The end of the week, month, and first quarter has arrived, bringing with it a massive wave of expiring cryptocurrency options contracts for Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Roughly 195,400 Bitcoin options contracts are set to expire on Friday, March 27, representing a notional value of about 13.4 billion dollars. Because this coincides with both month end and quarter end, the scale of the expiry is larger than usual and could introduce volatility into the spot market.
Overall crypto prices have remained relatively flat over the past week, with total market value returning to levels seen earlier in the week.
Bitcoin Options Expiry
This week’s Bitcoin options show a put to call ratio of 0.61, indicating that bullish positions outnumber bearish ones. The maximum pain level is estimated at 75,000 dollars, according to Coinglass, which is significantly above current market prices. This suggests many contracts could expire without value.
Open interest remains concentrated around the 60,000 dollar strike price on Deribit, where about 1.6 billion dollars in bearish positions are held. Across all exchanges, total Bitcoin options open interest has risen throughout the month, reaching approximately 45 billion dollars.
According to Jean David Pequignot, broader market sentiment around this expiry has been influenced by geopolitical developments involving Washington and Tehran.
Bitcoin’s recent move toward 71,000 dollars followed a decision by Donald Trump to delay planned military action on Iranian infrastructure. The timing of this diplomatic pause aligns closely with the options expiry, potentially increasing short term volatility.
Meanwhile, analysts from Greeks Live observed that institutional investors are actively adjusting their positions. Many have closed near term contracts and shifted toward out of the money call options for June and September.
Ethereum Options and Total Expiry حجم
Alongside Bitcoin, about one million Ethereum options contracts are also expiring, with a total value of around 2.1 billion dollars. These contracts have a maximum pain point near 2,300 dollars and a put to call ratio of 0.57. Total Ethereum options open interest stands near 9 billion dollars across exchanges.
Combined, the total value of expiring crypto options reaches approximately 15.5 billion dollars, making it the largest such event since late December, when expiries totaled 27 billion dollars.
Spot Market Outlook
The spot market is ending the week under pressure, with total market capitalization falling about 3 percent to 2.44 trillion dollars. Bitcoin has shown weakness, slipping toward 68,000 dollars over the past day, although it experienced a slight rebound during Friday morning trading in Asia.
Ethereum is also under pressure and risks dropping below the 2,000 dollar level again over the weekend. At the time of writing, it was trading near 2,070 dollars.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic
