Major Bitcoin Options Expiry Set for October 17
Approximately 44,000 Bitcoin options contracts, with a combined notional value near $4.8 billion, are scheduled to expire on Friday, October 17. This expiration event is slightly larger than last week’s but is not expected to significantly affect spot markets, which have generally been declining throughout the week.
Despite ongoing uncertainties such as the US government shutdown and lingering trade tariff tensions, broader economic trends including the end of quantitative tightening and potential rate cuts continue to provide a positive longer-term outlook for cryptocurrencies.
Details on Bitcoin Options and Open Interest
The current batch of Bitcoin options has a put/call ratio of 0.83, indicating a slight predominance of long positions expiring compared to shorts, as bearish sentiment gains ground. According to Coinglass, the “max pain” price—where options sellers experience the least financial loss—is around $116,000.
Open interest is notably concentrated at strike prices of $140,000 (with $2.2 billion in open interest on Deribit), $125,000, and $120,000, each holding over $2 billion in contracts. Short sellers are focused on strike prices at $110,000, $108,000, and $95,000, where open interest exceeds $1.3 billion each. Total Bitcoin options open interest across all exchanges nears an all-time high at about $61 billion, as reported by Coinglass.
Spot Market Performance and Price Movements
The overall cryptocurrency market capitalization ended the week lower, slipping 2.7% on the day to $3.77 trillion. Since its peak on October 7, the crypto market has fallen nearly 14%.
Bitcoin led the downturn, dropping to a support level near $108,000 during late Thursday trading. The Friday morning Asian session showed little recovery momentum. Ethereum also weakened, retreating from above $4,000 to around $3,900 at the time of reporting. Meanwhile, many altcoins experienced more significant losses, with BNB, Solana, Dogecoin, Sui, and Avalanche all showing declines.
