A notable development occurred on Friday, marking the accelerated institutionalization of the bitcoin market, which has historically been driven by individual investors. This is evident in the growth of options linked to BlackRock's bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), IBIT, which have surpassed the total bitcoin options trading on Deribit, a major offshore platform. The fact that IBIT options have bridged the gap with Deribit's bitcoin options market in just two years is particularly striking, given that Deribit has been operating since 2016.
On Friday, the open interest (OI) in IBIT options contracts on Nasdaq reached $27.61 billion, slightly exceeding the $26.90 billion in Deribit's bitcoin options, according to data from Volmex. This milestone indicates that the regulated, institutional-grade bitcoin investment and derivatives infrastructure in the US is now on par with the offshore market.
The emergence of a thriving, regulated market in the US could embolden more Wall Street institutions to explore digital assets, ultimately leading to more mature price discovery. Deribit's Global Head of Retail Sales and Business, Sidrah Fariq, views IBIT's rise as a positive development for the broader crypto derivatives ecosystem, stating that it provides US retail investors with direct access to regulated leverage and options exposure. Options are derivative contracts that grant the purchaser the right to buy or sell an underlying asset at a predetermined price at a later date. They can be used to hedge existing positions, speculate on price direction, or generate additional income on coin or ETF holdings.
One popular income-generating strategy involving IBIT ETF and IBIT options is the covered call strategy, which allows investors to profit from BTC's implied volatility by simultaneously holding the ETF and shorting IBIT calls at levels above the ETF's current market price. The two markets, though now similar in scale, reveal distinct differences in trader sentiment. According to Volmex, the bulk of open interest in IBIT call options is concentrated at strike levels equivalent to bitcoin trading around $109,709, or roughly 41% above the current price. In contrast, positioning in Deribit options is slightly more conservative, with call open interest clustered around levels equivalent to roughly $106,000 in BTC terms.
The average delta of onshore call options is slightly lower, consistent with onshore flow being dominated by retail upside speculation and systematic call overwriting programs. Put positioning is largely aligned across venues, with open interest concentrated around the $63,500 strike. ETF holders tend to have a longer investment horizon, with October 2026 expiries preferred in IBIT, while August expiries dominate on Deribit.
Lastly, IBIT's implied volatility is higher than the implied volatility derived from Deribit's BTC options, attributed to a structural quirk where ETF holders cannot easily short bitcoin directly and instead buy put options as a hedge. The rapid rise of IBIT in the options market is striking, and while it now rivals Deribit in scale, the two are not direct substitutes, as IBIT options cater to regulated, onshore investors, while Deribit remains the go-to platform for global investors.