Bitcoin price recovers above $53K as $6 billion options expire: what’s next?

Bitcoin (BTC) price has corrected higher and is trading above $53k as of writing as bulls prepare for volatile weekend post massive $6 billion options expiry

Bitcoin is trading around $53,300 level at the time of writing, largely unchanged over the past 24 hours. This follows buyers’ attempts to push higher after sellers failed to puncture support at the crucial $50,000 level.

Bitcoin’s recovery towards $55k comes as a record $6 billion worth of Bitcoin options are set to expire this Friday. The expiration in the options contracts is the largest in the crypto derivatives market and could lead to increased volatility in the short term.

According to industry analyst Ran Neuner, bears failing to break below $50k illustrates that “shorts are out of the money”.

Fresh volatility accelerated by aggressive buying could thus see BTC and alt prices pump to new highs, he added.

Bitcoin price outlook

BTC/USD broke below $53,000 and continued the downward action to touch lows of $50,360 yesterday. Breaking below multiple support levels threatened to send BTC/USD beneath the $50k mark.

However, BTC/USD has managed to rebound to intraday highs of $53,355. Bulls are trying to break above the resistance line of an ascending triangle pattern on the hourly chart.

If bulls breach resistance at $53,803 level—the 0.5 Fib retracement level of the move from $57,257 to $59,360, then the next target will be the 100 hourly simple moving average at $54,370. A clear break above this resistance level could allow buyers to attack targets above $55k.

The hourly MACD remains bullish after a crossover, while the hourly RSI is above the 50 level to suggest bulls have the upper hand.

Jan and Yann, the co-founders of analytics platform Glassnode note that the short squeeze could help Bitcoin price climb higher in April. According to the analysts, some investors are placing bets on BTC/USD reaching $80k in April.

“This Friday $6 billion in options contracts are set to expire. #Bitcoin price expectations for April are high with lots of investors placing their new bets on $80k.”

On the contrary, Bitcoin could see fresh declines towards $51,000 and $50,000 if bulls fail to break the horizontal resistance of the triangle. This scenario will unfold if BTC/USD corrects lower and breaks below the trend line and the 0.236 Fib level ($51,985).

Any extended downward pressure could sink BTC/USD to support at $48,000, with maximum pain projected to lie near $40,000.