Another Friday has come, marking the expiry of approximately 37,000 Bitcoin options contracts valued at around $3.4 billion. This event is significantly smaller than prior expirations and is unlikely to disrupt spot markets, which have been stabilizing since the previous week’s fluctuations.

US economic data has started to flow in again, with recent job market indicators appearing pessimistic, which adds to expectations for a Federal Reserve rate cut next week. Current projections show an 87% probability of a 0.25% rate cut on December 10, according to CME futures.

Bitcoin Options Expiry

This week’s Bitcoin options demonstrate a 0.94 put/call ratio, suggesting that there is a near balance between long and short positions. The max pain point for options is approximately $91,000, using data from Coinglass.

Open interest (OI) remains substantial at the $100,000 strike price, which comes with $2.7 billion at stake on Deribit. Further, there’s nearly $2 billion in OI at both $80,000 and $85,000, with short sellers eyeing these levels. The overall open interest across all exchanges stands at about $55 billion, as per Coinglass.

The options market has been evolving, reflecting increasing involvement from institutional players in 2025.

In October 2025, Bitcoin options on Deribit hit their highest monthly trading volume of 1.49 million contracts, followed closely by November’s total of 1.33 million. So far this year, the volume has reached approximately 10.27 million contracts, a 36% rise compared to 2024.

“In 2025, the options market has continued to develop as institutional participation has grown significantly.”

This sentiment was echoed by Laevitas, which noted Deribit’s exceptional monthly volume.

In addition to Bitcoin options expiring today, around 210,000 Ethereum contracts with a notional value of $667 million are also set to expire, bringing the total expiry value today to roughly $4 billion.

Market Outlook

Recently, crypto markets have faced slight declines, with market capitalization dropping by 1.7% to $3.23 trillion. Bitcoin’s failure to surpass resistance at $93,000 saw it dip below this level at the time of writing. Ethereum also continues to face resistance at around $3,200, trading at approximately $3,177.

Altcoins have seen more significant losses, notably for XRP, Solana, and Hyperliquid.