Bitcoin Options Volume on Deribit Already 25% of 2020 Total

Deribit traders have already recorded 25% of last year's entire bitcoin options volume.

After a record-setting $2 billion traded Monday, total volume for bitcoin options on Deribit in the past two weeks reached $14.5 billion Tuesday morning.
In 2020, all bitcoin options trading on Deribit totaled just less than $57 billion.
Contributing to its wild growth in the past month, the Panama-based exchange now offers traders sky-high bets of bitcoin reaching $100,000, $200,000 or even $300,000 by December.
At the end of December 2020, Deribit investor and Three Arrows Capital CEO Su Zu predicted that in 2021, "Options markets volume to become over 50% of all crypto derivatives markets." Perpetual cryptocurrency futures markets reported over $190 billion in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.
Concurrent with soaring volume, bitcoin's implied volatility is surging, according to data from Skew. The one-month gauge currently above 135%, its highest level since March 2020 just after bitcoin's crash below $4,000.

Deribit bitcoin options daily volume since Jan. 2020

Ether options, although a significantly smaller market, are experiencing similar growth with a record $264 million traded on Jan. 4, per data from Skew, a more than 2,700% increase from three months ago.
Deribit routinely accounts for over 85% of daily options volume, per Skew data, with OKEx typically the second-largest bitcoin options market representing around 5% of daily volume.
Outside of derivatives markets, all cryptocurrency trading volumes across the board are soaring, with spot markets reaching record levels, even passing 2017's peak, per CoinDesk Research.

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Zack Voell

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