As the crypto market approaches the end of the year, a historic option expiration is expected in the Bitcoin market.$BTC
On Friday, 146,000 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on the Deribit exchange. The total value of these contracts reaches $14 billion, which accounts for 44 percent of all open Bitcoin options of different maturities. This is recorded as the largest option expiration event ever seen on the Deribit exchange.
It is stated that during this record expiration, approximately $4 billion of open positions were considered “in the money” (ITM). ITM positions refer to situations where option holders make a profit.
Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers emphasized that the market is focused on this expiration and that this process, which is taking shape towards the beginning of the year, can play an important role in determining the market dynamics of the new year. Strijers also stated that the recent upward momentum in Bitcoin has paused following the decisions taken by the Fed, and that this causes upward leveraged positions in the market to pose a risk.
Portfolio manager Simranjeet Singh said that many open positions are likely to be carried forward to January 31 and March 28 maturities. The put-call open position ratio for Friday's expiration is observed to be at 0.69. This ratio indicates that there are 7 put options for every 10 call options. This indicates that investors are mostly focused on call options and expectations for an upward movement in the market are dominant. However, it is also emphasized that recent price movements may change this expectation in the short term.