08 May Open Positions on Bitcoin Options Pass $1B for First Time
Open contracts on bitcoin options rose to record highs on Thursday as the cryptocurrency’s price rose into five figures.
Data from major exchanges – Deribit, LedgerX, Bakkt, OKEx, and CME – shows that open interest on options rose above $1 billion, surpassing the previous all-time high of $970 million registered on Feb. 14, according to crypto derivatives research firm Skew.
The metric has increased sharply from the low of $410 million observed in March when the bitcoin market crashed on “Black Thursday,” March 12.
Deribit, the world’s biggest crypto options exchange by volume, contributed nearly 90% of the total on Thursday as open positions on the Panama-based exchange reached a record high of $903 million.
Global options trading volume also jumped to $213.7 million yesterday, the highest level since the March 12 crash, while bitcoin itself clocked a two-month high of $10,062 on CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price index. At press time, bitcoin had dropped back to near…