Around 29,500 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, September 12, and they have a notional value of roughly $3.4 billion.

This expiry event is pretty much identical to last week’s, so there is unlikely to be any impact on spot markets, which have reclaimed $4 trillion total capitalization again.

US inflation data showed that the Consumer Price Index rose 2.9% in August from a year earlier, matching forecasts that prices and inflation would pick up slightly.

Bitcoin Options Expiry

This week’s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 1.3, meaning that there are more short contracts expiring than longs, as bearish speculation increases.

Open interest (OI), or the value or number of BTC options contracts yet to expire, is highest at $140,000, which has reached $2.7 billion at this strike price on Deribit. There is also around $1.8 billion OI at $120,000, but $95,000 is a popular strike price for short sellers with $1.9 billion in OI.

Additionally, total Bitcoin futures OI currently stands at $86.6 billion, which has climbed back toward all-time highs, according to CoinGlass.

“Despite the imminent Federal Reserve interest rate decision next week, implied volatility in the options market remains relatively stable, even showing a slight decline,” observed crypto derivatives provider Greeks Live on Thursday.

“The options market is pricing in relatively low future volatility, with a consensus that a 25-basis-point rate cut has already been factored in.”

Despite the imminent Federal Reserve interest rate decision next week, implied volatility in the options market remains relatively stable, even showing a slight decline. The options market is pricing in relatively low future volatility, with a consensus that a 25-basis-point rate… pic.twitter.com/PqQJy3XmZV

In addition to today’s batch of Bitcoin options, there are around 190,000 Ethereum contracts that are also expiring, with a notional value of $858 million, and a put/call ratio of 1.0. This brings Friday’s combined crypto options expiry notional value to around $4.25 billion.

Crypto Market Outlook

Crypto market capitalization has ticked up this Monday morning in Asia, hitting $4.11 trillion, its highest level since August 23.

Bitcoin is back in the driving seat, spiking to a three-week high of $116,300 during the Friday morning Asian trading session before retreating to $115,500 at the time of writing.

Ethereum is up 3.2% on the day, hitting a two-week high of $4,530 on Friday morning. ETH has remained rangebound for the past month, holding steadily above $4,250 for most of the time.

Altcoin momentum has continued today with solid gains for Solana, Dogecoin, Chainlink, and the rest generally in the green.