How will markets react if Bitcoin options worth $2.7 billion expire today?

Another week has come to a close and another round of Bitcoin and Ether options contracts are expiring as spot markets continue to fall.

Approximately 31,000 Bitcoin options contracts expire on Friday, December 19 and have a notional value of approximately $2.7 billion. This expiration event is smaller than average and thus has no impact on spot markets, which have been trending lower all week.

Several factors have contributed to the ongoing sell-off, including another crackdown on China’s Bitcoin mining industry, delayed regulation of the crypto market in the United States, and fears of interest rate hikes by the Bank of Japan.

Bitcoin options expire

This week’s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 0.8, meaning there are slightly more calls expiring than puts (shorts). According to Coinglass, the maximum pain is about $88,000.

Open interest (OI), or the value or number of Bitcoin options contracts yet to expire, is highest at $100,000, which at this strike price on Deribit amounts to $2.3 billion. About $2.1 billion in OI remains from $85,000 reached this week. The total OI of BTC options across all exchanges is $52.5 billion, according to to Coinglass.

“BTC open interest is concentrated around $88,000, with slightly heavier put positioning, indicating a relatively narrow expiration unless there are spot breaks,” Deribit noted.

🚨 Options Expiry Warning 🚨

Tomorrow at 08:00 UTC, approximately $3.18 billion worth of crypto options will expire on Deribit.$BTC: $2.72 billion notional | Set call: 0.81 | Maximum pain: $88,000

BTC’s open interest is concentrated around 88K, with slightly heavier put positioning, indicating a relatively… pic.twitter.com/wW8ZYXYCsx

— Deribit (@DeribitOfficial) December 18, 2025

In addition to the current crop of Bitcoin options, there are also approximately 155,000 Ethereum contracts expiring, with a notional value of $460 million, a max pain of $3,100, and a put/call ratio of 1.1. The total OI of ETH options across all exchanges is approximately $11 billion and has fallen since late August.

“ETH positioning is more spread across strikes, with notable upside above $3.4K, leaving bigger moves in play if volatility accelerates again,” Deribit said.

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This brings the combined notional value of Friday’s crypto options expiration to approximately $3.2 billion.

Spot Market Outlook

Markets have fallen again and total capitalization has fallen below $3 trillion, to the lowest level since April.

Bitcoin saw yet another seemingly manipulated pump-and-dump after the CPI print, when it fell to $84,500 before recovering $85,000 during the Asian trading session on Friday morning. The asset here appears structurally weak and further losses are expected.

Ether prices also continued to weaken, briefly falling below $2,800 but remaining at this level for the time being. The altcoins were in more pain with heavier losses for XRP, Solana and Cardano, all of which lost more than 4% on the day.