BTC price: First Bitcoin (BTC) Options Expiry After ETF Approval, Uncertainty Prevails

First Bitcoin (BTC) Options Expiry After ETF Approval, Uncertainty Prevails

January 12, 2024

Bhushan Akolkar

Senior Journalist

Expertise : Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Macro Finance

Bhushan is a seasoned crypto writer with over eight years of experience spanning more than 10,000 contributions across multiple platforms like CoinGape, CoinSpeaker, Bitcoinist, Crypto News Flash, and others. Being a Fintech enthusiast, he loves reporting across Crypto, Blockchain, DeFi, Global Macros with a keen understanding in financial markets.   He is committed to continuous learning and stays motivated by sharing the knowledge he acquires. In his free time, Bhushan enjoys reading thriller fiction novels and occasionally explores his culinary skills. Bhushan has a bachelors degree in electronics engineering, however, his interest in finance and economics drives him to crypto and blockchain.

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96000 BTC Options Expiry Sets Max Pain Price At $61,000, What's Next?

With the historic first day of trading on Wall Street for the spot Bitcoin ETF, the BTC price has given a muted response. As of press time, Bitcoin is trading 0.87% down at a price of $46,080 and a market cap of $902 billion. Also, the Bitcoin options data suggests a muted response in trading activity.

Bitcoin Options Expiry

As of January 12, Greeks.Live reports that 36,000 Bitcoin options are on the verge of expiration, revealing a Put Call Ratio of 0.9, a Maxpain point at $45,000, and a notional value of $1.68 billion.

This week marked the anticipated approval of the Bitcoin Spot ETF, amidst a backdrop of recurrent fake news and breaking news, contributing to frequent and sharp volatility in the market. As forecasted earlier in the week, employing a LONG GAMMA strategy appeared to be cost-effective during this period.

In the lead-up to the ETF approval, short-term implied volatilities (IVs) experienced a peak, followed by a notable decline in major term IVs due to market volatility falling below expectations. While the adoption of the Bitcoin Spot ETF is likely to inject incremental capital into the crypto market in the long term, short-term uncertainty persists. Various factors in play could contribute to sustained sharp volatility, similar to the fluctuations witnessed throughout this week.

BTC Active Wallets on the Decline

Apart from Bitcoin options data, Santiment, an on-chain data provider, highlights the approval of Bitcoin ETFs, suggesting a potential trend of a slight decrease in active wallets on Bitcoin’s blockchain. The decline in the total number of active BTC wallets stands at $0,000 since the beginning of this year 2024.

While this shift may not significantly impact the cryptocurrency’s price, Santiment anticipates that a portion of traders might opt to transition from their existing BTC wallets to embrace ETF exposure for cryptocurrency investments.

Investors remain unimpressed by the current Bitcoin (BTC) price, as the excitement surrounding the spot BTC Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) is not translating into significant gains.