Bitcoin at $111K Before $116K Options Expiry; Ether & CRO Surge
Bitcoin held above $111,000 after bouncing earlier in the European session, up under 1% over 24 hours. With August nearing its close, BTC is on track for its smallest monthly decline since 2021. Options expiry on Friday will see $14.6 billion in BTC and ETH contracts, with max pain at $116,000, likely prompting sellers to push prices toward that level. The CoinDesk 20 and 80 indexes gained over 3%. Bitcoin’s 200-day moving average rose above $100,000, reinforcing its long-term uptrend.
Derivatives metrics show open interest sliding to $30.3 billion, though three-month basis trades remain profitable at 8–9%. Implied volatility curves slope upward, while skew and put/call volumes tilt bearish as traders seek downside protection. Funding rates have rebounded to 8–10% annualized. Liquidations hit $266 million, skewed 58% toward shorts.
Cronos (CRO) rallied 56% after Crypto.com and Trump Media unveiled a $6.4 billion CRO treasury, integrating CRO into Truth Social’s rewards system. Trading volume jumped 1,300% to over $1 billion, making CRO a standout performer.
Bullish
The news combines technical and derivatives indicators that suggest upward momentum for Bitcoin. The upcoming $116K options expiry (“max pain”) incentivizes sellers to push BTC higher in the short term, while the 200-day moving average above $100K underlines a sustained long-term uptrend. Derivatives data, including profitable basis trades and recovering funding rates, further support a bullish bias. Cronos’s 56% rally on a major treasury partnership indicates strong market appetite for tokens tied to real-world use cases. Together, these factors favor both short-term gains toward the options strike and longer-term market stability.