On May 31, a significant number of Bitcoin and Ether options contracts expired, with a total value of $4.7 billion and $3.5 billion, respectively. The expiration of these crypto options contracts has historically been associated with price volatility in the crypto market.
According to data from Derbit, the put/call ratio for the expired Bitcoin options was 0.61, indicating that more long contracts were expiring than short contracts. For Ether options, the put/call ratio was 0.46.
The put/call ratio is a technical indicator that reflects trader market sentiment. A ratio below 0.7 is considered a strong bullish sentiment, while a ratio above 1 is considered a strong bearish sentiment.
The maximum pain point, where most losses are expected for leverage traders, is $66,000 for Bitcoin and $3,300 for Ether. Currently, Bitcoin is trading at $68,210, which is $2,000 above its pain point, while Ether is trading at $3,738, more than $400 above its pain point.
The open interest (OI) for Bitcoin options is concentrated in long positions with strike prices at $70,000, $75,000, $80,000, and even $100,000. Open interest refers to the total number of outstanding derivative contracts that have not been settled. Notably, there are traders who have placed long positions on Bitcoin with a target price of $100,000, with $886 million in open interest at this strike price. The total notional value of all outstanding BTC options contracts amounts to $19 billion.
The approval of the spot ETH ETF by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in May was a significant event for the crypto market. It led to a 20% increase in ETH prices in anticipation of the approval. However, the SEC only approved the 19b-4 filing, which delayed the actual listing for trading.
Since the approval, the crypto market has experienced a bearish sideways movement, with ETH and BTC struggling to break the $4,000 and $70,000 price barriers, respectively. Currently, the market is facing bearish momentum, correcting from the previous bullish surge of the past two weeks.