The year of options and the clear winner

Market structure continues to mature as the demand for options continues to rise. The aggregated open interest of Bitcoin options is currently at an all-time high of $1.16 billion after being at less than $310 million at the beginning of January. And there are no signs of the growth slowing down.

Options are most frequently used by market participants to speculate and hedge. Call and put options can be used to speculate on the price direction in the short term. The further away the strike price is from the current price, the lower the premium is, which also means higher leverage. Buying an equal number of call and put options (straddles and strangles) lets investors benefit from price moves in either direction. Selling straddles/strangles gives investors exposure to the stagnation of the underlying price.