Will Crypto Markets React to $2 Billion Bitcoin Options Expiring Today?

Another week has passed and it’s Friday, which means another round of Bitcoin options contracts are expiring while the spot markets remain sideways.

Approximately 30,600 Bitcoin options contracts expire on Friday, February 20, with a notional value of approximately $2 billion. This event is slightly smaller than last week’s expiration, so it is unlikely there will be any impact on spot markets.

The crypto markets are in bear market territory but have been flat over the past week as volume and volatility dry up.

Bitcoin options expire

This week’s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 0.59, meaning there are more expiring calls (longs) than puts (shorts). The max pain is around $70,000, according to Coinglass, which is higher than current spot prices, so many will be out of money at expiration.

Open interest (OI), or the value or number of Bitcoin options contracts remaining to expire, remains highest at $60,000, with $1.2 billion and $1 billion at $50,000 strike prices on Deribit as bearish betting increases. The total OI of BTC options across all exchanges increased this month to reach $36.5 billion.

“The positioning skew is heavy for both assets, with BTC showing the stronger upward skew,” Deribit said.

Meanwhile, derivatives analyst Laevitas noted that there is still demand for downside protection, noting that 2,140 BTC worth of puts worth $58,000 were recently purchased.

🚨 Options Expiry Warning 🚨

Tomorrow at 08:00 UTC, more than $2.4 billion worth of crypto options will expire on Deribit.$BTC: ~$2.0 billion notional | Move/Call: 0.59 | Maximum pain: $70,000$ETH: ~$404M notional | Move/Call: 0.75 | Maximum pain: $2,050

The positioning differences are tough for both assets, with… pic.twitter.com/pgl2z4ZGJ6

— Deribit (@DeribitOfficial) February 19, 2026

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In addition to the current crop of Bitcoin options, there are also approximately 212,000 Ethereum contracts expiring, with a notional value of $404 million, a max pain of $2,050, and a put/call ratio of 0.75. The total ETH options OI across all exchanges is approximately $6.8 billion.

This brings the total notional value of crypto options expirations to approximately $2.4 billion.

Spot Market Outlook

The total market cap has been flat over the past 24 hours, hovering around $2.37 trillion since the start of the week, down 46% from the peak. Bitcoin has been slowly eroding since Monday, hitting a weekly low of $65,700 in late trading on Thursday before recovering in Asia on Friday morning to $67,290 at the time of writing.

Resistance is forming at $70,000, with support still just above $60,000, and this appears to be the nearest target. There has been no movement in Ether prices, which are starting to consolidate around $1,950. The rest of the altcoins remain flat at the bottom of the bear market.