Short-Dated Bitcoin Options Skew Favors Puts Ahead of $10.9B Expiry

Bitcoin (BTC) options worth about $10.9 billion expire Friday, Oct. 30, while short-dated pricing favors puts after the cryptocurrency fell below $80,000, despite a larger number of open calls.

Jean-David Pequignot, Deribit’s chief commercial officer, described the move this way: “The break below $80,000 has pushed BTC's front-end 25-delta skew heavily toward puts at >10v over calls.” That means implied volatility was more than 10 points higher for comparable puts than calls.

The expiring positions include about 88,700 call contracts and 46,500 put contracts. Open interest records contracts that remain outstanding, but does not show whether traders bought or sold them. The imbalance alone does not establish the market’s net direction.

Deribit’s BTC index stood at $80,788.80 at 2:20:31 p.m. ET Thursday (18:20:31 UTC), a pre-expiration reading rather than a settlement price. Earlier coverage of the Friday Bitcoin and Ether options expiration also covered Ether contracts. Friday’s expiration is scheduled for 4 a.m. ET (08:00 UTC).