{"id":94601,"date":"2026-05-22T05:19:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T05:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=94601"},"modified":"2026-05-22T05:19:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T05:19:46","slug":"crypto-traders-brace-for-1-5b-bitcoin-options-expiry-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=94601","title":{"rendered":"Crypto Traders Brace for $1.5B Bitcoin Options Expiry Today"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Around 20,500 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, May 22, with a notional value of roughly $1.5 billion. This event is smaller than usual, so it is unlikely to have any impact on spot markets.<\/p>\n<p>Crypto markets have been in decline all week, with around $50 billion leaving the space as Bitcoin continues to weaken. Positive news appears to have zero impact as investors remain under macroeconomic rain clouds.<\/p>\n<h2>Bitcoin Options Expiry<\/h2>\n<p>This week\u2019s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put\/call ratio of 0.69, meaning that there are more sellers of longs than shorts. Max pain is around $79,000, according to Coinglass, which is a little higher than current spot prices, so some could be out of the money on expiry.<\/p>\n<p>Open interest (OI), or the value or number of Bitcoin options contracts yet to expire, remains highest at the $80,000 strike price on Deribit, with $1.65 billion, but short sellers still have $1.2 billion in OI at $60,000. Total BTC options OI across all exchanges has been steadily climbing this month and is at $37.6 billion, according to Coinglass.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/16.0.1\/72x72\/1f6a8.png\" alt=\"\ud83d\udea8\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\"> Options Expiry Alert.<br \/>\nAt 08:00 UTC tomorrow, over $1.8B in crypto options are set to expire on Deribit.<\/p>\n<p>bitcoin:native : $1.53B notional | Put\/Call: 0.69 | Max Pain: $79,000<br \/>\nethereum:native : $264M notional | Put\/Call: 1.03 | Max Pain: $2,200<\/p>\n<p>BTC traders continue targeting\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fv5dDrPx6M\">pic.twitter.com\/fv5dDrPx6M<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Deribit (@DeribitOfficial) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DeribitOfficial\/status\/2057446323067252923?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 21, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Traders have been using the recent rebound to establish defensive positions for the final ten days of the month, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GreeksLive\/status\/2057083051470123092\">said<\/a> crypto derivatives provider Greeks Live this week.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cOverall, the market is positioning itself to defend against price pullbacks but does not anticipate a market collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It added that May and June have long been viewed as unfavorable trading months, and in May, major investors have been \u201csteadily increasing their defensive positions: buying effective protection, selling margin calls at the tail end, and controlling costs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition to today\u2019s batch of Bitcoin options, around 123,000 Ethereum contracts are also expiring, with a notional value of $263 million, max pain at $2,200, and a put\/call ratio of 1. Total ETH options OI across all exchanges is around $6.9 billion.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cETH positioning has shifted from strongly call-biased last week to nearly balanced, suggesting conviction has cooled as traders await fresh catalysts,\u201d said Deribit.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2>Spot Market Outlook<\/h2>\n<p>Crypto markets have retreated again today, with total capitalization dropping to $2.67 trillion.\u00a0Bitcoin failed to break above $78,000 and fell back to an intraday low of $76,750 before a minor recovery on Friday morning. It appears to have resumed its downtrend, which is dragging the rest of the market down with it.<\/p>\n<p>Ether and the rest of the altcoins have been mostly <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/analyst-ethereum-facing-silent-crisis-hit-by-55-drawdown-with-no-dip-buyers\/\">flat<\/a> over the past 24 hours, with very little activity after a largely bearish week.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/crypto-traders-brace-for-1-5b-bitcoin-options-expiry-today\/\">Crypto Traders Brace for $1.5B Bitcoin Options Expiry Today<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">CryptoPotato<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Around 20,500 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, May 22, with a notional value of roughly $1.5 billion. This event is smaller than usual, so it is unlikely to have any impact on spot markets. Crypto markets have been in decline all week, with around $50 billion leaving the space as Bitcoin continues to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-94601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}