Options Max Pain
Max pain is calculated per exchange. Deribit holds the large majority of crypto options open interest (~80%+), so it best reflects the whole market.
Explanation
AnalyticsMax Pain is the strike price at which the largest dollar value of options expires worthless, causing the maximum financial loss to the most option holders at expiration. A debated theory holds that price often drifts toward this level as expiry approaches, since option sellers (mostly market makers) who profit when options expire worthless tend to hedge in ways that nudge price that direction — a gentle gravity, not a hard rule. The chart plots the max pain strike for every upcoming expiration (line) alongside the call + put notional riding on each one (bars); pick the symbol (BTC / ETH) and options exchange (Deribit, OKX, Binance, Bybit). Expirations with a large notional bar carry the most money, so their max pain prices say the most.
Read the line and the bars together: a max pain price on a tall notional bar is on an expiry with a lot of money behind it, and one on a short bar says much less. Both describe open contracts at a moment and neither is a signal.
Methodology note: Computed from options open interest at each strike across all tracked expirations on the selected exchange, weighting by contract notional to find the strike where total holder losses are maximized if price settled there at expiry. The pull, if any, tends to show up mainly in the last day or two before a large expiration — treat it as short-term context around expiry dates, not a standalone or predictive signal.
The price at which the most options would expire worthless, for every upcoming expiry, next to the money riding on each.