This illustration photograph taken on November 22, 2024 in Istanbul
This illustration photograph shows a coin imitation of the Bitcoin crypto currency arranged beside a screen displaying a trading chart. Ozan KOSE/Getty Images

About 81,700 Bitcoin options worth roughly $6.4 billion expire on the Deribit exchange at 08:00 UTC on Friday, landing in the middle of the cryptocurrency's strongest month since November 2024. Bitcoin has climbed roughly 28% in August, according to Reuters, and was trading near $80,000, having touched $81,237 on Tuesday, its highest level since May.

The contracts split into 44,639 calls and 37,061 puts, a put-to-call ratio of 0.83 that points to mildly bullish positioning. Deribit's "max pain" level, the price where the largest share of contracts expires worthless, sits between $68,000 and $70,000, roughly $10,000 below where bitcoin is trading. That gap is a source of potential volatility rather than a signal of direction; the heaviest call open interest sits at the $75,000 and $80,000 strikes.

The rally has been driven largely by exchange-traded funds rather than retail buying. US spot bitcoin ETFs took in $232 million on Wednesday, an eighth straight day of inflows that has pulled in roughly $2.8 billion over that stretch. In the week through August 21 alone, the funds absorbed $1.92 billion, a 2026 record, as institutions returned after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent moved to expand the government's long-dated bond buybacks.

Hong Kong's bitcoin ETF lineup, listed on HKEX since 2024 and including ChinaAMC's Bitcoin ETF (3042.HK), Bosera HashKey's fund (3008.HK) and Harvest's product (3439.HK), has stayed far smaller than its US counterparts through the run. On Wednesday, HKEX added a tenth virtual-asset fund to the roster, as MicroBit Capital Management listed its Bitcoin & Gold Value ETF (3002.HK; 9002.HK), pairing bitcoin with gold for investors wary of holding the cryptocurrency alone.

QCP Research told Crypto Economy the rally was driven partly by short covering, which could leave it fragile without fresh buying once Friday's contracts settle. The next test lands at September's quarterly expiry, which open interest data show is already shaping up to be nearly double Friday's size.