Another week is ending, bringing a fresh round of crypto options expirations as spot markets continue to show weakness.
Approximately 27,600 Bitcoin options contracts are set to expire on Friday, April 3, with a total notional value of about 1.8 billion dollars. This is a relatively small event compared to previous expiries, so its impact on spot markets is expected to be limited.
Crypto prices have largely moved sideways throughout the week, while total market capitalization dipped slightly on Friday.
Bitcoin Options Expiry
This week’s Bitcoin options have a put to call ratio of 0.54, indicating that more long positions than short positions are expiring. According to Coinglass, the max pain level is around 68000 dollars, which is close to current spot prices, meaning many positions could still end in profit at expiry.
Open interest, which represents the total value of outstanding options contracts, remains highest at the 60000 dollar strike price on Deribit, with around 1.5 billion dollars in bearish positions.
Following the end of the first quarter expiry event, total Bitcoin options open interest across exchanges has declined and now stands at approximately 31 billion dollars.
Deribit also noted that Bitcoin put options are priced higher than those of Ethereum across several timeframes, suggesting that traders are more concerned about potential downside risks for Bitcoin.
In addition to Bitcoin, about 157,000 Ethereum options contracts are also expiring, with a notional value of 322 million dollars. The max pain level for Ethereum is around 2100 dollars, with a put to call ratio of 0.73. Total Ethereum options open interest across exchanges is estimated at 6.3 billion dollars.
Altogether, the total value of crypto options expiring today is around 2.1 billion dollars, making this a relatively modest expiry event.
Spot Market Outlook
Total crypto market capitalization remained steady at around 2.37 trillion dollars during Friday morning trading in Asia. Markets had been attempting a recovery until Donald Trump signaled that military airstrikes in Iran could continue for another two to three weeks, which unsettled investors and triggered renewed selling.
Bitcoin briefly climbed above 67000 dollars late on Thursday but failed to maintain that level, slipping back to around 66600 dollars at the time of writing.
A CryptoQuant analyst known as Darkfost observed that the balance between supply in profit and loss is reaching levels typically seen in a bear market.
Ethereum has also struggled throughout the week, dropping to around 2000 dollars before recovering slightly to trade near 2050 dollars on Friday morning. The broader altcoin market continues to show signs consistent with bear market conditions.
Meanwhile, analyst Daan Crypto Trades pointed out that Bitcoin has not yet formed new lows during the current geopolitical tensions, as the previous drop to 60000 dollars has not been revisited. He added that while the market declined independently between October and February, it has remained relatively stable during the ongoing conflict.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic
