Yes, the expiration of options worth $15 billion had a direct and visible impact on the price of BTC and other cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin and Ethereum options contracts expired with a record value of approximately $15 billion, putting pressure on both prices: BTC fell below $116,000 and ETH dropped towards $3,600. The risk of 'max-pain' patterns and technical selling increased.
The price of Bitcoin lost nearly 2.9%, falling to around $115,150–115,500, while altcoins like Solana and XRP retraced by up to 5%.
Ethereum, on the other hand, showed resilience and after dropping to $3600, rose between 0.5% and 2.1%.
🔹 What happened with the expiration?
Simultaneously, Bitcoin and Ethereum options worth nearly $15 billion expired.
These expiration dates often concentrate large long and short positions.
As expiration approaches, market makers and whales adjust their hedges (buy/sell spot or futures) to minimize losses according to the level of max-pain (the price at which most contracts expire worthless).
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📉 Effect on $BTC
Before the expiration: BTC was defending the range of $118k–119k. After/during the expiration: strong selling pressure was observed to bring the price to levels close to the calculated max-pain around $116k.
📉 Effect on other cryptos
Altcoins: followed BTC's direction due to bearish sentiment and risk reduction:
Solana $SOL : retracement of –4% to –5%.
XRP: drop around –5%.
MATIC, DOGE, ADA: also suffered technical sales.
Ethereum $ETH :
Interestingly, it showed resilience despite being involved in the expiration:
It traded around $3,600–3,650.
It managed to rise +0.5% to +2%, supported by record inflows in ETH ETFs and institutional accumulation.