BlackRock’s IBIT Overtakes Deribit as Top Bitcoin Options Venue
Open interest in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) options reached nearly $38 billion following Friday’s expiry, surpassing Deribit, which had long dominated BTC options markets with $32 billion. This milestone comes less than a year after IBIT options launched in November, signaling the growing influence of institutional capital in crypto derivatives.
IBIT, already the world’s largest spot bitcoin ETF with $84 billion in assets, has quickly become a magnet for institutional flows, bringing liquidity into U.S.-regulated markets. Deribit, acquired by Coinbase for $2.9 billion in August, remains popular with crypto-native traders, but IBIT’s rise highlights a structural shift toward regulated, institutional-focused trading.
Checkonchain data shows IBIT’s leverage ratio at 45%, near record highs. The ETF holds 770,000 BTC, with 340,000 BTC in options open interest—nearly half of its holdings mirrored in derivatives, illustrating the scale of speculative positioning linked to the fund.
IBIT now commands 45% of global BTC options open interest, overtaking Deribit at 41.9%, while CME accounts for only 6%. Together, IBIT and Deribit represent almost 90% of the bitcoin options market, showing the concentration of trading activity in these two venues.
The development points to two trends: IBIT’s rapid growth is reshaping BTC derivatives, and traditional institutional platforms like CME remain small compared to ETF-driven and retail-focused exchanges.
