$15.6 Billion in Bitcoin Options Expire on Deribit Friday

On Friday, September 25th, approximately $15.6 billion in Bitcoin options expire on Deribit. According to data from Deribit's strike-by-strike breakdown of the book, roughly 182,000 BTC in open contracts are set to expire, with a split of 106,200 calls and 75,900 puts.

This represents a bet that prices will continue to climb, as the put-to-call ratio is significantly skewed towards calls, at 0.71. This sentiment is reflected in the Crypto Fear and Greed Index, which shows 'greed' sentiment flooding the markets.

The notional figure of $15.6 billion does not represent actual cash changing hands on Friday. Rather, it's a valuation of the Bitcoin represented by the contracts. Options traders watch for a level called max pain, where the largest share of contracts expire worthless, but Deribit's dashboard puts this at $76,000, roughly $9,000 below Bitcoin's current price near $85,000.

When options expire, firms that sold these contracts must hedge their exposure by buying or selling real Bitcoin as the price moves. This hedging flow adds fuel to a rally already underway, but once the contracts expire, this flow disappears, with some of it rolling into the next quarter and some evaporating entirely.

Strike concentration shows exactly where this hedging clusters. By far the busiest strike on the board is $70,000, where Deribit's numbers show both the largest call position (8,705 BTC) and the largest put position (7,653 BTC). This level pulls hedging pressure from both directions at once.