Options open interest on BlackRock's IBIT Bitcoin ETF hit $27.61 billion on Friday, edging past Deribit's $26.90 billion — marking the first time a regulated US bitcoin derivatives market has overtaken the offshore exchange that dominated for nearly a decade.
Options open interest on BlackRock's IBIT Bitcoin ETF hit $27.61 billion on Friday, edging past Deribit's $26.90 billion — marking the first time a regulated US bitcoin derivatives market has overtaken the offshore exchange that dominated for nearly a decade.
On Friday, April 25, the dollar value of open options contracts on BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) on Nasdaq reached $27.61 billion, slightly exceeding the $26.90 billion in bitcoin options open interest on Deribit, the Panama-based exchange that has been the dominant venue for crypto derivatives since 2016.
The milestone was tracked by decentralized volatility protocol Volmex and reported by CoinDesk.
This isn't just a numbers milestone. It represents a structural shift in how institutional capital accesses Bitcoin.
For years, the only way to trade sizeable Bitcoin options was through offshore, unregulated venues like Deribit. Now, Wall Street firms can access regulated, CFTC/SEC-supervised options through their existing brokerage accounts via IBIT.
The two markets serve different participants: IBIT options cater to US-regulated onshore investors (pension funds, RIAs, family offices) who cannot or will not use offshore exchanges, while Deribit remains the venue for global crypto-native traders.
As Deribit's Sidrah Fariq noted: "I don't see this as competition. If anything, it expands the market."
When IBIT launched in January 2024, there was no options market for it. Within two years, it has built an options ecosystem that now rivals — and briefly exceeds — the platform that defined Bitcoin derivatives trading for nearly a decade. For context, it took Deribit from 2016 to 2024 (8 years) to build its current OI levels. IBIT did it in roughly 18 months of options trading.
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