Update, October 30: Deribit’s BTC options settled at $78,119.01 at 08:00 UTC, close to the $78,000 max pain level. Bitcoin fell overnight after Binance reported unauthorized transfers of about $6.3 billion from exchange wallets on October 29. BTC traded as low as about $76,500 and was near $77,600 after the expiry. The price of $81,179 below was taken before the drop.
About $11 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) options on Deribit expire today, Friday, October 30, 2026. Settlement is at 08:00 UTC. The options expiry comes two days after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged.
Bitcoin options expiry: key numbers
- Exchange: Deribit monthly BTC options
- Settlement time: 08:00 UTC, October 30, 2026
- Notional value: about $11 billion (trackers report $10.7 billion to $12 billion)
- Open contracts: 135,159, made up of 88,715 calls and 46,445 puts
- Put/call ratio: 0.52
- BTC max pain: $78,000 (estimates range from $76,000 to $79,000)
- BTC price: $81,179 on Thursday, October 29. The 24-hour range was $79,636 to $81,698.
What “max pain” means for BTC
Max pain is the price at which the most options expire worthless, so option buyers collectively lose the most. At $78,000, it sits about 3.9% below Thursday’s BTC price. Analysts treat it as a pointer to where option sellers’ interests lie, not as a price target. BTC does not have to move to that level.
Calls and puts
There are almost twice as many call contracts as put contracts. A put/call ratio of 0.52 means traders hold more bets on higher prices than on lower prices. One analysis estimates that about 86% of the contracts will expire worthless.
Fed decision and BTC funding
The Fed announced its decision on Wednesday, October 28, and kept the policy rate in the 3.75% to 4.00% range. Bitcoin rose by less than 1% after the announcement. Funding on Deribit perpetual contracts is slightly positive at 0.0032% per eight hours, about 3.5% a year. That is not a sign of an overheated market.
What to watch next
- November 3: US midterm elections
- November 6: US October jobs report
- December 25: the next large Deribit options expiry
Note: expiry figures come from public trackers and differ between sources. This article is for information only and is not financial advice.
Sources: CryptoTicker, FinanceFeeds, Admiral Markets.