Over Half A Billion Dollars Wiped Out As Bitcoin Locks In At $70,000

Whale wallets quietly shifted to buying mode over the past two weeks — even as the broader crypto market absorbed one of its worst single-day liquidation events in recent memory. Related Reading: Bitcoin Stalls Near $75K As Traders Move Coins To Exchanges A Massive Options Expiry Freezes The Price Friday’s settlement of Deribit’s March options contracts has effectively put Bitcoin on hold. The expiry involves 24,838 contracts with a combined notional value of $1.72 billion, and BTC has landed squarely at the $70,000 strike — the exact level known as “max pain,” where the greatest number of options contracts expire worthless. That pins price in a tight band. Traders expect it to hold between $69,000 and $71,000 until contracts settle later today. Max pain is not a coincidence. It describes the point where option sellers — typically institutional market makers — collect maximum losses from buyers. When open interest is concentrated enough, the market tends to drif