As $10 billion in bitcoin options near expiry, the tell is in the pricing
Source: CoinDesk ·
From the source
Your day-ahead look for Oct. 29, 2026 This is an excerpt from CoinDesk newsletter 'Daybook.' Sign up here , if you haven't already. Bitcoin BTC $79,988.02 options traders are nervous. The tell is in the pricing, which shows they are paying a clear premium for puts, which protect against a potential slide in the spot price of the largest cryptocurrency, which dropped to as low as $79,300 earlier this week. "The break below $80,000 has pushed BTC's front-end 25-delta skew heavily toward puts at >10v over calls," Jean-David Pequignot, chief commercial officer at Deribit, told CoinDesk. In other words, puts are 10 volatility points pricier than calls, which allow traders to profit from spot-price rises. Derivative traders typically discuss option values in terms of volatility rather than prices, and the signs suggest demand is for insurance against declines rather than speculation on gains. Pequignot added that bitcoin’s short-dated options show a “pronounced smile” in implied…