BTC & ETH Options Max Pain

What is options max pain?

Max pain is the strike price at which the largest amount of open options (by aggregate intrinsic value) would expire worthless. It is calculated purely from open interest — it is a description of current options positioning, not a price forecast.

Does price actually gravitate to the max pain strike?

Some traders watch max pain as a reference point near expiry, reasoning that option sellers have an incentive to hedge in ways that reduce volatility near that level. The evidence for this effect is mixed and it is not reliable enough to treat as a prediction — treat it as one data point among many, not a target.

Which expiry does this track?

The nearest listed Deribit expiry with live open interest, since that is the one options-market attention concentrates on as expiry approaches. Back-month expiries are excluded — they carry too little open interest to produce a meaningful reading.