Bitcoin fell below $88,000 after reaching $92,000 as roughly $23.6 billion notional in BTC options (≈268,000 contracts on Deribit) expired on Dec. 26, creating thin-liquidity risk during a holiday week. Trader positioning remained bullish (put-to-call 0.38) while the options' max pain was around $96,000. ETH faced concurrent pressure with about $3.8 billion of options expiring (max pain ≈ $3,100) and traded below $3,000. Analysts expect markets to steady or see a small pullback as positions roll off.

Facts: BTC slipped below $88,000 after climbing to $92,000 while ~$23.6B notional (≈268,000 contracts) in BTC options expired on Deribit during a holiday week, creating thin-liquidity risk. Trader put-to-call ratio was 0.38 (bullish) and options max pain sat near $96,000. ETH had ~ $3.8B of options expiry (max pain ≈ $3,100) and traded below $3,000. These facts explain a slightly bearish short-term price effect combined with elevated market-impact risk due to large expiries and thin holiday liquidity.