Bitcoin remains close to $79,000 despite a major expiry on Deribit

On August 28, 81,700 options on bitcoin expire on Deribit. These options have a notional value of $6.44 billion. Indeed, the max pain price was located in the range of $68,000 to $70,000, well below the current bitcoin price. However, this key expiry did not trigger an immediate move towards this level.

In Brief

The $6.44 Billion Does Not Represent Traded Capital

The 81,700 options expiring today represented about one-fifth of all open positions regarding bitcoin on Deribit. Thus, their notional value reached $6.44 billion.

This amount measures the theoretical value of bitcoin exposure that the contracts provide. However, this does not mean that $6.44 billion changed hands during settlement. A significant portion of options expire worthless if their strike price remains too far from the bitcoin price.

Nearly 62% of contracts related to this expiry could thereby expire worthless, according to analyst Frank Hepworth. The actual settled amount was thus well below the reported notional value.