Massive $14.6B Bitcoin and Ether Options Expiry Shows Bias for Bitcoin Protection

Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) options worth over $14.6 billion are set to expire Friday on Deribit in what’s shaping up to be one of the most significant derivative events of 2025.

The expiry is heavily skewed toward BTC put options, underscoring a continued demand for downside protection, whereas it’s more balanced for ether.

As of the time of writing, 56,452 BTC call option contracts and 48,961 put option contracts were due for settlement, totalling a notional open interest of $11.62 billion, according to data source Deribit Metrics. Deribit is the world’s largest crypto options exchange, accounting for 80% of the global activity. On Deribit, one option contract represents one BTC or ETH.

A closer look at open interest reveals concentrated activity in put options with strike prices between $108,000 and $112,000. Conversely, the most popular call options are clustered at $120,000 and above.

In other words, near-the-money puts around BTC’s current market price of approximately $110,000 are highly sought after, while calls with higher strike prices reflect hopes for further upside.

In ether’s case, a total of 393,534 calls are due for settlement, outstripping the put tally of 291,128 by a significant margin, both totaling $3.03 billion in notional open interest.

Significant OI is concentrated in calls at strikes $3,800, $4,000 and $5,000, and put options at strikes $4,000, $3,700 and $2,200.

“BTC expiry points to persistent demand for downside protection, while ETH looks more neutral. Combined with Powell’s Jackson Hole signal, this expiry may help set the market tone for September,” Deribit said on X.

Options are derivative contracts that give the purchaser the right to buy or sell the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a specified future date. A call option gives the right to buy and represents a bullish bet on the market. Meanwhile, a put option provides insurance against price slides.

The options market has grown leaps and bounds since 2020, with monthly and quarterly settlements gaining prominence as major market-moving events.

By 2021, some observers proposed that prices tend to gravitate toward ‘max pain’ levels – the strike prices where options holders suffer the greatest losses – in the days leading up to expiry. However, the validity of this theory remains a matter of debate among traders and analysts.

As of writing, the max pain levels for bitcoin and ether are 116,000 and $3,800, respectively, serving as focal points for believers of the max pain theory.

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