$15.6B Crypto Options Expiry Sends Market Tumbling $30B

Crypto markets reacted sharply to Deribit’s quarterly options expiry Friday at 08:00 UTC (10:00 EEST). About $15.58 billion in contracts expired, marking the largest options expiry of 2026. The event contributed to a rapid $30 billion drop in total crypto market value.

According to Deribit’s data, Bitcoin (BTC) dominates the expiry with 195,398 contracts worth $13.46 billion in notional value. 

The maximum pain point, the price level where the largest number of options expire worthless, stands at $75,000. 

The overall put/call ratio remained at 0.61, showing calls still dominated heading into expiry. The put/call ratio tracks how much traders are betting on downside protection (puts) versus upside potential (calls).

Ethereum (ETH) accounts for the remaining $2.12 billion notional across 1,026,462 contracts. Its maximum pain level is $2,300, with an initial put/call ratio of 0.57. 

However, real-time flow data shows a sharp reversal in the last 24 hours: put volume has outpaced calls, flipping the ratio to 1.10, highlighting a surge in put buying, pointing to growing caution or hedging despite overall call dominance.

The crypto market value reacted instantly to the event, dropping more than $30 billion in an hour, from $2.36 trillion to $2.33 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap data. Bitcoin briefly slipped to $67,500, while ETH hovered near the $2,000 mark.

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