Bitcoin’s $80,000 Breakout May Hinge on May 1 Options Expiry

• Advertisement -

• Bitcoin is being trapped in the $75,000-$80,000 range by options traders whose buying and selling is suppressing any retail-fueled movement.

• Over $720 million in options calls expire in May, which analysts say will open a window for BTC to shoot past $80,000.

In the past month, Bitcoin has gained 13% to hit $1.5 trillion in market cap. However, despite the momentum, it has failed to breach the $80,000 resistance, while on the flip side, the $75,000 support has held firm. Analysts say Bitcoin is being trapped in this range by options traders and have revealed the expiry date for this trap.

BTC trades at $75,780 at press time, dipping 1.7% in the past day to bring its losses in the past week to 3.1%. Its trading volume has bounced back 17% to hit $40 billion despite a red wave in the market that has chipped away $60 billion in overall market cap.

The leading crypto is likely to be trapped in this range for the next month, says Andy Baehr, the managing director at GSR, a crypto trading and investment firm. Speaking to Bloomberg, Baehr revealed that there is a cluster of options that have accumulated around $80,000 that are limiting any uptrends.

Call options give their holders the right to purchase an asset at a set price, but not the obligation. In this case, traders who hold call options at $80,000 would profit if Bitcoin shoots past this price. Put options, on the other hand, give the holders the right to sell at a set price and pay out when the price drops.

As Baehr explains, this group of traders is holding BTC captive at the $75,0000-$80,000 range. He told Bloomberg:

“Many speculators are selling the calls at $80,000 because they would probably think that is a safe place to sell and collect those call premiums. The dealers on the other side of the trade are buying the options while hedging their positions by selling Bitcoin, creating the ‘electric fence’ scenario.”

Bitcoin’s ‘Electric Fence’ Has an Expiry Date

In previous cycles, such as last year’s record-setting rally, Bitcoin surged past similar options traps easily. However, these rallies were fuelled by a retail frenzy that injected billions of dollars into the market. Retail interest has since cooled, as ETHNews reported.

Analysts have given two key dates for BTC to break past the trap in May. The first is tomorrow, May 1st, when $160 million in call options expire on Deribit. This will eliminate some of the downward pressure on the top crypto.

Data from Kaiko reveals that May 29 is even more significant, as $566 million call options will expire on Deribit.

It’s not the first time that options traps have derailed BTC’s price movement. In December, it was trapped in the $85,000-$90,000 range for weeks. Then, on December 27, $27 billion in options expired, which weakened the forces playing out against the crypto. A week later, BTC had surged past $90,000 for the first time that month, and by mid January, it hit $97,000, its highest price in 2026.

Image courtesy of X.

However, the options trap only tells half the story. Thomas Erdosi, the head of product at CF Benchmarks, says that there will be a lot of profit-taking at $80,000, which could derail BTC’s recovery.