Your Options for Crypto Options

Crypto options are rapidly emerging as one of the most powerful tools in a trader's arsenal.

They unlock advanced strategies, risk management capabilities, and asymmetric return profiles that simply aren’t possible with spot HODLing or perpetual futures alone.

Whether you’re looking to generate yield on your stack by selling calls, hedge downside risk with puts, speculate on price swings with leveraged positions, or construct risk-defined positions, the unmatched flexibility of options stands ready to help you outperform the market.

Today, we’re exploring the defining features of crypto’s top three options venues. 👇

🌐 Deribit

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Rating: A+

Deribit stands as the undisputed global leader for crypto options. At the time of writing, there was a combined $46.8B of open interest on BTC and ETH across crypto-native centralized options exchanges, of which Deribit controlled a commanding 87% market share.

Exceptionally high trading volumes translate into tangible benefits for Deribit users by unlocking uber-competitive options pricing and the deepest liquidity of any trading venue.

Beyond benchmark BTC and ETH contracts, Deribit also offers options on PAXG (Paxos Gold), BNB, SOL, and XRP. Available contract tenors vary depending on the asset, but weekly, monthly, and quarterly expirations are standard. Explosive 0DTE/1DTE firepower can be accessed in every market except for PAXG.

In early May, Coinbase announced that it would acquire Deribit for $2.9B in a combination cash/stock offer in hopes of establishing itself as the premier platform for crypto options. The deal was the largest ever seen by the crypto industry and could signal Coinbase’s intention to offer options products to its core U.S. trader base, subject to CFTC approval.

For persons or entities not located in presently restricted nations (including the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, and Iran), Deribit ranks as the foremost platform for crypto options.

🏦 New York Stock Exchange

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Rating: B

The New York Stock Exchange – the largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization – has become a crypto options dynamo over the past year thanks to the approval of options on spot crypto ETFs, like BlackRock’s IBIT and ETHA.

Options on NYSE-listed spot crypto ETFs are readily accessible to almost anyone (including non-Americans) who are not residents of sanctioned nations or sanctioned themselves. These instruments can be traded with accounts through Fidelity, E-Trade, Charles Schwab, Robinhood, or any other traditional stock brokerage. 

Traditional exchanges do not list daily options for single stocks, but traders can obtain weekly, monthly, quarterly, and multi-year LEAPS options on eligible spot crypto ETFs. Longer expiration LEAPS are not offered by crypto-native solutions, and while their dampened volatility and heightened premiums make them less exciting for speculators, they are a useful tool for investors looking to express long-term outlooks on the prices of crypto assets.

Although NYSE-listed crypto options can suit the needs of everyday retail traders, whales making waves with large size will find superior pricing and deeper liquidity on Deribit.

🦁 Derive

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Rating: C

Formerly known as Lyra Finance, Derive’s impeccable three-year track record has established it as the leading onchain crypto options protocols. Derive offers options markets for BTC and ETH with daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly expirations.

Anyone seeking to interact with Derive must first bridge ERC20s from Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, or Base to the Derive Chain, a semi-permissioned OP Stack rollup implementation that houses the protocol’s underlying derivatives markets and associated smart contracts.

Once onboarded into the Derive L2, users can borrow against non-USDC tokens for portfolio margin, trade risky perpetuals and options products, or deposit assets into automated yield-generating vault strategies that generate income by selling options.

While the added complexity of transacting onchain and longer transaction times relative to centralized alternatives leaves Derive playing second fiddle against titans Deribit and the New York Stock Exchange, this platform remains a quality alternative for options aficionados seeking a no-KYC, 24/7 trading experience.

Derive’s recent “Pro” brings traders a customizable interface and reduces margin requirements by up to 60% for common multi-leg options strategies with defined risk, such as spreads and butterflies.