ChainCatcher message, according to The Block, Bitcoin's price fell below $90,000 two days before Christmas, approximately $87,400, continuing a trend of resistance to rising prices for several weeks. The record options expiration this Friday is a major driver, with about 300,000 Bitcoin options contracts (with a nominal value of about $23.7 billion) expiring, accounting for more than half of the open contracts on the Deribit platform.
Deribit's Chief Commercial Officer stated that the expiration size reached $28.5 billion, including Bitcoin and Ethereum options, which is double that of last year. Nevertheless, the market remains orderly. Current market positions are primarily concentrated around the strike prices of $85,000 and $100,000. Market liquidity has significantly decreased, with Bitcoin perpetual contract open interest dropping by about $3 billion overnight and Ethereum decreasing by about $2 billion. Analysts believe that market volatility during Christmas week is largely mechanical, and a mean reversion is expected after market participation recovers in January. Data shows that as of December 23, Bitcoin has fallen 6% year-to-date and nearly 20% over the past six months, on track for the worst fourth-quarter performance in eight years.
