The ratio of BTCOptions contracts with a value of over $14 billion is soaring before the expiration on Friday, and the market tends to fall.

Gate News bot message, according to CoinDesk, the bullish/bearish ratio of BTC on Deribit surged by billions of dollars before the Options expiry on Friday, but the traditional bullish interpretation may no longer be entirely accurate.

The open interest ratio of active bearish contracts to active bullish contracts at a specific time is referred to as the bearish/bullish ratio. An increase in the bearish/bullish ratio indicates that investors tend to opt for bearish Options, which provides protection against downside risk and is also interpreted as a bearish market sentiment.

However, the recent pump is at least partially driven by the 'Cash Secured Put Options' - a strategy to generate income and accumulate BTC. The strategy involves selling (issuing) put options, similar to selling insurance on a falling price, and collecting a small upfront premium.

Meanwhile, the seller holds enough cash (in stablecoin form) for over-the-counter trading, so that when the price falls and the buyer decides to exercise the right to sell BTC at a higher predetermined price, the seller is obligated to buy BTC.

Selling fallOptions involves collecting a premium, which represents profit. If the buyer exercises Options, they may increase their BTC holdings.

"The fall/rise ratio has risen to 0.72 from just over 0.5 in 2024, indicating a growing interest in fallOptions, which often comes in the form of cash-backed fallOptions," said Lin Chen, Head of Business Development for Asia at Deribit.

According to the data from Deribit Metrics, a total of 141,271 BTC Options contracts (worth over 14 billion USD) will expire on Deribit on Friday (UTC time 08:00), accounting for over 40% of the total open interest contracts.