As many of you know in December of 2017 Chicago Mercantile Exchange started trading Bitcoin futures options. Ironically(or not) it has marked the peak for that cycle which was followed by a 2-year bear market.
You might wonder why I am teaching you blockchain history here, but the answer is very straightforward, today, that is the last Friday of the month, those future options expire, you can think of it as a bet on the price in the future.
It is quite a sophisticated financial tool and people who use it are neither stupid nor poor for the most part. So the idea is simple in 2017 when the whole crypto-market was arguably tiny if we compare it to today's valuations futures could have been part of a lot of market manipulation. However, today since the crypto market is much bigger and stronger future expirations still have some influence on the market, for example, today $3.1 billion of BTC options are set to expire, which could be a cause for increased volatility. I know for sure, that at 4:00 p.m. London time when the options are set to expire I will be watching markets closely.
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From @buff-news