More than $8.72 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum options expire today, marking February’s largest derivatives event and covering roughly 20% of total open interest.
Bitcoin accounts for about $7.74 billion in notional value across 114,705 contracts, while Ethereum represents roughly $975 million through 478,992 contracts, placing significant weight on short-term market positioning.
Both assets are trading below their respective max pain levels, with Bitcoin near $68,052 versus a $75,000 max pain strike and Ethereum around $2,035 compared with a $2,200 threshold.
Call open interest dominates across both markets, as Bitcoin shows a 0.73 put-to-call ratio and Ethereum 0.78, suggesting more upside contracts outstanding despite fragile spot price action.
Volatility remains elevated, with Bitcoin’s DVOL index at 53 and an implied volatility percentile of 87.7, while Ethereum’s DVOL sits at 70, reflecting higher absolute volatility but a more moderate historical percentile reading.
Ethereum volatility runs roughly 15 to 20 points above Bitcoin across maturities, indicating traders are pricing in greater uncertainty for ETH relative to BTC.
Earlier in February, 25-delta skew plunged toward -30 amid sharp price declines, but has since recovered to around -8 to -9, showing reduced panic hedging though downside protection demand remains intact.
With elevated volatility, negative skew and prices below max pain, the expiry sets up a potentially sensitive period for short-term price swings as the market navigates positioning resets and hedging flows.
At the time of reporting, Bitcoin price was $67,610.00.