On Friday, Jan. 23, about 21,700 Bitcoin options and 118,000 Ether contracts expire across crypto markets. These expiries total about $2.1 billion as spot markets slid amid trade tensions and policy delays.
Bitcoin expiries include roughly 21,700 contracts and a put/call ratio of 0.75. Max pain sits near $92,000, per Coinglass, leaving many options out of the money (Ed. note: Max pain above spot means many options likely expire worthless).
Open interest concentrates at the $100,000 strike, with about $2 billion on Deribit. Another $1.1 billion sits at the $85,000 and $90,000 strikes as bearish bets grow.
“Expiry positioning is tightly clustered around key strikes, keeping spot sensitive into the cut,” stated Deribit. “Geopolitics and trade policy uncertainty remain the macro backdrop, supporting hedging demand and keeping volume reactive.”
Ether faces about 118,000 expiring contracts, totaling roughly $346 million. Max pain stands near $3,250 and total ETH options open interest is about $8 billion.
Bitcoin hit an intraday low of $88,560 and traded back near $89,500, failing to reclaim $90,000. Ether traded near $2,950 as total market capitalization fell about one percent.
Crypto markets lost roughly $200 billion since the start of the week amid mounting macro pressures. Altcoins broadly fell two to three percent as fear and uncertainty persisted.
