Bitcoin Options Trading Surges to Yearly High as Investors Eye Greater Gains

Bitcoin-based options trading has swelled as institutional investors bank on the asset's continual rise amid a broader crypto market rally triggered by the re-election of pro-crypto President Donald Trump. 

Amid record-setting prices in crypto, Bitcoin’s open interest for options contracts soared on Monday to just below $25 billion, data from derivatives exchange Deribit shows.

It follows the exchange's previous yearly open interest peak for the asset at roughly $24 billion, seen November 7, immediately following Trump's victory last week.

Options are a type of financial derivatives contract that allows a buyer to buy or sell an asset at a predetermined price within a particular time frame. Options open interest refers to the number of outstanding non-closed or liquidated options contracts that have been traded. 

The ballooning of Bitcoin options open interest suggests institutional investors are increasingly bullish on Bitcoin, which would be a boon for the asset, experts told Decrypt. 

Institutional players’ “direct and active” participation in the derivatives market could also spur market liquidity, which, in turn, could help push up its price. 

“The appetite investors have for Bitcoin [is] so large,” Autonomys Network CEO Todd Ruoff said Monday. “There’s much more appetite by institutions, in particular. Not every mom-and-pop trades on futures exchanges.”  

Growing institutional interest in Bitcoin comes on the heels of the re-election last week of Republican Donald Trump, which triggered a broader crypto market rally. That political momentum has bolstered Bitcoin’s value and is likely to continue to push up its price before Trump takes office next year, according to Ruoff.

Bitcoin soared to an all-time high of roughly $89,500 on Monday, CoinGecko data shows. Since then, the token’s price has fallen just below $88,600.

Still, the world’s largest crypto may be poised to break even higher as news of Trump’s cabinet picks unfolds, Joe Flanagan, executive chairman and co-founder at on-chain marketplace Maple, told Decrypt. 

The momentum could even push Bitcoin to $100,000 before the year’s end, he said. 

“Major appointments to the Treasury, obviously, and [the] replacement [of Gary Gensler] at the SEC will be major moments that will help to feed the overall narrative of how positive this is for the crypto industry,” Flanagan said. 

However, it’s unclear whether Trump’s administration will be able to act in a way that sustains the rally in the new year, particularly as headwinds emerge during the first 90 days following his inauguration.

“[Trump's] done a good job in getting the crypto community on board,” Flanagan said. “But in the context of everything that is a priority for a new president coming in, where crypto will actually sit in that list of priorities is the thing that will be realized in his first month in office.”

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair