ME News message, December 19 (UTC+8), the options market shows that Bitcoin is under significant pressure as it approaches the final weeks of 2025, with approximately $23 billion in contracts set to expire next Friday, which may exacerbate the already high volatility. This amount accounts for more than half of all open contracts on the Deribit platform. Nick Forster, founder of Derive.xyz, stated: "Bitcoin positions remain clearly bearish. The 30-day volatility has risen to around 45%, while skew hovers around -5%. The longer-term skew is also anchored around -5%, indicating that traders are pricing in continued downside risk for the first and second quarters due to ongoing selling pressure from previously inactive wallets suppressing spot prices." The positioning around the December 26 contract expiration reflects this divergence. Call options are concentrated at strike prices of $100,000 and $120,000, suggesting that the market still holds an optimistic view for a year-end rebound. However, put options have recently dominated, accumulating a large amount of put option exposure at the $85,000 strike price. Additionally, traders expect the market to reposition around two catalysts: first, hedging before the MSCI decision on January 15, which may exclude companies holding crypto assets exceeding 50% of their assets from its index; second, a resurgence of call overwriting funding flows. (Source: ME)
