Will Crypto Markets Fall Further When $6.3B Bitcoin Options Expire?

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Will Crypto Markets Fall Further When $6.3B <a href="https://jpykr.com/btc-usd/">Bitcoin</a> Options Expire?

As a researcher tracking the cryptocurrency market, I’ve identified a significant options expiry coming up on Friday, May 29th. Approximately 85,500 Bitcoin options contracts, totaling around $6.3 billion, will expire that day. This is a larger-than-normal expiry for the end of the month, and I anticipate it could lead to some volatility in the immediate Bitcoin spot market.

The cryptocurrency market has been falling throughout the week, losing about $120 billion in value. Both Bitcoin and Ether have seen significant price drops.

Increased US military involvement in the Middle East has frightened investors, leading to a rapid decline in the market.

Bitcoin Options Expiry

As a crypto investor, I’ve been looking at the latest Bitcoin options data, and it’s showing a put/call ratio of 0.85 this week. Basically, there’s a fairly balanced amount of betting on Bitcoin going up versus going down. Coinglass is reporting the ‘max pain’ price – the point where option sellers would lose the most money – is around $75,000. Since Bitcoin’s currently trading a bit lower than that, it means some of those options contracts could expire worthless.

On Deribit, the most Bitcoin options contracts that haven’t expired are for $80,000, totaling $1.7 billion. However, traders betting on a price drop (short sellers) still have a significant $1.2 billion in contracts at $60,000. Overall, the total value of all Bitcoin options contracts across all exchanges is currently $37.5 billion and has been decreasing, according to Coinglass.

Despite Bitcoin’s recent significant price drop to what analysts at Greeks Live called a “very dangerous level,” market uncertainty – as measured by implied volatility – hasn’t increased much, according to a report released Thursday.

Given the current situation, the options contracts expiring today are expected to cause a major shift in how options are structured.

Overall, the market still expects prices to hold steady, and major investors aren’t showing much more worry about a potential sharp drop.

Bitcoin’s price is now falling below a key support level, and the forces pushing the price up are getting weaker. Similarly, Ethereum has also dropped below its own significant support area, which was around $2,000.

Although BTC has fallen to a very dangerous…

— Greeks.live (@GreeksLive) May 28, 2026

Besides the Bitcoin options expiring today, roughly 650,000 Ethereum options contracts are also set to expire, totaling $1.3 billion in value. The price where most contracts would cause losses (the “max pain” point) is $2,200, and there are slightly more call options than put options (a put/call ratio of 0.77). Overall, there’s about $6.9 billion worth of Ethereum options open across all exchanges.

This pushes the total value of expiring crypto options to about $7.6 billion, marking the biggest such event in weeks.

Spot Market Outlook

Things have been pretty rough in the crypto market this week. By Friday morning here in Asia, the total value of all cryptocurrencies had dropped to $2.55 trillion – the lowest it’s been since mid-April. As an investor, it’s definitely a bit concerning to see that kind of dip.

Bitcoin briefly dipped below $73,000 on Thursday but recovered to surpass that level again. However, analysts suggest the overall market conditions are still fragile, and the price could fall further.

Ethereum had risen back above $2,000 at the time this was written, but its recovery seemed fragile and suggested it was still firmly in a prolonged downturn.

Rising US inflation could cause further declines in the price of cryptocurrencies. April’s inflation data, released this week, showed the fastest increase in three years, potentially putting more pressure on the crypto market.

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2026-05-29 14:05