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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe end of the week, month, and first quarter of the year has arrived, and with it, a massive batch of Bitcoin and Ether options contracts will be expiring.\u00a0\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Around 195,400 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, Mar. 27, with a notional value of roughly $13.4 billion. This event is much larger than usual, being an end-of-month and end-of-quarter expiry, so there may be some volatility in spot markets.<\/p>\n
Crypto prices have been flat over the past week, with total capitalization returning to Monday\u2019s levels.<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s big batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put\/call ratio of 0.61, meaning that there are many more longs than shorts expiring. Max pain is around $75,000, according to Coinglass, which is much higher than current spot prices, so many could be out of the money on expiry.<\/p>\n
Open interest (OI), or the value or number of Bitcoin options contracts yet to expire, remains highest at the $60,000 strike price on Deribit, with $1.6 billion in bearish bets. Total BTC options OI across all exchanges has been climbing this month, reaching $45 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe overarching narrative for the $17B March 27 Quarterly Options Expiry at Deribit has been dictated by the headlines coming out of Washington and Tehran,\u201d said\u00a0 Deribit Chief Commercial Officer Jean-David Pequignot in a note shared with CryptoPotato<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cBitcoin\u2019s recent surge back toward $71k was catalysed by President Trump\u2019s decision to postpone strikes on Iranian power plants for five days. This diplomatic window expires almost perfectly in tandem with Friday\u2019s options expiry, exacerbating a localised volatility kink in the term structure.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cToday\u2019s block trade data on Deribit shows that \u2018smart money\u2019 is aggressively rolling positions,\u201d commented<\/a> Greeks Live.<\/p>\n \u201cMany institutions have closed out their positions expiring tomorrow and have heavily positioned themselves in out-of-the-money (OTM) call options for June and September.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \ud83d\udea8 Quarterly Options Expiry Alert | 08:00 UTC Friday \u2014 Deribit (@DeribitOfficial) March 26, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In addition to today\u2019s batch of Bitcoin options, around 1 million Ethereum contracts are also expiring, with a notional value of $2.1 billion, max pain at $2,300, and a put\/call ratio of 0.57. Total ETH options OI across all exchanges is around $9 billion.<\/p>\n This brings the total notional value of crypto options expiries to a whopping $15.5 billion in the largest expiry event since late December\u2019s epic $27 billion contract expiry.<\/p>\n Spot markets are ending the week in the red with a 3% decline to $2.44 trillion in market capitalization.\u00a0Bitcoin continues to weaken, falling<\/a> back towards $68,000 over the past day, with a minor recovery during Asian trading on Friday morning.<\/p>\n Ether prices are in serious danger of dropping below $2,000 again over the weekend and were trading at $2,070 at the time of writing.<\/p>\n LIMITED OFFER for CryptoPotato readers at Bybit: Use this link<\/a> to register and open a $500 FREE position on any coin!<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n\n
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$15.58B in crypto options are set to expire tomorrow on Deribit. The largest expiry in 2026 so far.$BTC<\/a>: 195,398 contracts | $13.46B notional | Max pain: $75K | Put\/Call: 0.61$ETH<\/a>: 1,026,462 contracts | $2.12B notional |\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/Ap70thX9dI<\/a><\/p>\nYou may also like:<\/h3>\n
Spot Market Outlook<\/h2>\n
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