several 19b-4 applications with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for XRP-related exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which could influence future price action.
Solana (SOL) registered a 3.59% drop to $194.27, trading between $188.17 and $203.89 in the past 24 hours.
