The price of Bitcoin (BTC) remained above $69,000 on March 29, despite the largest quarterly Bitcoin futures options expiry event in history. According to Hao Yang, the global head of derivatives trading at Bybit exchange, over $15.1 billion worth of cryptocurrency futures options expired on Deribit at 8:00 am UTC on March 29. Out of that total, $9.53 billion represented the notional value of Bitcoin options expiring at a put/call ratio of 0.84, with a “max pain” price potential of $51,000.
While options expiry can lead to increased volatility, Yang explained that the “max pain” price point does not accurately reflect Bitcoin’s long-term price potential, which is still tied to its fundamental values. Andrey Stoychev, project manager at Nexo’s prime brokerage division, stated that despite the expiry, the price impact was minimal. According to CoinMarketCap data, the price of Bitcoin fell 0.7% in the 24 hours leading up to 10:35 am UTC, trading at $69,924. On the monthly chart, Bitcoin is up over 11.9%.
The recent retracement of Bitcoin’s price before the halving occurred in line with previous historical retracements. According to Rekt Capital, if Bitcoin can turn its old all-time high of $69,000 into support, then the current pre-halving correction may be over.