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Bitcoin price outlook as $2.5B BTC options expire today

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How might Bitcoin price react as $2.5B in BTC options expire today (Feb. 13)? - 1

Bitcoin price trades near $68,000 as $2.5 billion in BTC options expire today, placing $74,000 max pain at the center of market focus.

Summary

  • Bitcoin has been on a downtrend in February, falling nearly 50% from its all-time high.
  • $2.5B in BTC options expire today with a put/call ratio of 0.72 and max pain at $74,000.
  • RSI sits near 29 as volume and open interest decline across derivatives markets.

Bitcoin was trading at $68,280 at press time, down 1.1% over the last 24 hours. The asset has moved within a 7-day range of $64,760 to $71,450. Over the past 30 days, BTC is down 30%, and it now sits roughly 50% below its $126,080 all-time high set in October.

Spot activity has cooled. Bitcoin (BTC) logged $47 billion in 24-hour trading volume, a decline of 11% from the previous day. Derivatives markets are also easing.

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As per Coinglass data, total futures volume stands at $63 billion, down 18%, while open interest has dipped 1.73% to $44 billion. That combination points to position trimming rather than aggressive new exposure.

$2.5B in options set to expire

According to Deribit data, $2.5 billion worth of Bitcoin options are set to expire at 8:00 a.m. UTC on Feb. 13. The put/call ratio stands at 0.72, indicating more call contracts than puts. The max pain price is $74,000, the level where the largest number of options would expire worthless.

At the same time, $420 million in Ethereum options will also expire, with a put/call ratio of 0.85 and a max pain level of $2,100.

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Options expiry refers to the settlement of contracts that give traders the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell Bitcoin at a specific price before a set date. As expiry approaches, market makers hedge their exposure by buying or selling spot and futures.

This can increase short-term volatility. In many cases, price gravitates toward the max pain level. In others, strong directional momentum overrides expiry-related flows.

With Bitcoin trading nearly $6,000 below $74,000, traders are watching to see whether the price gets pulled higher into settlement or continues lower.

Technical outlook: pressure remains below $74K

The daily structure is clearly bearish. Bitcoin has been printing lower highs and lower lows. It trades below the 50-day moving average near $75,000 and well under the 200-day moving average around $92,500. That alignment keeps momentum tilted to the downside.

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How might Bitcoin price react as $2.5B in BTC options expire today (Feb. 13)? - 1
Bitcoin daily chart. Credit: crypto.news

Bollinger Bands are expanding, not compressing. Price recently touched the lower band, which often signals oversold conditions. In strong downtrends, however, assets can stay pinned near the lower band for longer than expected.

The relative strength index is around 29, deep in oversold territory. Yet there is no confirmed bullish divergence. Until RSI forms higher lows while price stabilizes, reversal signals remain limited.

Support sits at $65,000–$66,000, followed by the psychological $60,000 level. On the upside, $74,000–$76,000 is the key reclaim zone. A daily close above that area would ease pressure and open room toward $80,000.

For now, Bitcoin remains technically weak below $74,000. Options expiry may add volatility, but trend reversal requires structure to shift, not just a short-term bounce.

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Former FTX engineer Nishad Singh agrees to $3.7M penalty in CFTC settlement

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Former FTX engineer Nishad Singh agrees to $3.7M penalty in CFTC settlement

Former FTX head of engineering Nishad Singh has agreed to pay a $3.7 million fine to resolve his case with the US commodities regulator.

Summary

  • Nishad Singh agreed to pay $3.7 million in disgorgement to settle CFTC charges tied to FTX’s collapse and misuse of customer funds.
  • The settlement includes a five-year trading ban and an eight-year registration ban, with regulators citing his cooperation in limiting further penalties.

Singh will pay a disgorgement of $3.7 million as part of a supplemental consent order for his role in the collapse of FTX and the misappropriation of user funds, according to an April 1 statement from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

As part of the supplemental consent order, he has also been handed a five-year ban on trading in markets and an eight-year registration ban that blocks him from obtaining a license to operate within the sector.

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CFTC enforcement director David Miller ruled out additional restitution or civil monetary penalties for now and said the current resolution reflects Singh’s cooperation with authorities.

“The defendant engaged in, and aided, significant violations of the Act and CFTC regulations as the former FTX head of engineering, and the consent orders reflect the severity of these violations,” Miller said.

A Bloomberg report noted that attorneys representing Singh said he was grateful the matter had been resolved and added that the regulator recognized his limited role in the underlying conduct.

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Singh was accused of personally misappropriating millions of dollars in assets as part of FTX’s collapse. The commission charged the former executive with two counts of fraud by misappropriation and aiding and abetting fraud.

Subsequently, he entered into the consent order and agreed to cooperate with the commission’s investigators.

As previously reported by crypto.news, Singh was also spared from prison and received three years of supervised release.

In the meantime, FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has filed a pro se motion seeking a new trial in his federal fraud case.

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Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year sentence on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy but has argued that key witness testimony was missing from his 2023 trial.

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Alabama Passes DUNA Act Granting DAOs Legal Status

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Law, DAO

The US state of Alabama has become the second US jurisdiction after Wyoming to grant decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) legal status under the DUNA Act.

The Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association (DUNA) Act (Senate Bill 277) was introduced in February by Republican Senator Lance Bell. The House passed it 82-7 with 16 abstentions on March 17, and has now been signed by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, according to a16z Crypto.

Speaking about the bill’s passage, a16z Crypto’s head of policy and general counsel, Miles Jennings, said on Wednesday that “decentralized governance is essential to crypto’s future — it’s one of the core constructs in market structure legislation.”

The bill provides legal status and limited liability protections to DAOs, solving a long-unresolved question in crypto: How DAOs exist from a legal standpoint in the real world. 

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It gives decentralized communities “the certainty to build, govern, contract, and scale in the real world,” added Jennings. 

Full legal entity status for DAOs

To qualify, a DAO must have at least 100 members joined for a common nonprofit purpose, such as governing a blockchain network or smart contract system.

Governance can operate entirely through blockchain technology and smart contracts, and voting, proposals and consensus mechanisms can all be stored onchain.

These organizations will have full legal entity status, they can own property, sue and be sued, and enter into contracts, while individual members and administrators will be shielded from personal liability. 

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Related: Aave DAO backs V4 mainnet plan in near-unanimous vote

“As federal crypto market structure legislation moves closer to becoming law, builders need effective domestic legal structures,” added Jennings. 

West Virginia DUNA Act awaits approval 

A similar DUNA bill (HB 5060), introduced by Representative Tristan Leavitt in February, passed the House on March 4 and is awaiting the governor’s signature in West Virginia. 

Wyoming’s DUNA Act was signed into law by Governor Mark Gordon in March 2024. The state approved the first legally recognized DAO in the United States in July 2021. 

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Over 13,000 DAOs exist worldwide with collective treasury assets under DAO control surpassing $24.5 billion as of 2025, according to CoinLaw. The average DAO treasury size is around $1.2 million, and Ethereum and its layer-2 networks host over 85% of DAOs, reported PatentPC in March.

Law, DAO
DAO treasury composition. Source: CoinLaw

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