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Probably those futures somebody was mentioning in another comment.

Perhaps it was not BTC or cryptocurrencies expiring but "investors" (gamblers) betting that X or Y commodity's value (gold, oil, USD, EUR, BTC?) will be on $Z, and the closer they places their bet on value Z the more money they make.

They're talking about futures contracts, which are created with explicit end dates for delivery (or "delivery") of the underlying asset. I believe first officially listed and traded Bitcoin futures contracts were issues in December, and (some?) have expiration dates around now.

Prices around expiration dates can get quite volatile, as traders with large positions maneuver to maximize profit or minimize loss.