Options traders in the Bitcoin market are now pricing in a better-than-even chance that the coin stays under $66,000 through late April — a sign of how quickly sentiment has turned since Thursday.
Fear Takes Hold In The Options Market
The shift shows up clearly in one key metric. Bitcoin’s 30-day options delta skew climbed to 15% on Friday, a level that signals traders are paying a sharp premium for downside protection.
Under normal conditions, that figure sits between -6% and 6%. Based on data from derivatives platform Deribit, put options — bets that price will fall — were trading at 0.0580 BTC, or roughly $3,786, for an April 24 contract at the $66,000 strike.
That pricing implies a 50% probability of Bitcoin staying below that level by month’s end. Fear has been the dominant force in Bitcoin options since mid-January.
The broader selloff hit hard on Friday. Bitcoin dropped to $65,500, a 7.5% fall from the $71,300 it had reached just the day before. That single move wiped out more than $200 million in leveraged long positions and rendered nearly all call options worthless ahead of an $18.5 billion monthly expiry.
Bears were in control. Put options at the $69,000 strike or above carried over $2 billion in open interest, and 95% of call options expired void.
Part of the drop, reports indicate, had little to do with price conviction. Some traders simply didn’t want to carry Bitcoin exposure into the weekend, a common pattern when geopolitical risk is elevated and US markets are about to close.
Oil At $100 And Rising Bond Yields Squeeze Risk Assets
The pressure on Bitcoin didn’t come from crypto alone. West Texas Intermediate crude oil hit $100 a barrel on Friday. The jump is tied to rising tension in the Middle East, along with projections of up to $200 billion in additional US military spending.
That combination stoked inflation fears and pushed investors toward safer positions. Five-year US Treasury yields reached 4%, up from 3.70% just three weeks earlier — a fast move by bond market standards. The S&P 500 fell to its lowest point since September 2025.
Where Bitcoin Might Be Headed
Meanwhile, Bitcoin has underperformed the S&P 500 by 20% so far this year. That gap is wider than the broader macro environment alone can explain.
For now, the options market has its answer on where Bitcoin is headed this April — and it isn’t higher. With macro pressure building, policy tailwinds fading, and traders reluctant to hold through the weekend, the path of least resistance points downward.
Whether Bitcoin holds $66,000 or breaks below it may depend less on the coin itself and more on what happens in Washington and the Middle East before the month runs out.
Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView
