[November 13 Options Settlement and This Week's Market Report] Key Settlement Data Overview BTC Options: 34,000 contracts expired, Put/Call Ratio was 0.52, maximum price target was $76,000, and notional value was $2.48 billion. ETH Options: 148,000 contracts expired, Put/Call Ratio was 1.55, maximum price target was $2,200, and notional value was $300 million. This Week's Spot Market Movement and Settlement Game This Friday saw nearly $2.8 billion in weekly options settlement. Affected by the aftermath of the Binance hack, a period of net outflows from ETFs, and the better-than-expected US CPI inflation data released this week, the crypto market faced further selling pressure ahead of settlement. After breaking below the strong support level of $80,000, BTC continued its downward trend this week, briefly dipping to the $72,700-$73,300 range mid-week. Although it subsequently rebounded slightly to above $74,000, the overall trend has shifted from "trading above the pain point" to a substantial break below the major pain point of $76,000. This sharp fluctuation, occurring just before expiration, has put market makers who established large positions at higher levels at risk of hedging losses. Currently on the Deribit chart, the largest open interest expiring on November 13th is concentrated in call options at $81,000. With the current price moving away from this range, the bullish momentum this week has been significantly weakened, and a large number of out-of-the-money call options are highly likely to expire worthless on Friday. The BTC and ETH options market exhibits a clear divergence in open interest: BTC: Long positions dominate, but short-term defensive sentiment intensifies. The BTC PCR (Positive Commitment Ratio) at expiration is 0.52, indicating that open interest is still dominated by call options. However, the PCR surged to around 1.64 in the past 24 hours, suggesting that short-term panic buying of put options to short the market or hedge against further price drops below $75,000. ETH: Highly defensive and pessimistic. ETH's current price has fallen to the $2,050-$2,130 range, trading below the $2,200 support level. The high PCR of 1.55 reflects extreme caution in the short-term outlook for Ethereum, with a large number of bearish protective positions concentrated in the $2,100-$2,300 strike price range, limiting any potential rebound before expiration. ETH: Highly defensive and pessimistic. Volatility (IV) Term Structure and Trading Strategy Recommendations IV Term Structure Inversion: Currently, the 1M ATM implied volatility of BTC remains relatively low at around 38%, but the short-term volatility (1W ATM IV) has risen above 39.2% due to macroeconomic data and breakout price action, forming a "near-term high, far-term low" term inversion structure. Simultaneously, the 7-day realized volatility (RV) has surged to over 43%, reflecting extremely high market pricing in actual volatility before and after the settlement in the coming days. Skew and GEX Signals: The 25-day Delta Skew remains negative (put option premium is higher than call option premium), and the GEX (Gamma exposure) distribution is bearish but the strike prices are relatively dispersed, indicating that while there is support around $72,000–$74,000, the market has not yet formed a consistent consensus for bottom-fishing. Trading Recommendations Before the delivery date, pay attention to the "gravity zone" (US$74,080–78,900), the biggest pain point at US$76,000, and whether it can drive a recovery in the spot market. Given that out-of-the-money implied (IV) options at the end of November (November 27th) and in the medium to long term are still not expensive overall, and with the strong resistance at 80K proving difficult to overcome quickly and the market in a consolidation phase, taking advantage of rebounds to buy monthly out-of-the-money put options or constructing bear put spreads for directional tail protection still offers a relatively high risk-reward ratio.