Vladimir Vladimirov
With the rally in cryptocurrencies over the past month, investors have flocked to cryptocurrency options. bitcoin (btc-USD) options trading volume has hit a record high ahead of Friday's month-, quarter-, and year-end expiration dates, according to data from The Block.
Monthly Options Trading bitcoin volume reached more than $38 billion on major crypto derivatives exchanges, including $26.7 billion in btc options trading volume on Deribit and a surge in derivatives trading on OKX and Binance, The said Block on Thursday.
Approximately $7.7 billion in options associated with bitcoin (btc-USD) will expire on Deribit on Friday. Most contracts in force on the exchange are calls, which give the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy bitcoins at a certain price.
There is a total of more than $11 billion in combined bitcoin and ether (eth-USD) options open interest ahead of Friday's expiration, Deribit chief trading officer Luuk Strijers told The Block, marking the largest expiration of the exchange so far. Nearly $5 billion of them will mature in cash, he said.
“Beyond hedging, we also see clients rolling over their positions until expiration in 2024 and we expect to see more of that closer to expiration and beyond,” Strijersbitcoin-options-trading-volume-hits-all-time-high-as-year-comes-to-close” target=”_blank”> saying.
Most bitcoin calls expiring on Friday have a strike price of $45,000. However, as of midday Friday, the world's largest token by market cap was trading at ~$41.9K, down from its 52-week high of $44.7K reached in early December.
bitcoin (btc-USD) has been gaining since mid-October on rising hopes that the Securities and Exchange Commission will finally approve an exchange-traded fund that invests directly in bitcoin.
The SEC has until January 10 to make a decision on ARK Invest's spot bitcoin ETF and until January 25 for Grayscale's proposal to convert the Grayscale bitcoin Trust (OTC:GBTC) into an ETF.
Others that have filed for bitcoin ETFs include WisdomTree (WT), Invesco (IVZ), BlackRock (BLK), and Valkyrie.
