Deribit’s $18 Billion Bitcoin and Ether Options Expiry

Deribit’s September 25 quarterly expiry brings a large, call-heavy options book to settlement just as Bitcoin trades closer to prominent call strikes. The event could change hedging flows, but its headline notional value does not measure how much money will change hands—or establish the direction of the next price move. 181622

How large is the expiry?

Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers put the contracts expiring at 08:00 UTC on Friday, September 25, 2026, at approximately $15.9 billion in Bitcoin options and $2.1 billion in Ether options. That makes BTC nearly nine-tenths of the roughly $18 billion combined estimate. The BTC expiry alone represents about 37% of Deribit’s outstanding BTC options open interest in the reported snapshot. 18

These figures describe the notional value of open contracts, not an $18 billion payment at settlement. They also change as underlying prices and open positions change. A September 15 estimate was around $16.6 billion combined; a later Coinbase Markets estimate was about $18.1 billion. Those snapshots show a higher dollar value approaching expiry, but do not establish how much of the difference came from new positions rather than price changes. 1516

Calls, puts and the strikes in focus

For BTC, one roughly $16 billion snapshot showed $9.6 billion in calls versus $6.4 billion in puts—about a 60/40 split. Coinbase Markets also reported more calls than puts in ETH, with a 0.61 put-to-call open-interest ratio. A call-heavy book describes the outstanding contracts; it does not mean every holder is betting on a rally, because each contract also has a seller. 2216

Reported BTC call interest clusters near $90,000 and $100,000, while ETH calls cluster between $3,000 and $4,000. Another snapshot identified $70,000 as the BTC strike with the most open positions, and Strijers cited $75,000 as BTC “max pain.” Those are different measures of positioning—not competing predictions of the settlement price. 16125

How the recent rally changes the picture

BTC had climbed above $85,000 and was reported near $86,300 ahead of expiry, bringing it closer to the $90,000 call strike. ETH was reported near $2,720, still below the cited $3,000–$4,000 call cluster. Further price moves could change which options finish in the money and how counterparties hedge them. Strike concentrations alone, however, cannot show whether those hedges will push prices higher, lower or neither. 221116

Why Friday could be volatile

At 08:00 UTC, the expiring Deribit contracts settle. Traders and market makers may then remove, adjust or roll associated spot and futures hedges. U.S. economic releases and the September CME Bitcoin futures settlement follow later that day, creating separate opportunities for positions to be repriced or closed. One report places the CME settlement at 15:00 UTC. 61

If those events trigger overlapping adjustments, short-term volatility could increase. But a large notional expiry and a call-heavy split are not enough to predict either the magnitude or direction of a move: that depends on the positions traders actually hold and the hedges attached to them. 622