Bitcoin Options Open Interest Spikes to Record High as Traders Target $116K

The Bitcoin options market has spiked to an all-time high alongside the asset’s climb toward a record $112,000, Greg Magadini, director of derivatives at crypto data provider Amberdata, told Decrypt on Thursday.

Open interest for Bitcoin options most recently stood at around $65 billion, including contracts traded through venues like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, or CME, as well as options tied to BlackRock’s spot exchange-traded fund, he said.

Based solely on traders’ positioning, options market data suggests that Bitcoin’s price will likely rally into a range between $116,000 and $120,000, Magadini said. Bitcoin’s rally currently has “wide participation,” as evidenced by $20 billion in notional open interest outstanding for BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF alone, he added.

“The options market on top of IBIT is one of the most actively traded,” Magadini said. “This shows strong adoption and enthusiasm for BTC in general.”

Excluding options on BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, which debuted late last year, Bitcoin options open interest peaked around $46 billion in late November, according to crypto data provider CoinGlass. The metric tracks the dollar value of contracts outstanding, which give speculators the ability to bet on price movements using leverage.

According to Block Scholes, a crypto analytics firm, the Bitcoin options market remained bullish on Thursday. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the firm said that traders still favored out-of-the-money call options, meaning that most expect Bitcoin’s price will rise further. Block Scholes noted, however, that there has been a slight increase in bearish bets.

On the crypto derivatives exchange Deribit, which Coinbase plans to acquire for $2.9 billion, traders favored call options. The exchange had $23 billion worth of call options outstanding, as opposed to $13.9 billion worth of put options, according to CoinGlass.

Bitcoin was recently changing hands at around $111,800, a 4.2% increase over the past day, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. Over the past 30 days, its price has increased 23%. Last month, the asset’s price fell as low as $74,000.

Edited by James Rubin