There are approximately 23,000 Bitcoin options expiring on May 3rd. The notional value of these is approximately $1.4 billion, approximately the same as previous expiration events.
The cryptocurrency market continued to fall sharply throughout this week, but recovered slightly in late trading on May 2nd. However, Bitcoin remains below $60,000, and sentiment is bearish in the short term.
Bitcoin options expiration date
Today's large Bitcoin contract has a put/call ratio of 0.49. This means there are twice as many calls and expiring contracts as his puts and shorts.
The biggest catch with these options is the $61,000 price tag, which is a bit higher than the current spot price. Maximum pain refers to the price at which most losses occur at the end of the contract.
According to Deribit, there is still a lot of open interest at strike prices above $70,000. There is even an OI of $661 million with a strike price of $100,000, although it is unlikely that BTC will reach there in the short term given the current market conditions.
Greeks Live, a crypto derivatives solutions provider, commented on the spot crypto ETF launched in Hong Kong this week. He said the listing “failed to result in a significant increase in trading volume,” before adding that outflows from the U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETF continued this week.
“Market weakness led to a decline in market confidence,” it added, noting that implied volatility across all key terms continued to decline.
“The current IV level is the average winter bull market level, there is some support, and buying now is a good choice.”
Implied volatility is a measure of the expected future volatility from an expiring crypto derivatives contract.
In addition to today's tranche of Bitcoin options, approximately 330,000 Ethereum options will also expire. The notional value of these is approximately $1 billion, bringing the total value of today's crypto contract expiration event to $2.4 billion.
The put/call ratio for ETH options is 0.36 and the maximum pain point is $3,000, the level it has recently recovered from.
Cryptocurrency market recovers
This Friday, the crypto market recovered slightly, with the total market capitalization increasing by 4% to reach $2.35 trillion.
BTC gained a similar amount to trade at $59,600 at the time of writing, but the psychological $60,000 level had not yet recovered.
ETH was above $3,000 after gaining 3.7% on the day. Altcoins are also recovering, with Solana (SOL), Dogecoin (DOGE), Toncoin (TON), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Polkadot (DOT) posting solid gains.
However, both have fallen significantly since this year's market high in mid-March.
