It’s a Friday year-end expiration event for Bitcoin options, and one of the largest in history, that will likely cause some volatility.
Approximately 263,000 Bitcoin options contracts expire on Friday, December 26 and have a notional value of approximately $23 billion.
This expiration event is huge as it is the end of the quarter and the end of the year, so there could be some impact on the spot markets, which have been sideways for most of the week.
Trading was subdued over the Christmas period as investors look ahead to 2026 with renewed hope that the four-year cycle has been broken.
Bitcoin options expire
This week’s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 0.37, meaning there are many more calls (longs) expiring than puts (shorts). The max pain is around $96,000, according to Coinglass, meaning most contracts will be worthless at expiration.
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 $2.2 billion. About $2.2 billion in OI remains from $85,000. According to Coinglass, the total OI of BTC options across all exchanges is $52 billion.
“Post-expiration flows will be more important than price. Keep an eye on positioning. How would the market react to such a large expiration?” Deribit asked.
🎄 End of year options expired 🎄
This Friday, a massive $28.5 billion worth of BTC and ETH options will expire on Deribit, marking the largest expiration on record – representing more than half of the total open interest –$BTC: $23.4 billion+ notional | Set call: 0.36 | Maximum pain: $96K
$1.2B in OI clustered at $85K, with… pic.twitter.com/c1l3r7Ac6U— Deribit (@DeribitOfficial) December 23, 2025
“When a large number of options expire, many institutions roll over their positions early to limit pinprick risk. At this point, picking up the remaining positions discarded by institutions offers exceptional value – prices are extremely favorable.” explained crypto derivatives provider Greeks Live.
In addition to today’s large amount of Bitcoin options, there are also approximately 1.25 million Ethereum contracts expiring, with a notional value of $3.4 billion, a max pain of $3,100, and a put/call ratio of 0.45. The total OI of ETH options across all exchanges is approximately $11 billion and has fallen since late August.
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The positioning of Ether options “reflects caution, not capitulation,” Deribit said. This brings the combined notional value of the crypto options to approximately $27 billion as of Friday.
Spot Market Outlook
Spot markets have remained relatively flat, with the total cap hovering just above $3 trillion.
Bitcoin made a small jump to $89,000 but was unable to gain momentum above this level and retreated to $88,850 at the time of writing. The activity remains range-bound and flat this week.
Ether prices have remained weak over the past 24 hours, below $3,000, and most altcoins are in the red as usual.
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