Overview
- Options tied to Bitcoin valued between $23.7 billion and $28 billion are expiring today, with a put/call ratio near 0.38 and max pain clustered around $95,000–$96,000, while large strike concentrations sit near $85,000 and $100,000.
- BTC briefly popped to about $89,100 on short covering before slipping below $87,000 during the U.S. session, keeping the market boxed between key support near $86,500–$87,000 and resistance around $90,000–$95,000 as 24-hour liquidations topped roughly $240 million.
- Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $175.3 million in net outflows on Wednesday, and separate tallies show roughly $716 million in net outflows since Dec. 8, removing a source of steady demand that had supported price earlier in the cycle.
- On-chain metrics point to distribution rather than accumulation, with increased transfers to exchanges and a seven-day net capital flow near negative $160 million per day, while the share of supply active in the past 180 days remains elevated.
- Several analysts flag the risk of a fast drop toward the low-$80,000s followed by a rebound toward strike clusters near $95,000–$100,000, and note that holiday-driven moves often fade once liquidity normalizes, even as longer-term factors are seen as constructive for 2026.