Bitcoin options expiry: US$2.1 billion in monthly options expires tonight

Some 55,900 in monthly Bitcoin options worth roughly US$2.1 billion will expire tonight and the bears appear to be in full control following last week’s crash.

Yesterday evening BTC was trading for US$38,300, after several moves to above US$40,000 this week have been rejected.

Opinions differ on just how much the expiry of monthly Bitcoin options influence the price. One Redditor performed a long analysis that found no influence, but other traders point to data suggesting the price of BTC dips towards the end of each month in the runup to the options expiry.

Clearly there are people out there who believe that the options play a role in Bitcoin’s price.

There was never a better day to buy #bitcoin than today. Billions in options expiring tomorrow. 50k is eminent. Go go go !

— Xenodermus (@xbthodler) May 27, 2021

Yes. Wait for the dip. Options expire on the 28th

— dustin (@dustin64941639) May 26, 2021

For Friday’s month-end option expiry the market is pricing in that #Bitcoin expires at the $38,000 USD strike

As for #Ethereum, that price is $2,600 USD

— tedtalksmacro (@tedtalksmacro) May 25, 2021

For the record, options on the dominant Deribit exchange expire at 6pm AEDT (8am UTC). There are also Bitcoin options trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) that expire at 1am AEDT (4pm, London time).