$6.4 billion in Bitcoin options set to expire Friday, potentially intensifying market volatility in May

Huo Xing Finance reports, according to CoinDesk, approximately 81,700 Bitcoin options contracts on Deribit (notional value of about $6.4 billion) will expire on Friday at 08:00 UTC. Call options outnumber put options, with a put/call ratio of 0.83, and the maximum pain point is at $68,000. The notional value of call options with a strike price of $80,000 amounts to $157 million, while the largest open interest for call options is at the $75,000 strike price, totaling $236 million. Deribit’s Chief Risk Officer, Shaun Fernando, stated that nearly 20% of Deribit’s Bitcoin open interest is set to expire, compounded by heightened market volatility, a shift in the volatility term structure from backwardation to contango, a 30% relative increase in DVOL, and a reversal of the call-put skew from negative to positive—making this a “notable expiry.” Bitcoin has surged from around $62,000 to $80,000 within a week, marking the second-largest weekly gain in years, with a large number of call options with strike prices below $80,000 now in-the-money. Fernando noted that over $500 million in notional value lies within a 5% price range of the current level, which could trigger intensified gamma hedging before expiration, potentially causing price “pinning” near key strike levels or accelerating breakthroughs beyond them. Market makers’ dynamic hedging to manage exposure may cause Bitcoin’s price to oscillate around dominant strike prices such as $80,000; a decisive breakout above this level could then trigger a larger market move.