May 22 BTC and ETH Options Expiry: $1.88B in Notional Value Clears the Board

Friday's May 22 options expiry saw 21,000 BTC contracts roll off with a put-call ratio of 0.66, a max pain strike of $78,500, and $1.6 billion in notional value. The sub-1.0 put-call ratio indicates calls outnumbered puts, reflecting a modestly bullish positioning skew among BTC options traders heading into expiry.

On the ETH side, 129,000 contracts expired at a put-call ratio of 0.92 — nearly balanced between puts and calls — with a max pain strike of $2,200 and $280 million in notional value. The contrast between BTC's more call-heavy skew and ETH's near-parity ratio suggests ETH traders held more defensive hedges into the expiry date.

With the bulk of open interest now cleared, the market resets its positioning for the next major expiry cycle. Max pain levels at $78,500 for BTC and $2,200 for ETH serve as reference points for where options dealers were most hedged.