QCP Capital: Nearly $20 billion in notional value Bitcoin and Ethereum options will expire this Friday

PANews reported on December 24 that QCP Capital, a Singapore-based crypto investment institution, issued a statement today saying that after experiencing a washout last week, spot prices continued to fluctuate sideways as the holiday approaches. While markets appear calm on the surface this week, all eyes are on Friday’s massive options expiry, which will see nearly $20 billion in notional Bitcoin and Ethereum options maturity. This number accounts for nearly half of Deribit’s total options holdings.

As options expire, it's very possible to see a reappearance of the typical end-of-quarter volatility sell-off, especially if spot prices continue to trade within this range and option sellers continue to roll their short positions. Unlike option sellers who must wait to release their collateral after the option expires, call option buyers may have already rolled a large portion of their position early. However, if BTC can successfully break through the $100,000 mark, volatility may remain stable.

Meanwhile, as BTC continues to hover below $100,000, we may also see altcoins start to catch up again. A similar trend was observed a month ago when ETH/BTC bounced off support at 0.032 when BTC was trading at these levels. Currently, BTC’s market share remains at 58%, and we are watching closely to see if this ratio drops significantly to confirm whether funds are flowing from BTC to altcoins.