Bitcoin Options Worth $15.6 Billion Expire as BTC Holds Near $84K
The Deribit settlement covered options representing about 182,000 BTC, including roughly 106,200 BTC in calls and 75,900 BTC in puts.
Options representing about 182,000 Bitcoin (BTC) expired on Deribit at 4 a.m. ET (8 a.m. UTC) Friday, Sept. 25, removing a large quarterly derivatives position while Bitcoin traded near $84,000 heading into the settlement.
The contracts carried an estimated notional value of $15.6 billion. That figure reflects the amount of BTC represented by the options, not an equivalent amount of cash entering or leaving the market.
The expiry included roughly 106,200 BTC in call options and 75,900 BTC in put options. Calls give holders the right to buy at a set price, while puts give holders the right to sell.
Large options expiries can affect short-term trading as dealers adjust hedges in spot and futures markets before settlement. After expiry, some related hedge flows may disappear or shift into contracts with later maturities.
Deribit automatically settles in-the-money options. Under the exchange’s current process, those options first settle into corresponding futures, and the futures then settle in cash using the same 30-minute time-weighted average price of the exchange’s index.
The event marked the completion of a quarterly Bitcoin options settlement that had drawn attention because of its size. Before settlement, the scheduled Bitcoin options expiry had drawn attention because of its size and potential effect on hedging activity.
The settlement does not by itself establish the direction of Bitcoin’s next move. With the quarterly positions cleared, trading conditions will depend on remaining options maturities, spot-market activity and futures positioning.
