Bitcoin Options OI Falls as $70,000 Puts Signal Rising Hedging Demand

Bitcoin (BTC) options open interest edged lower on Sunday, even as positioning showed a split market: longer-dated exposure remained concentrated in upside ‘call’ strikes while near-term traders piled into short-dated ‘puts’ around $70,000—an indication that hedging demand is rising into the late-April expiry window.

According to CoinGlass data as of April 20 at 00:00 UTC, total Bitcoin options open interest (OI) stood at $36.53 billion, down 2.64% from $37.52 billion a day earlier. By contract mix, calls accounted for 56.75% of outstanding positions versus 43.25% for puts, suggesting aggregate positioning is still skewed toward bullish optionality even as near-term flow turns more defensive.

In the past 24 hours, total options trading volume was about $2.53 billion. Deribit led activity with roughly $1.2 billion, followed by Bybit at $642 million and Binance at $353 million. OKX recorded about $260 million, while CME posted around $70 million, underscoring that offshore venues continue to dominate crypto options liquidity despite CME’s role as the primary regulated derivatives venue for institutional participants.

Notably, the 24-hour volume split favored downside protection: put options represented 53.36% of turnover compared with 46.64% for calls. That divergence—puts leading in flow while calls still dominate in total open positions—often reflects traders adding short-term hedges without fully unwinding longer-term bullish structures.

Open interest remained heaviest at several key strikes and maturities. The largest OI concentrations were seen in an $80,000 call expiring May 29 on Deribit, a $120,000 call expiring December 25 on Deribit, and a $60,000 put also expiring December 25 on Deribit. The combination points to a market simultaneously pricing in upside scenarios later this year while maintaining meaningful tail-risk protection into year-end.

By 24-hour traded volume, the most active contracts were a $70,000 put expiring April 24 on Deribit, an $80,000 call expiring April 24 on Deribit, and a $95,000 call expiring May 29 on Deribit. The surge in the April 24 $70,000 put suggests traders are focused on near-term downside levels, either as a tactical bearish wager or as ‘hedging’ against spot and perpetual futures exposure.

Options are ‘derivatives’ that allow traders to express leveraged views or manage portfolio risk. Call options provide the right—but not the obligation—to buy an asset at a predetermined price by a certain date, while put options provide the right to sell. Open interest measures the total number of outstanding contracts and is widely watched as a proxy for accumulated positioning and potential liquidity sensitivity around major expiries.

With call-heavy open interest still clustered at higher strikes and short-dated put flow accelerating, the options market is signaling a cautious stance into late April while keeping room for upside participation if Bitcoin’s broader trend resumes. How these positions evolve around the April 24 expiry could shape short-term volatility and dealer hedging dynamics in the days ahead.