U.S. Quadruple Witching Ended in 2020: Deribit vs CME

Quadruple Witching Was Accurate Until 2020

On the third Friday of March, June, September, and December, four categories of equity derivatives once expired in the same session: stock index futures, stock index options, single-stock options, and single-stock futures (Corporate Finance Institute; Wikipedia, "Triple witching hour"). That fourth category is gone: U.S. single-stock futures stopped trading when OneChicago, the only exchange that listed them, closed in September 2020 (Wikipedia, "Single-stock futures"). The same third-Friday sessions now settle three categories, not four, so "triple witching" is the accurate term for what still happens, even though "quadruple witching" remains the more common phrase in casual and even financial-media use.

Single-stock options on US exchanges follow standard monthly cycles, with shorter-dated weeklies on many names, while index futures expire quarterly, so the three surviving categories overlap only four times a year, exactly on those dates. The overlap itself is the mechanism: traders closing, rolling, or settling multiple position types at once forces a volume spike. One of the more extreme instances came from that same transitional year: roughly 14 billion shares changed hands in a single witching session in 2020, about 40% above the three-month average (Corporate Finance Institute).

Note the actual 2026 dates: the third Friday of March 2026 was March 20, not March 21. This piece originally ran a day after the event, and the date in its own lead was wrong. The full-year 2026 witching Fridays were March 20 and June 19, with September 18 and December 18 still ahead as of this update, each computed the same way, on the calendar, not from a press release.

Why Deribit and CME Don't Replicate the Structure

Equities used to get four overlapping categories because two separate splits existed: an index/single-name split and an options/futures split. Multiplying those two binaries produced four boxes, all listed with enough depth across thousands of names and dozens of indices to matter in aggregate. The single-name-futures box is gone now, leaving three.

Deribit and CME show no such structure on the product listings this article reviewed. The independent dashboard this piece draws on, The Block's derivatives data described below, tracks Deribit and CME open interest and volume for Bitcoin and Ether options only; it publishes no figures for other single-asset crypto derivatives on either venue, so this piece has no data on how altcoin derivatives compare. And on the product listings this article can see, neither venue's crypto product line offers a genuine index-derivatives layer analogous to S&P 500 futures and options, the two contract types that anchor TradFi's index side of triple witching. Reusing "quadruple witching crypto" as a label compounds two separate errors: TradFi itself lost the fourth category in 2020, and on the product listings this article reviewed, Deribit and CME show no index-derivatives layer or broad single-name derivatives market.

This piece examines two venues, Deribit and CME, each running an independent listing cycle rather than a fixed four-class calendar:

• Deribit lists BTC and ETH options on daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly cycles, cash-settled against the underlying's index price at expiry. The exchange publishes live open interest by strike and expiry on a public statistics dashboard (Deribit, BTC open interest statistics).
• CME lists regulated Bitcoin and Ether futures and options on a monthly cycle through its Globex venue, alongside newer micro-sized and shorter-dated contract variants aimed at retail and hedging desks rather than the swap-heavy flow that dominates offshore venues.

Independent trackers publish both venues' figures side by side rather than folding them into one number: The Block's derivatives dashboard separately reports Deribit and CME open interest and volume for BTC and ETH options, along with each exchange's share of the aggregate (The Block, options data). Deribit typically carries the deeper options book; CME's regulated status is the structural reason usually given for institutional futures flow preferring it, though the open-interest data this article cites cannot confirm participant identity. Neither publishes anything resembling a "quadruple witching crypto" event. Each publishes its own calendar, and any calendar overlap with a TradFi witching Friday is coincidental, not structural.

The Mechanism When the Calendars Cluster

When a Deribit or CME crypto expiry happens to sit close to a TradFi witching Friday, the two independent liquidity events can compound each other through several channels that are well understood in derivatives markets generally, not unique to crypto:

1. Delta hedging adjustments. As options move toward or away from the money into expiry, market makers who sold them rebalance by buying or selling the underlying asset to stay delta-neutral. Depending on dealers' net gamma position, hedge direction, and how open interest is distributed across strikes, these rebalancing trades can get larger relative to open interest the closer the position sits to expiry.
2. Cross-portfolio margin calls. A fund holding both equity index exposure and Bitcoin can face a margin call on the equity side that forces it to raise cash by selling crypto, even though nothing in the crypto position itself changed.
3. Correlated risk-off flows. When volatility spikes simultaneously across asset classes, generalized de-risking by multi-asset desks moves both markets together, independent of any crypto-specific news.
4. Max pain pinning, a positioning heuristic. Max pain is the settlement price at which the aggregate intrinsic-value payout to option holders is smallest, and it is computable from an exchange's own open-interest-by-strike data. Traders use it as a heuristic: hedging activity by options sellers can pull spot toward that level, but whether it actually does depends on dealers' net gamma position and which direction they need to hedge, neither of which is visible from aggregate open interest. Absent that dealer-side data, treat max pain as a candidate explanation for price movement near expiry, not a demonstrated cause.

Channels one and four describe how a crypto options expiry itself can move price even without new information; channels two and three are ways an outside shock can move crypto regardless of any expiry. They do not require, and should not be dressed up with, the "quadruple witching crypto" label, because none of them depends on four overlapping instrument classes existing in crypto. A single large Deribit quarterly options expiry can create the same potential for delta-hedging and max-pain dynamics whether or not it lands anywhere near a TradFi witching date.

Where Bitcoin Options Actually Stand Now

Rather than repeat unverifiable notional totals from a single day in March, it is more useful to look at what Deribit's own market data shows now. In the week-33 2026 analytics report published by Deribit Insights (August 14, 2026), Bitcoin traded sideways in a $63,000 to $65,000 range, and short-dated implied volatility on both BTC and ETH options reached year-to-date lows (Deribit Insights, Crypto Derivatives Analytics Report, Week 33). The same report noted that Ether's options skew continues to tilt toward out-of-the-money puts, a sign that dealers and buyers are still paying up for downside protection even as realized volatility has compressed, and that Deribit's internal Risk Appetite Index has been trending higher, approaching levels that have historically preceded periods of spot outperformance.

Read on its own, this is a single mid-August snapshot: short-dated implied volatility at year-to-date lows and a still-defensive ETH put skew as of Week 33. This analysis does not have a March-to-August time series of Deribit's skew and implied-volatility data, so it cannot say whether that August skew is a continuation of positioning from the March witching Friday, a separate defensive posture that built up later, or something in between. The honest lesson stands regardless: a single clustered expiry is a liquidity event, not a directional forecast.

What This Means for Traders Reading an Expiry Calendar

Three practical takeaways follow from the mechanism above, distinct from the mislabeled "quadruple witching crypto" framing:

• Check the venue, not the calendar date. A large Deribit quarterly options expiry matters on its own terms, and its size relative to typical daily volume is one input worth checking, not its proximity to a TradFi witching Friday. But size alone does not determine whether delta hedging moves spot price: dealers' net gamma position, how open interest is distributed across strikes, which direction dealers need to hedge, and spot-market liquidity at the time all matter too, and none of that positioning detail is visible from the expiry's dollar size alone.
• Read open interest by strike, not just the notional total. Both Deribit's statistics dashboard and third-party aggregators like The Block break volume and open interest out by strike and expiry. A single dominant strike concentration is a stronger signal of a potential pinning effect than an aggregate dollar figure.
• Treat max pain as a positioning heuristic, not a target. A causal pinning claim needs dealer net gamma, hedge direction, and available liquidity, none of which is visible from aggregate open interest alone; without that data, a price sitting near max pain is circumstantial, not confirmed. On the mechanics, pinning pressure should fade once trading volume in the expiring contracts drops after settlement, and a price sitting at max pain the day of expiry says little about where it trades a week later.

Key Takeaways

1. The label "quadruple witching crypto" is a legacy term. TradFi lost the fourth category, single-stock futures, when OneChicago closed in September 2020; the third-Friday sessions since then are triple witching. Deribit and CME have neither structure: Bitcoin and Ether derivatives run on two independent exchange calendars instead.
2. TradFi triple witching, still commonly miscalled quadruple witching, happens on the third Friday of March, June, September, and December. In 2026 those dates are March 20, June 19, September 18, and December 18, not March 21.
3. Deribit and CME each publish their own open interest and expiry data publicly, and independent trackers like The Block report both side by side rather than combining them into one figure.
4. Delta hedging is an established mechanism behind expiry-driven volatility; cross-portfolio margin calls and correlated risk-off flows can move crypto regardless of any expiry; max pain pinning is a positioning heuristic visible in open interest, not a demonstrated cause absent dealer-side gamma and hedge-direction data. All four operate whether or not a crypto expiry happens to land near a TradFi witching date.
5. As of the mid-August 2026 snapshot, Deribit's own data shows compressed short-dated volatility and a still-defensive ETH put skew; without an intervening data series, this piece cannot say whether that skew traces back to the March witching Friday or built up separately.

The next time an expiry is described as "quadruple witching crypto," check what is actually expiring and where, in TradFi or in crypto. Wall Street's own quadruple witching stopped being four categories in 2020, and the two crypto venues this article reviewed show no equivalent structure on their listed products. Deribit's and CME's own published open interest is more specific and more useful than either label.

Disclaimer: Nothing here constitutes financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk. Always conduct your own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.