Bitcoin futures options worth over $1.5 billion are scheduled to expire on April 12, indicating a possible decline in Bitcoin’s price to around $69,000. The put-to-call ratio of 0.62 suggests a “max pain” point for Bitcoin, according to a post by pseudonymous trader Greeks. However, Hao Yang, the global head of derivatives trading at Bybit exchange, believes that Bitcoin may not necessarily drop back to its previous all-time high. While the expiration of options often leads to increased price volatility in the crypto markets, Yang does not anticipate significant volatility due to the relatively small size of Friday’s options expires. As of 10:25 am UTC, Bitcoin was trading at $70,725 with a 5.9% increase on the weekly chart.
Although the upcoming options expiry may contribute to increased downside price volatility for Bitcoin, Andrey Stoychev, the head of Prime Brokerage at Nexo, suggests that external macroeconomic factors could also play a role. Stoychev notes that the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) for March exceeded expectations at 3.5% year-on-year, leading Bitcoin whales to buy the dip and pushing the price back above $70,000 on April 10.
In terms of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), inflows have slowed down ahead of the Bitcoin halving. According to Dune Analytics data, the ETFs generated $220 million in net inflows over the past week, marking a decline from their peak on March 11 when they generated $2.58 billion in net inflows. Last week, the ETFs only managed $337 million in net inflows, representing a decrease of over 45% from the previous week’s $615 million. Currently, the Bitcoin ETFs hold over 839,000 BTC worth $59.4 billion, accounting for 4.26% of the total BTC supply.
As the market prepares for the 2024 Bitcoin halving, Bitcoin’s popularity continues to grow, with over 65 million ordinals inscriptions recorded days before the halving event.