Bitcoin: volatility bites
Bitcoin slipped toward a near‑one‑year low around $69,000 as a $14 billion options expiry rolled over and geopolitical risk amplified swings (fortune.com). At the same time Dubai’s crypto scene kept fundraising: an ETH‑based token, Pepeto, raised over $8.4M in presale, highlighting continued capital flows into UAE projects despite market tremors (portal.sina.com.hk).
Deribit’s quarterly options settlement will expire roughly $14.16 billion of Bitcoin options at 08:00 UTC on the scheduled rollover, according to market reporting and exchange data. (coindesk.com) That notional represents nearly 40% of Deribit’s open interest and market analytics peg the so‑called “max pain” level for this expiry near $75,000, concentrating hedging and gamma flows around that strike. (bloomberg.com) Options‑by‑strike metrics show heavy positioning across hundreds of thousands of contracts — more than 140,000 contracts tied to the expiry — and a notable build of deep out‑of‑the‑money $20,000 puts that traders have used as premium‑collecting/volatility plays. (theblock.co) Pepeto is pitching itself as an Ethereum‑based meme‑infrastructure project and hosts a presale and product demos (including a demo DEX and a cross‑chain bridge) on its official site pepeto.io. (pepeto.io) The team’s GlobeNewswire release on Feb. 27 reported the presale had surpassed $7.556 million, and later March media briefs and presale updates put cumulative raises above the $8 million mark as stages sold out. (markets.financialcontent.com) Project materials and third‑party writeups list dual audits from SolidProof and Coinsult and advertise staking programs with yields advertised in the low‑to‑mid 200% range ahead of planned exchange listings. (cryptoslate.com)
