Bitcoin Hits Yearly Max Pain With $2.2 Billion Options Expiring

The crypto market will witness $2.29 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum options contracts expire today. This massive expiration could impact short-term price action, especially as both assets have recently declined.

With Bitcoin (BTC) options valued at $1.94 billion and Ethereum at $344.92 million, traders are bracing for potential volatility.

Crypto Options Expiring Today

This Friday’s Bitcoin options expiration involves 28,125 contracts, according to Deribit data. For Ethereum, expiring options total 137,866 contracts.

These expiring Bitcoin options have a maximum pain price of $69,000 and a put-to-call ratio of 0.92. As the Put-to-call ratio stands below 1, this indicates a generally bullish sentiment despite BTC’s 4% drop. In comparison, their Ethereum counterparts have a maximum pain price of $2,550 and a put-to-call ratio of 0.69, reflecting a similar market outlook.

Read more: An Introduction to Crypto Options Trading.

According to Greek.live analysts, recent price declines, and external factors, such as the upcoming US elections, have led to a slight uptick in implied volatility (IV). However, they observe that BTC’s max pain point is at a yearly high, with very good trading opportunities now available in the market.

“Bitcoin hit $73,500 this week, just $100 away from a new all-time high, but then went into high gear, back below $70,000. Maxpain point reached a new high for the year this week, while Ether instead struggled near a new low for the year, and Maxpain point also fell this week. The main market thread this week is the US election, and now that the BTC ATM IV on 8 November is close to 70%, and BTC is oscillating near new highs, there are very good trading opportunities in all views,” analysts said.

According to BeInCrypto data, Bitcoin is currently trading at $69,268, while Ethereum is at $2,503. This places BTC above its max pain point, while ETH remains below it. The Max Pain theory suggests that options prices tend to converge toward strike prices with the highest concentration of contracts set to expire worthless, known as max pain points.

For Bitcoin, this implies a potential pullback toward its $69,000 max pain point, likely sparking short-term market volatility. While options expirations often cause temporary price swings, markets generally stabilize soon afterward.

With today’s high-volume expiration, traders should anticipate similar fluctuations that may shape short-term crypto trends. Price pressure on BTC and ETH will ease after Deribit settles contracts at 08:00 UTC on Friday.

Read more: 9 Best Crypto Options Trading Platforms. 

Markets should also brace for volatility due to today’s nonfarm payrolls (NFP) on the first Friday of November. This US macro data, coupled with the US elections on Tuesday, could also set the next trend.

“We have NFP tomorrow and the US election next week, so do not force any trades until then. Watch the market, and only take clear A+ setups – anything less is not worth it anyway,” a trader on X wrote.