Here's how bitcoin's $7.9 billion April options expiry impact prices

With the bitcoin price above max pain and heavy positioning at $75K, traders face a potential squeeze or pullback into "max pain" expiry.

What to know:

• Bitcoin is trading near $75,000 into a $7.9 billion options expiry, with heavy call positioning and gamma concentration at that level likely to influence short-term price action.
• The market is effectively bracketed between $62,000 and $75,000, with negative funding rates signaling short positioning that could either fuel a squeeze higher or a move back toward the $71,000 max pain level.

Bitcoin BTC$75,112.20 options worth roughly $7.9 billion are set to expire on Deribit this Friday, with positioning data pointing to $62,000 and $75,000 as key levels to watch out for.

The $75,000 level is where most trading in call options, which represent bullish bets, has happened, according to data source Glassnode. Around $395 million in call open interest is concentrated at the $75,000 strike as of writing. That figure represents the dollar value of the number of active call options contracts today.

More importantly, “gamma exposure” is deeply negative at the 75,000 strike – it means dealers’ hedging flows are likely to amplify price movements around this level. As the price rises, they may need to buy more, and as it falls, sell more, reinforcing the direction of the move.

As a result, the 75,000 level can act as a zone of heightened volatility, where price swings become sharper rather than stabilizing.

Options are derivative contracts that give the buyer the right to buy or sell the underlying asset, in this case, BTC, at a predetermined price at a later date. A call option gives the right to buy and a put option gives the right to sell.

It's like paying a booking fee to reserve a right to transact a house at today’s price – you have the right to buy or sell it later at that price, but you’re not obligated to go through with the transaction if the market price moves against you.

On the downside, the largest concentration of put open interest sits at $62,000, with roughly $330 million in contracts, marking the main zone of downside protection.

Between the two, there's this max pain level of $71,000, which can act as a magnate heading into the expiry. The “max pain” point is the price level at which the largest number of options contracts are expected to expire worthless on the settlement date, though this level can shift as prices and open interest change leading up to expiry.

All in all, the options market is effectively sitting between $62,000 and $75,000, with $71,000 acting as a midpoint. Unlike March, when bitcoin traded below max pain, the market is now sitting above it, to test whether bitcoin can hold onto its gains.

Potential short squeeze higher

Funding rates in perpetual futures have remained negative, indicating a build-up of short positions that could fuel a squeeze if prices hold higher. Bears could square off their bearish bets if prices remain resilient above $75,000, which could add to the upward momentum.

While data from Checkonchain shows Deribit now holds around $31 billion in open interest, the largest across options markets, surpassing even BlackRock’s IBIT, which stands near $28 billion.

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