Bitcoin Options Open Interest Hit Record $42.5B on Deribit as Traders Eye Next Bull Target for BTC

“Don’t be surprised if buying activity picks up across the spectrum of products tied to BTC,” CoinDesk said in Tuesday’s edition of the Crypto Daybook Americas, presenting a bullish case for bitcoin.

As bitcoin’s (BTC) price jumped to new lifetime highs above $111K during Thursday’s Asian trading hours it spurred record activity in the Deribit-listed options market.

The notional open interest (OI), or the dollar value of the number of active or open options contracts, rose to a record $42.5 billion, Deribit’s CEO, Luuk Strijers, told CoinDesk.

Options are derivative contracts that give the right but not the obligation to buy or sell the underlying asset at a predetermined price at a later date. A call provides the right to buy, representing an implicit bullish bet on the market, while a put option offers insurance against price slides.

BTC’s move to record highs saw traders chase upside through higher strike call options.

“Most traded strikes in the past 24h: $120K and $130K upside calls for May and June expiry. Highest OI now sits at the $110K, $120K, and $300K June 27 strikes — showing bullish conviction,” Strijers said.

Deribit is the world’s largest crypto options exchange, accounting for nearly 80% of the global crypto options activity. The exchange also offers trading in perpetuals and spot markets. The overall open interest across crypto options and perpetual futures segments has also hit a record high of over $45 billion.

Publicly traded crypto exchange Coinbase has planned to acquire derivatives exchange Deribit in a $2.9 billion deal.