The cryptocurrency market could experience major volatility following the largest Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) options expiry in history on Friday.
What Happened: According to leading cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Deribit, Bitcoin options contracts, with nearly $14.38 billion in notional value expired at 3:00 a.m. ET.
This figure accounted for 70% of the total Open Interest for BTC options across different expiration dates.
Options are derivatives that give the buyer of the contract the right to buy or sell the underlying asset at a predetermined price and date. Typically, high Open Interest in options trading indicates that there are many market participants and new money is entering the market.
A call option gives the purchaser the right to buy an asset, while a put option allows them to sell assets at an agreed-upon price. As of this writing, the put/call ratio was 0.61, indicating a bullish sentiment as more traders were betting on price increases.
The next most significant date for traders is set for Jan. 31, when around $5.48 billion worth of options will expire.
Why It Matters: Talking to Benzinga previously, Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers had flagged $84,000 as the "max pain" level for Bitcoin, hinting at Bitcoin's potential drop to this level.
Max pain price is the price at which most option holders would experience the biggest financial loss when an option expires.
Additionally, Sean McNulty, director of trading at liquidity provider Arbelos Markets, was quoted by Bloomberg as suggesting that the market could become choppy following the expiry.
Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was exchanging hands at $96,724.39, up 1.43% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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