Here’s why bears aim to keep Bitcoin under $29K ahead of Friday’s $640M BTC options expiry

cointelegraph.com:

Over the past nine days, Bitcoin's (BTC) daily closing price fluctuated in a tight range between $28,700 and $31,300. The May 12 collapse of TerraUSD (UST), previously the third-largest stablecoin by market cap, negatively impacted investor confidence and the path for Bitcoin' price recovery seems clouded after the Nasdaq Composite stock market index plunged 4.7% on May 18.

Disappointing quarterly results from top United States retailers is amping up recession fears and on May 18, Target (TG) shares dropped 25%, while Walmart (WMT) stock plunged 17% in two days. The prospect of an economic slowdown brought the S&P 500 index to the edge of bear market territory, a 20% contraction from its all-time high.

Moreover, the recent crypto price drop was costly to leverage buyers (longs). According to Coinglass, the aggregate liquidations reached $457 million at derivatives exchanges between May 15 and May 18.

The open interest for the May 20 options expiry is $640 million, but the actual figure will be much lower since bulls were overly-optimistic. Bitcoin's recent downturn below $32,000 took buyers by surprise and only 20% of the call (buy) options for May 20 have been placed below that price level.

The 0.66 call-to-put ratio reflects the dominance of the $385 million put (sell) open interest against the $255 million call (buy) options. However, as Bitcoin stands near $30,000, most put (sell) bets are likely to become worthless, reducing bears’ advantage.

If Bitcoin's price remains above $29,000 at 8:00 am UTC on May 20, only $160 million worth of these put (sell) options will be available. This difference happens because a right to sell Bitcoin at $30,000 is worthless if BTC trades above that level on expiry.

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