Overview
- About 81,700 Bitcoin options, roughly $6.44 billion in notional value, are due to expire on Deribit at 08:00 UTC on Aug. 28, with calls outnumbering puts at a 0.83 put-to-call ratio.
- Call open interest is clustered at the $75,000 and $80,000 strikes, holding approximately $236 million and $157 million in notional value respectively and with more than $500 million located within 5% of spot.
- Market makers use gamma hedging—buying or selling spot or futures as options become more sensitive—to stay hedged, and those trades can either hold price near a strike or add momentum through it depending on dealers’ hidden net positions.
- A much larger end-September quarterly book holds 130,670 BTC of open interest and concentrates upside between $78,000 and $82,000 while leaving the low $70,000 band relatively thinly protected, creating asymmetric downside risk.
- The options shift follows a recent Bitcoin rally and strong spot ETF inflows that raised implied volatility and flipped skew toward calls, and traders should watch for heightened intraday volatility around expiry but not treat the settlement as a long-term directional signal.