$10.52 billion in crypto options expire as Bitcoin falls below $64,000

Bitcoin and Ether options with a combined notional value of about $10.43 billion expired on July 31, with 149,000 Bitcoin contracts worth $9.6 billion and 435,000 Ether contracts worth $830 million settling on Deribit. Bitcoin’s options book showed a 0.28 put-call ratio and a $64,000 max-pain level, while Ether’s stood at 0.63 with max pain at $1,850, indicating relatively more call-heavy positioning in Bitcoin than in Ether. Shortly after the 08:00 UTC monthly settlement, Bitcoin traded near $63,824 and Ether near $1,891, with neither asset breaking out of its recent range. The expiry accounted for about 30% of Bitcoin open interest, according to Greeks.live. A separate PerpFinder snapshot based on Deribit data at 07:51 UTC showed $7.39 billion in Bitcoin call open interest and $2.06 billion in puts, for total notional open interest of $9.45 billion, slightly below Greeks.live’s estimate, while Ether open interest was about $499.4 million in calls and $311.5 million in puts, for a total of $810.9 million. The gap between data providers appears to reflect price changes and differing capture times rather than a substantive discrepancy. The low Bitcoin put-call ratio looked bullish on the surface, but many call positions were clustered at strikes above the market, particularly around $70,000 and $72,000, leaving much of that upside exposure out of the money as Bitcoin traded roughly between $63,787 and $65,305 over 24 hours. Greeks.live said call gamma exposure was spread across several strikes while put gamma was more concentrated, a setup that can shape dealer hedging flows without independently signaling market direction. The firm added that “the conditions for a rally are not in place,” citing limited capital inflows and weak follow-through even as U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF inflows recovered to $233.1 million on July 30, led by BlackRock’s IBIT with $183.4 million. Ether remained above its $1,850 max-pain level after expiry, trading near $1,891 within a 24-hour range of about $1,884 to $1,934. Its put-call ratio had fallen from 1.26 at the July 10 expiry to about 0.63 by month-end, suggesting less defensive positioning than earlier in the month, though still more relative put demand than in Bitcoin. Traders are now watching whether exposure rolls into the August 28 and September 25 expiries, where Deribit data showed about $3.15 billion and $6.22 billion in Bitcoin options open interest respectively.