Yesterday at 3 a.m., a trader friend suddenly sent a voice message, his voice trembling: "We're doomed. I’ve all-in on the surge in weekly options, Bitcoin is stuck at 87k and not moving, my account can’t hold much longer!" I asked if he had set a stop-loss, and he fell silent.

I've seen this kind of thing too many times. Whenever large options are approaching expiration, there’s always a wave of people trying to bet on the direction, only to become the "springboard" for market volatility.

But my account was very stable that day. Not because I blindly guessed the price movement correctly, but because half a year ago, I allocated 80% of my Bitcoin holdings into a volatility-neutral strategy. Today, I will fully break down this approach that remains "rock solid" amidst the waves of options trading.

**$23.6 billion in options expiring—why is this not risk but an opportunity?**

Ordinary investors see the "largest options expiration in history" and think only of risk. But if you understand the logic of volatility, you see a completely different picture.

First layer of opportunity: capturing volatility premiums. Three days before options expiration, implied volatility (IV) must spike. My approach is to position in advance, while simultaneously selling both 87k call and put options—this is called a straddle strategy. What’s the result? Even if Bitcoin’s price remains unchanged, the time decay over just three days can yield an annualized return of 8.2%, fully offsetting the holding costs.

Second layer of opportunity: market maker hedging path prediction. Market makers for options hedge dynamically in the spot market to manage risk. Their operations are sufficiently systematic; if you can position yourself ahead at key price levels, you can profit from this systematic hedging.