Bitcoin calls lead into expiry
About $2.67 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum options on Deribit expire tomorrow at 11:00 AM Turkish time. The market is watching closely because Bitcoin slipped below $72,000 this week, while Ethereum has struggled to hold near $2,000. I think the split between the two assets is the interesting part.
For Bitcoin, the chart from Investin shows 33,246 contracts open before expiry: 22,127 calls and 11,119 puts. Their nominal value is roughly $2.37 billion, with the Bitcoin index at $71,353. The put/call ratio is 0.50, so there are about two calls for every put. That does not automatically mean traders are bullish. Calls and puts can both sit inside hedging strategies, and open interest only shows where contracts remain, not why they were opened.
Bitcoin’s max pain level is $76,000, about 6.5% above the index on the same chart. After today’s sell-off, the gap is more than $4,600. Perhaps that distance will keep attention on whether price can recover before settlement, though the expiry window is short.
Ethereum puts cluster near $2,000
Ethereum looks different. The 148,741 contracts expiring tomorrow have a nominal value of about $297.6 million. Of those, 89,498 are puts and 59,243 are calls. The put/call ratio is 1.51, meaning there are roughly 151 puts for every 100 calls.
Ethereum’s max pain level is $2,200, while the ETH index was at $2,001. That is about a 10% gap. Another level stands out: Optionly’s weekly expiration chart, which combines Deribit and Derive data, shows around 49,000 ETH in put options at the $2,000 strike. If settlement stays below $2,000, those puts gain payout value. If it stays above, they expire worthless. That makes the $2,000 line a practical marker to watch.
Settlement uses a 30-minute window
Deribit sets the settlement price using a time-weighted average of index values between 10:30 and 11:00 AM Turkish time. So the last half hour matters for final payments. Traders who focus on expiry often watch that window closely, but the result can still differ from the price shown right before it starts.
This is not investment advice.
