Bitcoin Options Expiry: How BTC Traded Into 08:00 UTC

The Deribit bitcoin options expiry on 30 October 2026 hit at 08:00 UTC (11:00 MSK), and BTC did not spike into it. Price slid 2.10% over the previous 24 hours to $78,185 at 08:00, then moved only $330 in the next 50 minutes. Deribit's delivery price was $78,119.01. The 4h bias on BTC stays bearish.

What happened

Deribit lists its BTC options with an expiry of 08:00 UTC; its API documentation calls these the daily 08:00 UTC expirations. We checked the 30 October contracts on Deribit's public API today: the 124 BTC-settled 30OCT26 option instruments carry an expiry stamp of 2026-10-30 08:00:00 UTC. The same API reports the day's delivery price at $78,119.01 for the BTC index.

Size figures come from outlets, not from us, and were taken before the expiry. CryptoTicker reported on 27 October that 135,545 BTC option contracts were open for the date, about $10.8 billion at $79,568, with max pain at $78,000. Crypto Briefing put the date at about 35% of Deribit's BTC options open interest on 8 October. Open interest changes up to the last minute, so treat both as pre-expiry snapshots. Max pain is a statistic about where option buyers lose most; it does not show that price was pinned there.

This post measures what the chart did, not why.

Bitcoin options expiry: what the chart did

The last candle before the expiry (07:55 UTC) closed at $78,185.38. We measure every move from that price.

BTC had been falling for 24 hours. It topped at $81,971 at 16:05 UTC on 29 October and printed the UTC day's low of $76,500.11 at 02:05 UTC today, a $5,471 range. It then recovered $1,685 to the 08:00 print. In the last hour before the expiry price fell 0.59%, most of it between 07:30 and 07:55 (from $78,500 to $78,185).

After 08:00 BTC traded between $77,911 and $78,241. The 5m candles ranged $71 to $161 each, against an average of about $151 in the hour before. The expiry did not widen the candles.

The 1h, 4h and 24h windows have not elapsed yet. BTC's daily open was $77,991.89, so price sat just under it at 08:50.

Structure context

All six coins in the strip read bearish in a trend on the 4h chart, and five are slightly lower since 08:00 UTC: Bitcoin (−0.31%), Ethereum (−0.52%), Solana (−0.18%), BNB (−0.44%) and Dogecoin (−0.28%). XRP is +0.13%.

On BTC the engine's latest 4h event is an internal bearish BOS at $79,710, stamped to the 20:00 UTC bar on 29 October. The 15m chart shows an external bearish BOS at $78,297.05 from 23:45 UTC, while 15m bias reads bullish in a pullback. The two timeframes can disagree; that is how market structure works, and our methodology explains how bias is computed. The engine readings are from 08:37 UTC.

For how the price got here, see Bitcoin after PCE and Bitcoin on the Fed hold. For how wide BTC usually moves by the hour, see Bitcoin volatility by hour.

What to watch next

• 09:00 UTC. The 1h window closes and the first row of dashes can be filled.
• 12:00 UTC. The 4h reaction window closes.
• 08:00 UTC on 31 October. The 24h window closes. Deribit also lists BTC options for 31 October with an 08:00 UTC expiry.
• 15m and 4h structure. A new BOS or CHoCH changes the engine's reading; one expiry does not.

More market stories are in the news hub.

FAQ

What time is the Deribit options expiry? Deribit's BTC options expire at 08:00 UTC, which is 11:00 MSK. On 30 October 2026, the last Friday of the month, that was the month-end expiry.

How did Bitcoin trade into the expiry? BTC fell 2.10% in the 24 hours before 08:00 UTC, to $78,185.38 at the 07:55 close. Deribit's delivery price for the day was $78,119.01.

How did Bitcoin react after the expiry? From the 07:55 UTC close to the 08:50 UTC close BTC fell 0.31%, in a $330 range. Longer windows are not measured yet.