- Bitcoin and Ethereum just saw their largest respective options expiry ever, marking a major milestone for the cryptocurrency market
- This expiry took place earlier today and it did not coincide with any intense volatility, despite what some analyst had forecasted
- It now appears that the volatility associated with this event did occur earlier this week
- It is possible that the options expiry, and investors’ anticipations about it, helped fuel the recent Bitcoin decline to lows of under $9,000
Bitcoin just saw its largest options expiry ever. This marks a major milestone for the benchmark digital asset, as its options market has been growing at a rapid pace throughout 2020.
Until recently, the market dynamics seen were largely influenced solely by margin trading, but an evolving landscape signals that options and futures both may play a larger role in how Bitcoin trades going forward.
Some analysts do believe that today’s expiry did contribute to the recent price decline to the lower-$9,000 region.
Bitcoin Sees Largest Options Expiry Ever
Earlier today, over half of the total Bitcoin open interest expired. This marked the largest options expiry ever seen by the benchmark crypto.
According to data from options trading platform Deribit, these options contracts were worth a total of 74,000 Bitcoin, having a notional value of $675 million.
Ethereum also saw a historic expiry today, with contracts worth 309,000 ETH expiring. This only marked 43% of the total outstanding open interest with a notional value of $71 million.
Deribit spoke about this data in a recent tweet, saying:
“BTC: 74k BTC out of 138k total OI in BTC options has just expired or 53% with a notional value of approximately USD 675 million. ETH: 309k out of 717k total OI in ETH options has just expired or 43% with a notional value of approximately USD 71 million.”
The reason why this is significant is that the options market’s growing popularity points to a maturing Bitcoin and crypto market.
Options Expiry Fails to Spark Any Volatility
Over the past couple of weeks, many investors and traders had been pointing to today’s expiry as a potential catalyst for volatility in the market.
Despite this, Bitcoin has remained rather flat today.
One explanation for why this was a non-event is because its effects may have already been priced in earlier this week when the crypto reeled down towards $9,000 from highs of $9,800.
Bitcoinist reported about this possibility yesterday, citing one analyst who said:
“It seems to me the volatility everyone expects for the June 26 options expiry already happened…”
As the options market continues growing, its influence over Bitcoin’s price action will likely grow.
Featured image from Shutterstock.