Bitcoin, Ether Slip as $10 Billion Options Expire and Middle East Tensions Dent Risk Appetite
Updated
Updated · CoinDesk · Jul 31
Bitcoin, Ether Slip as $10 Billion Options Expire and Middle East Tensions Dent Risk Appetite
1 articles · Updated · CoinDesk · Jul 31
Summary
$10 billion in bitcoin and ether options expired Friday as bitcoin fell 1.31% to $63,870 and ether lost 1.40% to $1,890, leaving crypto to end July on the back foot.
Middle East conflict and hawkish Federal Reserve comments undercut recovery hopes, even as equities diverged sharply with Kospi up more than 15% and Nasdaq 100 futures rising 1.23%.
Derivatives data stayed bearish: taker long-short ratios pointed lower, bitcoin open interest remained stuck near 750,000, and Deribit's remaining options book showed the $60,000 put as the most popular bet.
XRP open interest climbed to 2.27 billion tokens while its price slipped to $1.07, reinforcing a short-driven downtrend; bitcoin's 30-day implied volatility also fell to 37%, a level that has often preceded fresh spot weakness.
Even with Friday's drop, the CoinDesk 20 Index is still up 8.7% since June—its strongest month in a year—while UNI rose 9.3% and ADA gained 4.09% as rare bright spots.