The options business seems to be the “pharma sector” of the crypto market, demonstrating robust activity across both bullish and bearish market trends.
Take, for example, the Deribit-listed bitcoin BTC$109,484.74 options market, which continues to boom despite, or maybe becuase of, the recent bearish price action. On Thursday, the number of active BTC contracts on the platform rose to a record 453,820, each representing 1 BTC. The notional open interest, representing the dollar value of the active contracts, also stood at a record $50.27 billion, according to data source Deribit Metrics.
“Despite ongoing pricing pressure and a recent decline in BTC’s spot price, BTC options open interest on Deribit has surged to a new all-time high of roughly USD 50 billion notional — a record both in contract count and dollar terms — underscoring sustained and expanding market participation,” Luuk Strijers, CEO of Deribit, told CoinDesk.
Year-to-date, open interest in contract terms has more than doubled, demonstrating resilience as BTC fell from $110K to $75K early this year before moving to a new lifetime high above $126K early this month. Since then, prices have pulled back sharply to $108,000.
The inelasticity to price swings can be explained by the fact that options serve multiple strategic purposes beyond simple directional bets, allowing traders to bet on volatility and time. This facilitates effective management of the market exposure through thick and thin.
A call option gives the holder the right but not the obligation to purchase the underlying asset at a predetermined price at a later date. A put option offers the right to sell.
Active downside hedging
The latest record high in BTC open interest is marked by thegrowing popularity of put options, which offer protection against bearish trends.
That’s evident from the $2 billion in notional open interest in the $100,000 strike put, which makes it almost as popular as the $120,000 and $140,000 strike calls. The $100,000 put represents a bet that BTC’s spot price will drop below that level.
“Unlike previous records, this new OI milestone features a notable concentration of put open interest around the 100K strike, highlighting active downside hedging by market participants. At this single strike, Deribit shows more than 19k contracts open, representing over USD 2 billion in notional value,” Strijers said.
He explained that puts continue to trade at a premium to calls, although the relative richness of puts has receded in recent days, with some traders chasing higher strike out-of-the-money calls.
“Despite dominant bearish positioning, the past 24 hours also reveal signs of renewed optimism. While put OI has increased at key downside strikes, there’s notable call activity building around 120K and above, suggesting traders are positioning for potential upside volatility or gamma exposure,” Strijers noted.