BTC slides below $88,000 as traders eye $28.5 billion options expiry on Deribit

Crypto markets extended their pullback ahead of this week’s record options expiration, with defensive positioning and thinning liquidity underscoring a cautious tone into 2026.

Bitcoin (BTC) and other major digital assets slid steadily through Monday’s U.S. session. BTC fell below $88,000 after earlier climbing above $90,000, while ether (ETH) slipped back under the $3,000 mark.

Some crypto-related equities continued to outperform. Hut 8 (HUT) led gains, rising another 16% following last week’s announcement of a 15-year AI data center lease with Fluidstack. The move was also supported by a price target increase from Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer. Coinbase (COIN) and Robinhood (HOOD) were also higher on the day, though both gave back earlier gains as crypto prices weakened. Strategy (MSTR) reversed from a roughly 3% advance to a modest loss by late trading.

Focus turns to record Deribit expiry

The recent volatile trading range between $85,000 and $90,000 comes ahead of Friday’s record $28.5 billion expiration of bitcoin and ether options on Deribit. The expiring contracts represent more than half of the exchange’s $52.2 billion in total open interest, according to Jean-David Pequignot, Deribit’s chief commercial officer.

“This year-end expiry caps a year marked by growing institutional participation and a shift away from purely speculative cycles toward a policy-driven supercycle,” Pequignot said.

At the center of the expiry sits bitcoin’s $96,000 “max pain” level, where option sellers stand to benefit most. Roughly $1.2 billion in open interest is clustered at the $85,000 put strike, a level that could pressure spot prices if downside momentum builds. While mid-term call spreads targeting $100,000 to $125,000 remain in place, short-dated protective puts have become increasingly expensive, he noted.

Although the skew between call and put pricing has eased from recent peaks, it continues to reflect investor caution. Traders appear to be rolling hedges forward rather than unwinding them, shifting from December $85,000–$70,000 puts into January $80,000–$75,000 put spreads—signaling concern beyond the year-end horizon.