Over $6B in Bitcoin Options Set to Expire Today, April Contracts Show Bets for $80K per BTC

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A number of options traders are betting that bitcoin prices will tap $80,000 by May 2021. Meanwhile, over 100,000 bitcoin options worth more than $6 billion are set to expire on Friday, smashing the previous record expiry seen in January.

$6 Billion in Bitcoin Options Set to Drop, April Bets Target $80,000 per Bitcoin

Today on March 26, 2021, the crypto ecosystem is about to witness one of the largest options expiries to-date as more than 100k bitcoin options will expire. Today’s $6 billion worth of expiries exceeds the last record back in January when $4 billion worth of bitcoin options expired.

Data from skew.com shows there’s close to $15 billion in open interest across exchanges offering bitcoin options. The exchange Deribit captures more than $12 billion of the aggregated open interest.

Deribit leads in both open interest and options volumes and is followed by Bit.com and Okex. Huobi has the least open interest in terms of bitcoin options while Binance has the least volume of all the exchanges as well.

Meanwhile, the cofounders of the data analytics team Glassnode detailed that there are a number of traders betting BTC will be $80,000 on the April 30, 2021 expiry. The Glassnode executives also mentioned the massive expiry set to end at the end of the day.

“This Friday $6 billion in options contracts are set to expire,” the Glassnode founders shared Twitter account noted. Bitcoin price expectations for April are high with lots of investors placing their new bets on $80k,” the researchers added.

“April is going to be one hell of a month,” a person said responding to the tweet.

Skew: ‘Could It Be the Beginning of the End for Contango?’

If the price is below the $80k handle after the expiry, then the options contracts betting on that price will lose out. Moreover, bitcoin fans on Reddit say after Friday’s expiry happens, people should “strap on for some serious action next week and beyond.”

Just recently, Bitcoin.com touched upon the contango effect on bitcoin, which is the difference between spot prices and derivatives market prices. Skew.com says the end of contango for bitcoin could be coming in the near future.

“As yield-hungry investors embrace crypto, could it be the beginning of the end for contango of the bitcoin futures curve? CME seems to be leading the way,” Skew tweeted. Today’s expiry should help people see where BTC prices will lead in the coming weeks. $80,000 bitcoin prices are much higher than they are today, but historically BTC prices do well during the month of April.

What do you think about the $80k options strikes and the $6 billion in bitcoin options set to expire today? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.