Arbitrum Put Options Let Traders Bet on First Day Price Action

Arbitrum (ARB) token derivative markets are popping up on centralized and decentralized exchanges ahead of Thursday’s airdrop.

Decentralized marketplace Clober is letting traders purchase puts on ARB with strike prices of 50 cents, $1, $2, $4, $8 and $16. These have cumulatively seen over $50,000 in trading volumes in the past 24 hours after issuance.

Put options are a type of option that increases in value as the price of the underlying asset, such as a token or equity, falls.

“$ARB $2 put options are sold for 54 cents,” Clober said Tuesday. “By paying 54 cents, you can buy the right to sell your $ARB tokens for $2 at any time within 24 hours of claiming your $ARB airdrop.”

“That guarantees $1.46 of profit per $ARB on claim day,” Clober added.

The put options have an expiry date of March 24, or a day after the claim event. This effectively means the options allow traders to bet on the first-day price action of ARB when trading goes live.

ARB price action is expected to be significantly volatile on the first day. Arbitrum developers confirmed last week that ARB will be airdropped to community members on Thursday, March 23, based on their prior network activity, marking Arbitrum’s official transition into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

While the tokens have been much awaited in investor circles for gaining exposure to the Arbitrum ecosystem, the first day of trading might see dynamic price action as some holders dump their tokens to take “free” profits, while others take longer term positions.

The spot tokens are not claimable or actively traded on any exchange as of Tuesday, but futures products offered by the likes of Hotbit and BitMEX are already trading millions of dollars' worth each day, as CoinDesk reported.

ARB futures are seeing a lot of volatility. Hotbit’s Arbitrum IOU tokens have fallen 32% in the past 24 hours, per CoinGecko data, after reaching highs of $12 on Monday night. On the other hand, BitMEX's ARB futures trade at $1.40 at writing time on Tuesday.