BTC options see heavier put buying ahead of quarter-end expiry
Roughly $1 billion in crypto liquidations and rising open interest added to signs of defensive positioning, with ETH liquidations topping BTC and options flows showing stronger downside hedging demand.
Bitcoin options trading remained defensively positioned ahead of Friday’s quarter-end expiry, while the broader crypto derivatives market absorbed about $1 billion in liquidations over the past 24 hours and Ethereum liquidations exceeded Bitcoin’s. Earlier Deribit data showed $11.32 billion in crypto options due to expire, including $9.68 billion in BTC options and $1.64 billion in ETH options, with BTC and ETH both trading below their max pain levels. Greeks.live researcher Adam said more than one-third of June 24 block BTC options trades were puts concentrated in end-of-month $60,000-$63,000 strikes, and newer options activity pointed to continued demand for downside protection, including July 10 $53,000 BTC puts. Bitcoin open interest rose for a second day to 778,000 BTC, suggesting traders added shorts during the decline, while ETH open interest held near 14 million ETH since June 15. Implied volatility also moved higher, with Bitcoin’s 30-day annualized measure rising to 53% and Ethereum’s to 66%, reinforcing the view that traders were paying up for protection as they watched $60,000 support, thin quarter-end liquidity and a fragile broader market backdrop.
- open interest: The total number of outstanding derivative contracts that have not been closed or settled.
- implied volatility: An options-market measure of expected future price swings, derived from option premiums.
- max pain point: The price level where the largest number of options would expire worthless, often monitored around settlement.