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Around 44,000 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, Oct. 17, and they have a notional value of roughly $4.8 billion.<\/p>\n
This expiry event is a little larger<\/a> than last week\u2019s, but there is unlikely to be any impact on spot markets, which have been mostly in decline this week.<\/p>\n The US government remains in shutdown, and trade tariff tensions still loom, but the longer-term backdrop of ending<\/a> quantitative tightening and increasing liquidity through rate cuts remains bullish for crypto.<\/p>\n This week\u2019s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put\/call ratio of 0.83, meaning that there are slightly more long contracts expiring than shorts, as the bears take control. Max pain is around $116,000, according to Coinglass.<\/p>\n Open interest (OI), or the value or number of Bitcoin options contracts yet to expire, is highest at $140,000, which has reached $2.2 billion at this strike price on Deribit. There is also over $2 billion in OI at $125k and $120k, but short sellers have targeted $110k, $108k, and even $95k as popular strike prices with over $1.3 billion in OI at each level.\u00a0Total BTC options OI across all exchanges is around $61 billion, very close to an all-time high, according to Coinglass.<\/p>\n Skew across maturities has flipped deeper into negative territory as demand for downside protection rises.<\/p>\n BTC options flow showing renewed appetite for puts over calls. pic.twitter.com\/phT0TuY2bG<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Deribit (@DeribitOfficial) October 16, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Bitcoin options market data indicates that the share of bearish trades has risen markedly, reported<\/a> crypto derivatives provider Greeks Live on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cMore than $1.15\u202fbillion, or about 28\u202f% of total options volume, has flowed into shallow out\u2011of\u2011the\u2011money (OTM) puts expiring this week and this month, with the $10,400\u202fto\u202f$10,800 strike range being the most active.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe group is cautiously bearish with expectations of further downside, though some members see potential bounce opportunities near lower support levels,\u201d it stated<\/a> in a separate post.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In addition to today\u2019s batch of Bitcoin options, around 251,000 Ethereum contracts are also expiring, with a notional value of $985 million, max pain at $4,100, and a put\/call ratio of 0.81. Total ETH options OI across all exchanges is around $15.4 billion. This brings Friday\u2019s combined crypto options expiry notional value to around $5.7 billion.<\/p>\n Total market capitalization is ending the week in the red, declining 2.7% on the day to $3.77 trillion. Crypto markets are now down almost 14% since their peak on Oct. 7.<\/p>\n Bitcoin led the losses, dumping<\/a> to support at $108,000 during late trading on Thursday, and there have been few signs of a recovery during the Friday morning Asian trading session.<\/p>\n Ether also weakened, failing to hold above $4,000 and falling back to $3,900 at the time of writing. Meanwhile, the altcoins were a sea of red with larger losses for BNB, Solana, Dogecoin, Sui, and Avalanche.<\/p>\n The post Will Markets Keep Falling When $4.8B Bitcoin Options Expire Today?<\/a> appeared first on CryptoPotato<\/a>.<\/p>\nBitcoin Options Expiry<\/h2>\n
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Spot Market Outlook<\/h2>\n