Around 31,000 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, Dec. 19, and they have a notional value of roughly $2.7 billion. This expiry event is smaller than average, so it will not impact spot markets, which have been sliding lower all week. Various factors have contributed to the continued sell-off, including another Chinese Bitcoin mining crackdown , delayed crypto market regulations in the United States, and fear over the Bank of Japan hiking rates. Bitcoin Options Expiry This week’s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 0.8, meaning that there are slightly more calls expiring than puts (shorts). Max pain is around $88,000, according to Coinglass. Open interest (OI), or the value or number of Bitcoin options contracts yet to expire, is highest at $100,000, which has $2.3 billion at this strike price on Deribit. There remains around $2.1 billion in OI at $85,000, which was hit this week. Total BTC options OI across all exchanges is at $52.5 billion, according to Coinglass. “BTC open interest is concentrated around $88K, with slightly heavier put positioning, pointing to a relatively contained expiry unless spot breaks range,” noted Deribit. Options Expiry Alert At 08:00 UTC tomorrow, around $3.18B in crypto options are set to expire on Deribit. $BTC : $2.72B notional | Put Call: 0.81 | Max Pain: $88K BTC open interest is concentrated around 88K, with slightly heavier put positioning, pointing to a relatively… pic.twitter.com/wW8ZYXYCsx — Deribit (@DeribitOfficial) December 18, 2025 In addition to today’s batch of Bitcoin options, around 155,000 Ethereum contracts are also expiring, with a notional value of $460 million, max pain at $3,100, and a put/call ratio of 1.1. Total ETH options OI across all exchanges is around $11 billion and has been falling since late August. “ETH positioning is more distributed across strikes, with notable upside interest above $3.4K, keeping larger moves in play if volatility reaccelerates,” said Deribit. This brings Friday’s combined crypto options expiry notional value to around $3.2 billion. Spot Market Outlook Markets have fallen again, and total capitalization has dropped below $3 trillion to its lowest level since April. Bitcoin saw yet another seemingly manipulated pump-and-dump after the CPI print , as it fell to $84,500 before reclaiming $85,000 during the Friday morning Asian trading session. The asset looks structurally weak here, and further losses are expected. Ether prices also continued to weaken, falling below $2,800 briefly but holding on at this level for now. The altcoins were in more pain with heavier losses for XRP, Solana, and Cardano, all losing more than 4% on the day. The post How Will Markets React When $2.7B Bitcoin Options Expire Today? appeared first on CryptoPotato .
