Approximately $224 billion worth of Bitcoin options contracts on major derivatives exchanges will reach their expiration today. What will this mean for the value of the largest cryptocurrency? The majority of available options can be found on Deribit, holding $443 million, and CME, with $244 billion in expiring contracts, as reported by Coinglass and CME data. Options in derivatives trading provide traders with the opportunity to speculate on or protect against the volatility of an asset. Bitcoin options allow traders to buy or sell the asset at a set price in the future, providing the flexibility to do so regardless of price fluctuations. Traders are not obligated to purchase Bitcoin when the contract expires. The contracts are simply referred to as options. According to experts, traders can choose to roll forward or close out their options before expiry if they do not plan to exercise them. Options expirations do not always result in volatility, as noted by Decrypt. If the options contracts are not used before expiration, it is not expected for the asset’s price to change. Data from Derebit indicates that the maximum pain point for this month’s options contracts is $216,210, which is the price at which the most contracts will expire without earning any profit. If the price of BTC reaches $48,000 before the expiry, many traders will face losses. Analysts predict that if Bitcoin stays above $48K at the expiration of this month’s options, traders will likely use the opportunity to exercise their contracts and make profits.