Bitcoin
traded within a narrow range during U.S. hours on Thursday ahead of a significant options expiry on Friday.
The leading cryptocurrency is currently valued at $107,500, down 0.2% over the past 24 hours, while the CoinDesk 20 — an index of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins and exchange tokens — declined by 0.9% in the same timeframe.
“This Friday marks one of the largest option expiries of the year on Deribit,” Jean-David Péquignot, chief commercial officer at Deribit, told RialCenter. BTC options open interest is at $40 billion, with 38% of these contracts expiring on Friday.
“Max pain price for Friday is at $102,000, with a put/call ratio of 0.73,” Péquignot noted.
Bitcoin’s implied volatility, tracked by Deribit DVOL, fell to 38% from 50% in a volatile April, suggesting that the market is gaining confidence in the cryptocurrency’s macro-hedge role, according to Péquignot. Additionally, put-call skews indicate no clear directional positioning for traders in the short term.
“The $105,000 level for Bitcoin is crucial, with technicals suggesting caution if support fails,” he added. “Low open interest in perpetual contracts and relatively subdued Bitcoin implied volatility and skew suggest limited expectations for sharp price movements leading up to Friday’s expiry.”
Several crypto stocks are seeing gains on Thursday, with Core Scientific surging over 33% based on a report that the bitcoin miner could soon be acquired by an AI firm.
Circle, Coinbase, Riot Platforms, and Hut 8 saw increases between 5%-7%, while Strategy was down nearly 1%.
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