Crypto Traders Brace for $1.5B Bitcoin Options Expiry Today

The end of the week is upon us again, with another crypto options expiry event as spot markets continue to correct. 

Around 20,500 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, May 22, with a notional value of roughly $1.5 billion. This event is smaller than usual, so it is unlikely to have any impact on spot markets.

Crypto markets have been in decline all week, with around $50 billion leaving the space as Bitcoin continues to weaken. Positive news appears to have zero impact as investors remain under macroeconomic rain clouds.

Bitcoin Options Expiry

This week’s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 0.69, meaning that there are more sellers of longs than shorts. Max pain is around $79,000, according to Coinglass, which is a little higher than current spot prices, so some could be out of the money on expiry.

Open interest (OI), or the value or number of Bitcoin options contracts yet to expire, remains highest at the $80,000 strike price on Deribit, with $1.65 billion, but short sellers still have $1.2 billion in OI at $60,000. Total BTC options OI across all exchanges has been steadily climbing this month and is at $37.6 billion, according to Coinglass.

🚨 Options Expiry Alert.
At 08:00 UTC tomorrow, over $1.8B in crypto options are set to expire on Deribit.

bitcoin:native : $1.53B notional | Put/Call: 0.69 | Max Pain: $79,000
ethereum:native : $264M notional | Put/Call: 1.03 | Max Pain: $2,200

BTC traders continue targeting… pic.twitter.com/fv5dDrPx6M

— Deribit (@DeribitOfficial) May 21, 2026

Traders have been using the recent rebound to establish defensive positions for the final ten days of the month, said crypto derivatives provider Greeks Live this week.

“Overall, the market is positioning itself to defend against price pullbacks but does not anticipate a market collapse.”

It added that May and June have long been viewed as unfavorable trading months, and in May, major investors have been “steadily increasing their defensive positions: buying effective protection, selling margin calls at the tail end, and controlling costs.”

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In addition to today’s batch of Bitcoin options, around 123,000 Ethereum contracts are also expiring, with a notional value of $263 million, max pain at $2,200, and a put/call ratio of 1. Total ETH options OI across all exchanges is around $6.9 billion.

“ETH positioning has shifted from strongly call-biased last week to nearly balanced, suggesting conviction has cooled as traders await fresh catalysts,” said Deribit.

Spot Market Outlook

Crypto markets have retreated again today, with total capitalization dropping to $2.67 trillion. Bitcoin failed to break above $78,000 and fell back to an intraday low of $76,750 before a minor recovery on Friday morning. It appears to have resumed its downtrend, which is dragging the rest of the market down with it.

Ether and the rest of the altcoins have been mostly flat over the past 24 hours, with very little activity after a largely bearish week.