About $9.4 billion worth of cryptocurrency options are scheduled to expire this Friday on the Deribit derivatives exchange.
Most of the options scheduled to expire are Bitcoin contracts with a notional value of $6.35 billion. The put-call ratio ahead of month-end expiration on Friday rose to 0.68. This is an increase in the amount of puts compared to calls compared to the previous week.
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Options worth more than $6.3 billion are scheduled to expire this Friday. Image: Block.
Ethereum options with a notional value of $3.08 billion are also scheduled to expire. However, looking at the terms of Ethereum options, we see that the call to put volume is significantly lower compared to the Bitcoin rate. For Ethereum contracts, the put-call ratio was lowered to 0.49 ahead of expiration on Friday. A put-to-call option ratio less than 1 means call volume exceeds put volume, indicating bullish sentiment in the market.
Ethereum options worth more than $3 billion are scheduled to expire this Friday. Image: Block.
Bullish Bitcoin $100,000 Year-End Call
According to Deribit data, the maximum open interest leading to year-end expiration consists of call options with a strike price of $100,000. This bullish trading indicates that derivatives traders expect Bitcoin’s value to surpass this price by December.
“We saw a surge in Bitcoin options activity around the year-end expiration as investors began positioning to resume the post-halving rally and break the two-month long consolidation,” QCP Capital analysts said.
The sentiment inferred from the positioning of options for year-end expiration is consistent with an analyst note from Standard Chartered on Tuesday, which pegged end-2024 price targets at $150,000 for Bitcoin and $8,000 for Ethereum.
An option is a derivative contract that gives a trader the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a specific date. A call option grants the right to buy, and a put option grants the right to sell. Traders who buy put options implicitly assume that the market is bearish, while call option buyers assume that the market is bullish.
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