“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.
Read more: In $2.9B Deal, Coinbase Agrees to Buy Deribit to Expand in U.S. Crypto Options Market