Over 18000 Bitcoin Options Set To Expire, Real Panic Selloff Is Yet To Come

Bitcoin investors sold their holdings in panic after recent actions by Mt. Gox, the US government, and the German government. This drove the price of Bitcoin down to $53,400, a level last noted in February. The expiry of Bitcoin and Ethereum options today puts even more pressure on the cryptocurrency market, with on-chain data indicating that there may be more panic selling to come.

Bitcoin and Ethereum Set to Expire Today

The crypto market crash saw the global crypto market cap tumble by more than 13% in 48 hours, causing investors to over 250 billion.

Over 18,300 BTC options of notional value $1 billion are set to expire on Deribit, with a put-call ratio of 0.65. The max pain is at $61,500, sliding from $63,500 as Bitcoin remains under selling pressure. BTC price fell below $55k support and risks falling to $52k support if it fails to rebound.

Notably, the put/call ratio in the last 24 hours is 0.88 as put bets rose significantly in the crypto market crash. The 24-hour put volume is above 19,552 and the 24-hour call volume is near 22,088. Also, Historical Volatility and BTC Volatility Index (DVOL) witnessed a sharp 10% rise surge. This indicates options traders have turned highly bearish on Bitcoin.

Meanwhile, 163,170 ETH options of notional value $472 million are set to expire. The put-call ratio is 0.35 and the max pain price is $3,350, indicating massive losses for traders as ETH price fell below $2,890. In the last 24 hours, the put volume has increased to 98,643 and call volume remained higher at 126,788. The put-call ratio is 0.78.

$700 Million Liquidated From Crypto Market

According to a CryptoQuant verified on-chain analyst, the real panic hasn’t even started yet. He predicts it will start when orange bars appear on BTC Daily Realized Profit Loss Ratio 30DMA metric. “In the current situation, 47K doesn’t look as terrible as it did three weeks ago when we were at 70K,” he added.

The crypto market saw over $700 million in crypto liquidations, as per Coinglass data. Over 235k traders were liquidated, with the largest single liquidation order on crypto exchange Binance valued at $18.48 million as someone sold ETH.

The crypto market bleeds as over $600 million in long positions and $100 million in short positions were liquidated over the last 24 hours. Along with top altcoins, major liquidations were observed in PEPE, PEOPLE, ORDI, WLD, LTC, FIL, ADA, BCH, and others.

Beleaguered crypto exchange Mt. Gox has started $10 billion in BTC and BCH repayments, as per an official announcement on July 5. According to Arkham, Mt. Gox moved 47.229k BTC worth $2.97 billion today.