Crypto23 September, 20263 min read
Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers Says Call-Heavy Bitcoin Options Worth $15.9 Billion Expire Friday
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Bitcoin options worth about $15.9 billion are due to expire Friday on Deribit. The expiry is expected to remove roughly 37% of Deribit’s total BTC open interest.
Deribit expiry nears
Bitcoin options worth about $15.9 billion and ether options worth about $2.1 billion are scheduled to expire Friday at 8:00 UTC on Deribit, with the combined settlement near $18 billion.
“Roughly $15.9 billion in bitcoin options and $2.1 billion in ether options expire at 8:00 UTC.”
Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers said, "This Friday's quarterly expiry Sept. 25 is one of the largest of the year on Deribit," and he described the September contract as "call-heavy" with a put/call open-interest ratio of 0.69.
Deribit’s BTC expiry will shave off 37% of Deribit’s entire outstanding BTC open interest, around $43.5 billion as of this writing.
CoinDesk also said the $9.4 billion in bitcoin call notional due for expiry has more than half in the money, while puts are almost entirely underwater, and it framed the maximum pain level for bitcoin as $75,000 versus a spot reference of $85,500.
Deribit’s Chief Commercial Officer Jean-David Péquignot said open interest is heavily concentrated at the $85k, $90k, $95k, and $100k call strikes, while defensive structures are anchored at $60k, $70k, and $75k.
Gamma and hedging
The expiry could reset BTC’s spot trading range because, as Strijers put it, the settlement "will clear out dealer-related hedging." Strijers told CoinDesk that as Bitcoin moved through the $80k–$87k area, dealer hedging of short call exposure likely contributed to the upward move, because dealers who are short calls have to buy spot as prices rise to stay hedged. CoinDesk added that once "that gamma and hedging flow rolls off after settlement, the pinning effect fades, short-term volatility can increase, and the prevailing range can reset," and it said traders will watch price action around $85,000.
Altcoin Buzz said Bitcoin traded near $86,300 ahead of Friday’s $16 billion Deribit expiry, and it described ByKaranteli’s open-source gamma model as placing the largest call wall at $95,000 and the largest put wall at $60,000. Altcoin Buzz also said ByKaranteli’s model put the zero-gamma level near $71,000 and treated the current $86,000 zone as stabilizing, where dealers sell rallies and buy dips.
What traders watch next
Traders would monitor how positions "rollover" into October and December expiries after Friday’s settlement, with rollover defined as closing or offsetting current options positions while opening similar positions in a later-dated expiry.
CoinDesk also said the $70,000 strike has more open contracts than any other and that calls there are deep in the money, while it described about a third of the entire $15.9 billion book as currently in the money.
Coinbase Markets reported Bitcoin and Ethereum options carrying roughly $18.1 billion in notional value moving toward their Sept. 25 quarterly expiry, with Bitcoin options showing a 0.66 put-call ratio on open interest and a 0.37 ratio on recent trading volume.
Coinbase Markets said Bitcoin call open interest clusters near $90,000 and $100,000 ahead of Friday’s quarterly settlement, and it said Ether call interest is concentrated between $3,000 and $4,000 as September contracts approach expiration Friday.
Tokenpost said the expiry is set for 4 a.m. ET (8:00 UTC) Friday, Sept. 25, and it described Deribit’s expiring options as European-style and cash-settled, with delivery price calculated from a 30-minute time-weighted average between 3:30 and 4 a.m. ET (7:30-8:00 UTC).