This Friday, the crypto world will experience a major event—approximately 300,000 BTC options contracts will be settled, with a notional value of up to $23.7 billion. The numbers sound huge, but what’s more important is the potential market volatility that could be triggered behind the scenes.

From the position distribution, the puts at $85,000 and the calls at $100,000 are particularly concentrated, indicating that market participants have heavily bet at these two price levels. Coincidentally, this falls during the Christmas holiday, when trading liquidity significantly decreases. Once the options settlement triggers, it’s very easy to generate a Gamma effect—simply put, market makers adjusting their positions passively to hedge risks, which can cause sharp price swings around key levels.

Historically, during Christmas week, BTC usually exhibits a 5%-7% fluctuation. This large-scale options settlement coincides with that time window, so it’s definitely something to watch out for. Whether the price will surge or drop depends on how market sentiment and liquidity cooperate.