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How Will Markets React to $3B Crypto Options Expiring Today?

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How Will Markets React to $3B Crypto Options Expiring Today?


The end of another week has arrived, which means another batch of crypto options contracts is expiring while spot markets continue to decline.

Around 38,000 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, Feb. 13, with a notional value of roughly $2.5 billion. This event is a little larger than last week’s expiry.

Crypto markets remain in bear market territory, losing around $125 billion since the start of the week, as sentiment plunges and the retail and institutional exodus continues.

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Bitcoin Options Expiry

This week’s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 0.76, meaning that there are more expiring calls (longs) than puts (shorts). Max pain is around $75,000, according to Coinglass, which is above current spot prices, so many will be out of the money on expiry.

Open interest (OI), or the value or number of Bitcoin options contracts yet to expire, remains highest at $60,000 and is now mounting up at $50,000, which has over $1 billion at these strike prices on Deribit as bearish bets increase. Total BTC options OI across all exchanges has been climbing this month and is at $36.6 billion.

Derivatives analyst ‘Laevitas’ said there was a “bear put spread” on Deribit, which involves buying a higher strike put and selling a lower strike put with the same expiry.

“With BTC stabilizing and volume cooling from panic levels, the key question is whether expiry acts as a magnet toward $75K or clears the way for the next directional move,” stated Deribit.

“Put options continue to dominate the market, with over $1 billion in BTC put options traded today, accounting for 37% of the total volume,” commented Greeks Live this week, which added that the majority of these are “out-of-the-money options priced between $60,000 and $65,000.”

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“This indicates that institutions hold a negative outlook on the medium-to-long-term market trajectory, with a strong expectation of a bearish trend within the next one to two months.”

In addition to today’s batch of Bitcoin options, around 217,000 Ethereum contracts are also expiring, with a notional value of $406 million, max pain at $2,150, and a put/call ratio of 0.89. Total ETH options OI across all exchanges is around $7 billion. This brings the total notional value of crypto options expiries to around $2.9 billion.

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Spot Market Outlook

Total market capitalization is down another 1.5% on the day at $2.34 trillion as the sell-off continues. Bitcoin is weakening again, falling to just above $65,000 in late trading on Thursday and trading just above $66,000 during Friday morning’s Asian session.

Analysts are mostly bearish, with many predicting a bottom near or below its realized price of $55,000. Ether remains weak below $2,000, hitting $1,900 in an intraday low. Continued weakness for BTC will drag ETH even further down over the coming weeks.

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Square launches zero-fee Bitcoin payments for US merchants through 2026: Square

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Square launches zero-fee Bitcoin payments for US merchants through 2026: Square


Square is waiving processing fees for Bitcoin payments at US merchants for two years, with instant dollar conversion to reduce adoption barriers.

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$80M Hyperliquid Whale Bet Predicts Bitcoin Crash and Oil Rally

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$80M Hyperliquid Whale Bet Predicts Bitcoin Crash and Oil Rally

Key takeaways:

  • A Hyperliquid whale placed an $80 million bet against Bitcoin and the S&P 500 while going long on Brent crude oil prices.

  • The whale’s history of massive losses and inconsistent signals suggests the trade could fall on the wrong side of the market.

Bitcoin (BTC) showed strength on Wednesday, bouncing back from Tuesday’s $66,000 low after President Donald Trump teased a potential ceasefire in the US and Israel-Iran war. Even with Bitcoin trading above $68,000, one whale used Hyperliquid DEX to place an $80 million bet on a market collapse. 

Traders are now watching closely to see if this whale’s massive position signals a looming Bitcoin price drop.

Hyperliquid whale 0x94d373…c933814 position. Source: CoinGlass

The Hyperliquid whale, linked to address 0x94d373…c933814, carefully built this nearly $80 million leveraged position between Tuesday and Wednesday. The trade includes a $40 million short (sell) on Bitcoin futures near $68,760, a $2 million short on synthetic S&P 500 Index contracts, and a $37 million long (buy) in synthetic Brent oil contracts.

Crude Brent oil (left) vs. Bitcoin/USD (right). Source: TradingView

The whale’s aggregate position leverage stood at 7 times, indicating high conviction. The Bitcoin futures liquidation price was $80,083, while the Brent oil position would be forcefully terminated above $93. The timing of the trade is curious as S&P 500 Index futures gained 4% between Tuesday and Wednesday as traders anticipate the US and Israel-Iran war dissipating over the next few weeks.

On Wednesday, President Trump said “Iran’s New Regime President” is considering a “ceasefire,” although the conditions to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz remain unknown. Iran demands reparations and sovereignty. Thus, one could assume that the Hyperliquid whale is counter-trading the market’s optimistic take, betting that Brent crude oil prices will jump while Bitcoin loses its value.

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This Hyperliquid whale previously lost $40 million

This address belongs to a particularly unlucky whale, or at least one who has been extremely unsuccessful since late January. The Hyperliquid whale apparently uses bots for execution, given the sheer number of small trades that build into huge positions, but it still managed to lose $37 million in its first month of activity in December 2025.

The same user was flagged by X user ‘lookonchain’ on Feb. 5 after taking a massive loss on leveraged bullish bets on Ether (ETH), Bitcoin, Solana (SOL), and XRP (XRP). 

Source: X/lookonchain

According to the analysis, the whale had previously made $25 million in profits from shorts in multiple cryptocurrencies, but decided to flip the position on Feb. 4, resulting in a $40 million loss. There is no way to know exactly what triggered this entity to place those bets, but the event proves that even whales can misinterpret the market.

Related: Warren Buffett bought $17B in US T-bills: A bad omen for Bitcoin price?

The erratic signals from President Trump regarding a potential full-on invasion and the war in Iran leave room for opposing views. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied there were talks for a ceasefire but confirmed to Al Jazeera on Tuesday that there was an intention to end the war, according to CNBC.

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Given the history of this whale’s market positioning and its track record of losing trades, it’s possible that the current $80 million bet may fall on the wrong side of the market.