Bitcoin and Ether saw roughly $1.75 billion of options expire on July 10, a routine-but-telling event that highlighted traders’ cautious posture toward crypto’s near-term direction.
The headline numbers (from Greeks.live)
- Bitcoin: ~23,000 options expired, notional value ~$1.5 billion; put-call ratio 0.97; maximum pain: $62,000.
- Ethereum: ~140,000 options expired, notional value ~$250 million; put-call ratio 1.26; maximum pain: $1,700.
- The weekly expiry accounted for about 7% of outstanding options—smaller than recent monthly and quarterly rolls—so it was unlikely by itself to trigger a sustained spot move.
Price context and strike concentration
- Bitcoin traded mostly above $60,000 during the week and briefly hit $64,000 in Asian hours before stalling near a resistance band between $64,000–$64,500. Greeks.live noted gamma exposure and a large cluster of calls around the $64,000 strike, a setup that can influence dealer hedging dynamics as price crosses that level.
- For Ether, gamma exposure clustered near $1,750 and call accumulation was visible there, while many protective puts clustered below $1,500—deeply out of the money as expiry approached.
What the options flows imply
- Traders increased short-term call selling slightly above market prices during the week—an income strategy that pays off when an asset remains range-bound or fails to rally past the sold strike. Greeks.live interpreted this as institutional skepticism about near-term upside for BTC.
- Despite that, Bitcoin’s weekly put-call ratio near 0.97 meant puts and calls were roughly balanced in this batch.
- Ethereum’s 1.26 put-call ratio signaled heavier put demand in the weekly expiry for a second straight week; many of those puts were protective hedges with strikes beneath $1,500.
Skew and downside demand
- Greeks.live reported BTC’s 25-delta skew has stabilized after June’s repricing, but downside protection still commands a premium. Current skew readings: -6.4% (1D), -6.7% (7D) and -7.0% (1M). In plain terms, traders are paying more for downside protection than for equivalent bullish exposure across maturities.
- The firm noted this premium is now more evenly distributed across short- and medium-term maturities, a “more normalized term structure” but one that retains a “persistent downside bias.”
Wider market backdrop and open interest
- The expiry took place against mixed price action across crypto and traditional markets as investors digested interest-rate policy and geopolitical risks. Bitcoin slipped below $64,000 after a hawkish Fed decision that cooled demand for risk assets.
- Open interest remains substantial: Bitcoin options across exchanges were near $28.7 billion, and Ethereum options around $4.4 billion.
Bottom line
This weekly expiry was modest in size but illustrative: clustered strikes around key technical levels, continued demand for downside protection, and increased short-term call selling suggest traders remain hesitant to bet on a runaway rally. With large open interest still in the market, future expiries and how price interacts with concentrated gamma zones—especially near $64k for BTC and $1,750 for ETH—could amplify moves when positions are rebalanced.
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