Bitcoin Rally Slows as $15.6 Billion Options Expiry Hits—XRP and Solana Keep Climbing

In brief

• Bitcoin fell about 0.9% to roughly $83,600 on Friday, retracing part of a rally that pushed it to an intraday high near $87,000,
• Technical indicators on the charts still read bullish, though the Fed's next move could reshape the outlook.
• Meanwhile, XRP (+15.45% over seven days) and Solana (+9.33% over seven days) are outperforming the broader crypto market.

Bitcoin slipped to around $83,600 on Friday, a pullback of roughly 1% from the prior close, as the week's rally took a breather. The dip follows an intraday high near $87,000—territory Bitcoin hadn't touched in months—after it broke out of the $75,000 to $81,000 range that had capped it for weeks.

The move isn't spooking chart-watching traders, though. Bitcoin's daily setup still reads bullish with the 50-day moving average sitting above the 200-day in a pattern known as a golden cross.

Some of Friday's softness has a mechanical explanation. $15.6 billion in Bitcoin options expired on Deribit, and dealers often unwind hedges once that flow clears—a routine event that can jolt prices without breaking the underlying trend.

That would help explain why open interest and 24-hour trading volume both fell sharply, down 14.39% and 13.68% respectively. The liquidations came in fairly balanced too: $161.96 million in long positions against $156.1 million in shorts in the last 24 hours, a pattern that looks more like leverage getting reset than a one-sided flush.