How Will $2 Billion in Crypto Options Expiring Today Affect The Markets

About 16,500 Bitcoin Options Will Expire on Friday, February 21, with a Nominal Value of Approximately $1.6 Billion.

This week’s expiration is less than last week’s and is one of the smallest of the year, meaning it will have almost no impact on the spot markets, which have remained range-bound for most of the week.

Bitcoin Options Expiration
This week, the put/call ratio is 0.75, indicating that slightly more call (long) contracts are expiring than put (short) contracts. Additionally, open interest (OI), or the value or number of BTC options contracts that have not yet expired, remains highest at the price barrier of $120,000, which is $1.8 billion, according to Deribit.

There is also about $1.2 billion in OI at the price barrier of $110,000, as derivative traders continue to speculate that BTC prices will rise in the long term. Earlier in the week, crypto derivatives provider Greeks Live stated that sentiment is “cautiously bearish,” with low volatility disappointing traders.

Approximately 153,000 Ethereum contracts are also expiring today, with a nominal value of $420 million and a put/call ratio of 0.48. This raises the combined nominal value of expiring crypto options on Friday to about $2 billion.

A Look at the Crypto Market
The markets showed small gains towards the end of the week, with the total capitalization reaching $3.35 trillion. However, on a broader scale, they still remain at the lower end of a three-month sideways channel.

Bitcoin reached an intraday and two-week high of $98,750 during early trading in Asia on Friday morning. However, it encounters resistance there, as it has done twice before, and is slightly pulling back at the time of writing.

Ethereum has been a bit more volatile over the last 24 hours, jumping to $2,767 before returning to $2,744 at the time of writing. ETH has been trading sideways since falling below $3,000 earlier in February.

Altcoins are generally in the green on Friday morning, with larger gains for Solana, Sui, Avalanche, and Litecoin as hopes for an ETF grow.