Bitcoin’s wild ride has not just catapulted the spot market but has propelled fresh highs on the derivatives space, as well. Bitcoin derivatives markets have been witnessed a significant demand in recent months simultaneously as the spot markets jumped to new peaks.
After a few days of dwindling figures, the parabolic upside breaching $34K has spurred newfound optimism among the option traders. In the latest development, the traders of the bitcoin options exchange, Deribit recorded a 24-hours exchange trading volume of a whopping $4.4 billion with more than $1.98 billion in notional for the first time ever.
In addition, the BTC options open interest [OI] surged to an all-time high of $8 billion. Deribit remains at the top position in terms of the aggregate BTC options open interest. This was followed by open interest from crypto platforms such as Okex, Bit.com, CME Group, and Ledgerx respectively.
Coinciding with the market-wide bullish sentiment was another crucial announcement from the platform. The options traders on Deribit can now bet on a potential rally all the way to $200,000 by late December 2021. This replaced the $160,000 option as the highest traders can bet Bitcoin would surge to.
Just in case, we added the 200k strike on the Dec21 Expiry! 😉💥#Bitcoin #OptionTrading pic.twitter.com/5LevdY6bHY
— Deribit (@DeribitExchange) January 2, 2021
This news comes a little over a week after Deribit introduced call and put options at the $100,000 strike price expiring on the 24th of September, 2021. Interestingly, when the said options went live, the underlying crypto-asset was in the middle of a massive rally blasting past the coveted level of $20k and setting a then-record high of a new territory close to the $24k.
As the prices continued to soar, Deribit then announced the launch of both $120k and $140k strikes within a short span of time. The exchange had earlier explained its decision in the following tweet,
“Our introduction policy is adding strikes up to delta 10”
The latest bull run witnessed a lot of new investors foraying the market amid the uncertainty that scourge the traditional financial realm due to the ongoing pandemic. These entities were now seeking to hedge their bets against the industry through derivatives of underlying assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. This was reflected in the speed at which the crypto derivatives market has been growing in the midst of Bitcoin’s stunning run into unchartered territories.