June’s $300K Bitcoin Call Option Booms as Traders Chase Upside — Is Speculation Overheating?
The soaring popularity of the June expiry $300,000 bitcoin call option highlights aggressive speculative bets on a dramatic price surge, according to Lin Chen of Deribit.
Earlier this month, CoinDesk reported a growing demand for Deribit’s $300K bitcoin (BTC $109,386.16) call option, marking it as one of the hottest bullish plays ahead of the critical June quarterly expiry. Now, that position has cemented itself as the most heavily traded contract for the upcoming expiry, earning a reputation as a “lottery ticket” for traders betting on bitcoin skyrocketing past $300,000 within the next month.
At the time of writing, the $300K call expiring on June 27 holds the highest open interest for that expiry date, with notional open interest exceeding $600 million — up significantly from $484 million three weeks ago, per Deribit data. (Notional open interest represents the total dollar value of active contracts; on Deribit, one options contract equals one bitcoin.)
“The June $300K call options are currently the strike with the largest open interest, signaling aggressive speculative positioning by traders expecting further upside,” Lin Chen, Head of Asia Business Development at Deribit, told CoinDesk.
Chen noted that record-breaking volume combined with concentrated options bets points to elevated market confidence but also hints at potential volatility ahead.
Deribit’s total options notional open interest recently hit an all-time high of $42.5 billion, with its newly launched block RFQ (Request for Quote) system hitting nearly $1 billion in daily volume — another sign of growing market activity.
A call option gives its buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase bitcoin at a set price by a specific date, making it an inherently bullish instrument.
The $300,000 strike price for the June 27 expiry represents an ambitious wager that bitcoin’s price will nearly triple from around $110,000 today to surpass $300,000 before July. While this may sound far-fetched given the short timeframe — about four weeks until expiry — such bold bets have become increasingly common on Deribit, with traders targeting short-term upside.
This trend is also reflected in “front-end risk reversals” — a metric comparing demand for call options versus put options over short durations — which have recently become more expensive than longer-term equivalents. Typically, the opposite occurs.
Amberdata’s chart confirms risk reversals are positive across the board, demonstrating a strong market bias toward bullish calls, especially in the near term.
This heightened appetite for fast-moving bullish trades coincides with the Bitcoin Conference 2025 kicking off in Las Vegas, where many expect announcements that could fuel further optimism, Chen explained.
A Contrarian Warning
However, not all analysts are convinced this bullish fervor is healthy. Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, warned the surge in short-dated call demand may actually signal speculative excess often seen near market peaks.
Thielen pointed out that seven-day call options are trading at a 10% premium to puts, indicating traders are aggressively chasing upside without adequate downside hedging.
“The options market is flashing a warning sign,” Thielen said. “Bitcoin’s skew — the difference in implied volatility between puts and calls — has plunged to nearly -10%, meaning calls are pricing in much higher volatility than puts.”
He added, “Such extreme skew levels usually coincide with peak bullish sentiment and often serve as a classic contrarian indicator that a market top may be near.”
