On July 31, 2026, a massive options expiry hit the crypto market. 149,000 Bitcoin options and 435,000 Ethereum options expired, with a combined notional value of over $10.4 billion. Bitcoin was trading at $63,800, just below the $64,000 max pain level, while Ethereum sat around $1,890, near its $1,850 max pain.
Bullish skew in Bitcoin options
The Bitcoin options had a put/call ratio of 0.28, meaning calls outnumbered puts by a wide margin. That's a bullish skew — traders were betting on upside. The max pain price, where the most options expire worthless, sat at $64,000. Bitcoin's spot price of $63,800 was tantalizingly close, but not quite there. If the price had pushed above $64,000 by expiry, many call sellers would have been forced to deliver. It didn't.
Ethereum options show more caution
Ethereum's options told a different story. The put/call ratio was 0.63, still tilted toward calls but far more balanced. Max pain was $1,850, and ETH was trading around $1,890 — slightly above that level. That means more puts expired in the money than if the price had been lower. The notional value of the ETH expiry was $830 million, a fraction of Bitcoin's $9.6 billion, but still a significant event for the second-largest crypto.
Bitcoin Hyper raises $32.9M in presale
Separately, Bitcoin Hyper — a Bitcoin Layer 2 that integrates the Solana Virtual Machine — announced it raised $32.9 million in its presale. The token price was set at $0.0136839. The project aims to bring Solana's high-speed execution environment to Bitcoin's security, a niche that's drawn increasing interest this year. The presale closed on the same day as the options expiry, though the two events are unrelated.
The expiry passed without major disruption. The real question now is whether Bitcoin can break above the $64,000 level in the coming days. If it does, the next batch of call buyers might finally see their bets pay off.
