Quick take:
- Over 83,000 Bitcoin options expire Friday, September 25th
- This number beats August’s record of 62k BTC options
- Such a high number of options expiring should bring considerable volatility
- Bitcoin is once again trading above $11k and the expiry of 83k BTC options could result in a dip
The month of September is slowly coming to an end, and with it, the expiry of Bitcoin (BTC) options on the last Friday of the month. According to the team at Skew, over 83.4k Bitcoin options expire on the 25th of September. This amount is very much higher than last month’s expiry of 62,000 BTC options.
The team at Unfolded captured the high number of Bitcoin options expiring next week via the following Tweet. To note is that they highlighted 80k BTC options but a quick glance at Skew.com reveals the number has increased to 83.4k as seen in the chart that follows the tweet.
80k $BTC options expiring next week Friday pic.twitter.com/B4Y0x4dez8
— Unfolded (@cryptounfolded) September 18, 2020
High Chances there Will Be Bitcoin Volatility
With such a high number of Bitcoin options expiring and additional CME Bitcoin futures that expire on the same day, it is safe to conclude that the probability of an increase in volatility next week is very high. In order to determine the direction of the volatility, the daily BTC/USDT chart provides adequate information.
From the BTC/USDT chart, the following can be observed.
- Daily trade volume is in the green but reducing
- MACD is clearly indicating a bullish environment for Bitcoin
- The 50-day moving average (white) is providing considerable resistance at $11,200
- The MFI is at 73 hinting that Bitcoin could soon run out of gas to overcome the resistance around the $11,200 – $11,300 price area
Conclusion
Summing it up, a record 83,400 Bitcoin options expire next Friday, 25th of September. According to Skew.com, the options are an aggregate of those traded on Deribit, LedgerX, Bakkt, OKEx, CME, Bit.com and Huobi.
Such a high number of Bitcoin options expiring increases the probability of BTC volatility being high in the coming week.
A quick glance at the daily BTC/USDT chart reveals that Bitcoin is clearly in bullish territory. However, the daily MFI is hinting at possible exhaustion in the days to follow with considerable resistance around the $11,200 – $11,300 price area.
As with all analyses of Bitcoin, traders and investors are advised to use adequate stop losses and low leverage when trading BTC on the various derivatives platforms.
