Will Markets Break Resistance When $2 Billion Crypto Options Expire Today?

Friday is here again, which means more Bitcoin and Ether options are expiring as spot markets hold on to recent gains.

Approximately 22,200 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, April 17, with a notional value of approximately $1.66 billion. This event is a bit smaller than last week’s event, so it is unlikely to impact the spot markets.

Cryptocurrency prices have been rising slowly this week, with around $150 billion added to the total capitalization since Monday.

Bitcoin Options Expiration

This week’s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 1, meaning long and short sellers are evenly matched. The peak pain is around $71,000, according to Coinglass, which is a bit below current spot prices, so some could find themselves short of money at expiration.

Open interest (OI), or the value or number of Bitcoin options contracts that have not yet expired, remains highest at the $80,000 strike price on Deribit, with $1.5 billion as bulls bets take over, but bears still have $1.4 billion in OI at $60,000.

The total BTC OI options across all exchanges have increased steadily this month and stand at $35.6 billion, according to Coinglass.

“Positioning has changed compared to last week. BTC has moved from a strong call to a leading placement, while ETH OI has increased week over week despite the broader market movement,” commented Deribit.

🚨 Options expiration alert.
Tomorrow at 08:00 UTC, approximately $2.1 billion worth of crypto options are set to expire on Deribit.$BTC: ~$1.63 billion notional | Put/Call: 1.02 | Maximum pain: $71,000 $ETH: ~$444.7M notional | Put/Call: 0.94 | Maximum pain: $2,250

The positioning has changed compared to last week. BTC went from… pic.twitter.com/VMjM3W3XSV

– Deribit (@DeribitOfficial) April 16, 2026

As the Bitcoin price continues to rebound, “the IV (implied volatility) of long-term options is actually decreasing, while Skew is clearly positively skewed,” crypto derivatives provider Greeks Live said this week.

You might also like:

“The market has made a readjustment of its positioning strategies and key players have reached consensus on expected trends for the future – low volatility is becoming the dominant trend in the market.”

In addition to the current batch of Bitcoin options, approximately 196,000 Ethereum contracts are also expiring, with a notional value of $460 million, a maximum pain at $2,225, and a put/call ratio of 0.91. The total ETH OI options across all exchanges is approximately $7.4 billion.

Spot Market Outlook

The total market capitalization is currently at a ten-week high of $2.64 trillion, but it is meeting resistance here as it did in mid-March. Bitcoin is hovering around resistance at $75,000 and has only managed to make progress above this key price zone.

Ethereum ends the week in Asia around $2,345 after gaining 7% over the past seven days. Altcoins are generally mixed this Friday morning, with bigger gains for XRP, Solana, Dogecoin, Cardano and MemeCore, which exploded by 32%.