350,000 Ethereum Options Expire Today With Max Pain Point of $3200, What’s Ahead?

The launch of the spot Ethereum ETF on Thursday, May 23, has turned out to be sell-the-news for ETH. As of press time, the Ethereum price is trading 4% down at a price of $3,650 with a market cap of $438 billion. Interestingly, today’s ETH price action coincides with the weekly options expiry.

350,000 Ethereum Options Expire

According to data from Greeks.live, approximately 350,000 Ethereum (ETH) options are set to expire soon, featuring a Put Call Ratio of 0.58, a Maxpain point of $3,200, and a notional value of $1.3 billion.

ETH has recently outpaced Bitcoin’s rally, spurred by advancements in ETF developments. This surge led to a remarkable 20% increase in a single day. Short-term option Implied Volatility (IV) peaked at 150% at one stage, significantly surpassing the current IV of Bitcoin for the equivalent period.

Presently, a noticeable divergence between Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) is evident. Analysis of block trading and market trading structures indicates sustained bullish sentiment for ETH. However, maintaining consistently high IV levels for each major term is proving challenging. As a result, employing calendar spreads may be a more favorable strategy moving forward.

Just ahead of the Ethereum ETF approval on Thursday, the ETH price saw high volatility leading to more than $132 million in long liquidations.

ETH Exchange Wallet Deposits Rise

In an analysis provided by crypto analyst Ali Martinez, the rising number of Ethereum ($ETH) deposits into cryptocurrency exchange wallets suggests a potential scenario of either a sell-off or an increase in ETH profit-taking activity. Additionally, the Tom DeMark (TD) Sequential indicator is signaling a sell signal on Ethereum’s daily chart.

The present green nine candlestick on the daily chart indicates a potential surge in selling pressure, which could prompt a retracement lasting between one to four daily candlesticks, or potentially initiate a new downward countdown phase before the uptrend resumes.

The recent Ethereum price correction provides a buy-the-dip opportunity for long-term holders. Although the SEC has approved 19b-4 filings for Ethereum ETF, they have yet to clear the S1 registration which will take a few more weeks for the Ethereum ETF to start trading on exchanges.

“It’s a waiting time until the listing takes place, and then the inflow will provide whether there’s a strong continuation upwards”, writes crypto analyst Michael van de Poppe.