Will Bitcoin Rally When Record $6 Billion Options Expire This Friday?

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Last Updated on 24 March 2021 by CryptoTips.eu

Jeroen Kok

Jeroen is one of the lead copywriters on Cryptotips.eu and discusses all recent events in the crypto market. This includes news updates, but also price analyzes and more. He developed his passion for cryptocurrency during the bull run in 2017. He has learned a lot since then. The combination of cryptocurrency and creative writing is perfect for Jeroen and an excellent way to share his knowledge with a wide audience. Find me on LinkedIn / jeroen@cryptotips.eu
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Classic finance is still influencing classic media in a way that the crypto world can only dream of. Our colleagues over at City AM, the London City’s newspaper par excellence, headlined yesterday that Bitcoin’s $60,000 level now feels like a distant memory, probably hoping to push investors back to bonds and stocks.

They seem to be forgetting about the Bitcoin options market though, which is set to expire on Friday 26 March. Back in January, when the options expired, Bitcoin crossed from $40k to $50k (also thanks to the help of Elon Musk’s announcement that Tesla would be investing directly).

Slight difference is that back in January some $4 billion in Bitcoin options contracts were about to expire. This time round, on Friday 26 March, it’s a tad more than that, a good 50% more in fact. At an average price of $60k, there’s about 100,000 Bitcoin options contracts set to expire, or some $6 billion, a record figure.

What will whales do?

Advertentie.

Puts versus calls

The expiry data suggests a bullish outlook

Says Pankaj Balani, the chief executive of the Singapore-based Delta Bitcoin exchange.

Pankaj continued explaining that:

There is a higher open interest build up on puts than on calls, as options writers remain more comfortable selling the downside than writing the upside.

On the downside, the highest buildup is on $40,000 strike puts for the March expiry. $40,000 also remains the most sold strike for the June expiry and for longer maturities.

He could be right, as data from cryptocurrency analytics provider Bybt suggests that traders are seeing more interest in “call options” (betting that the price of Bitcoin will rise in the future) than in “put options” (betting that the price of Bitcoin will fall in the future).

City AM said yesterday that it may be some time before Bitcoin gets back to the glory days of $60,000. They may be right of course or it could just be two more days.

sinenkiy / Depositphotos.com