Original | Odaily Planet Daily
Author | jk
On Tuesday, November 19, local time in the United States, the options trading of the spot Bit ETF officially went live on the Nasdaq, also pushing the price of Bit to a new all-time high.
The iShares Bit Trust Fund (IBIT) of BlackRock is the first spot Bit ETF to be approved for options trading, with a notional exposure of nearly $1.9 billion on the first day of trading. Previously, it was reported that this ETF was approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for options trading on September 20.
"The final trading statistics for the first day of $IBIT options trading were 354,000 contracts, with a notional exposure of nearly $1.9 billion. Of these, call options were 289,000 and put options were 65,000, a ratio of 4.4:1. These options trades can almost certainly be considered one of the main drivers of Bit's new high today," said James Seyffart, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, on X.
His colleague, analyst Eric Balchunas, said, "The $1.9 billion in first-day trading volume is unprecedented. For comparison, BITO (the ProShares Bit Strategy ETF, i.e. the Bit futures ETF) had $363 million in first-day trading volume, and it's been around for four years. In addition, the contract limit for IBIT options is 25,000. But even so, $1.9 billion is not considered 'massive', for example, the trading volume of the gold ETF (GLD) today was $5 billion, but it may grow further in the next few days or weeks."
He also said, "Especially the C100 options expiring on December 20, which are basically betting that the price of Bit will double within a month."
According to Coingecko data, Bit reached an all-time high at noon local time, with a peak price of $94,040.
Bit's 24-hour trend. Source: Coingecko
Market Voices
According to The Block, market structure expert Dennis Dick expects that as the options trading of the spot Bit ETF rises, the volatility of Bit will actually decrease. "As the number of open contracts increases, the two sides of the market will form natural buyers and sellers... This will increase market depth, improve liquidity, and thus reduce volatility," Dick said.
Nate Geraci, president of ETF Store, predicts that there will be a new wave of ETF applications. "As I mentioned before, Bit options strategy-based ETF applications are now expected to increase," Geraci said on social media. "Including Bit ETFs covering call strategies, buffer Bit ETFs, tail risk Bit ETFs, and convex Bit ETFs."
Meanwhile, according to The Block, Grayscale quickly filed an updated prospectus for a Bit covered call ETF. The fund will provide exposure to GBTC and Bit by purchasing option contracts on Bit ETP and generate returns.
"Grayscale is excited that the options trading of GBTC and Bit is about to begin... further developing the ecosystem around our US-listed Bit ETP," said David LaValle, Global ETF Head of Grayscale Investments. "The market demand for Bit ETP is unprecedented, and the Grayscale team is proud to provide a range of Bit products, promoting investor choice, including the lowest-cost Bit ETP, and making exposure to Bit and the crypto asset class more accessible."
Bitwise and Grayscale's Bit ETF options will start trading tomorrow, and Odaily Planet Daily will continue to follow up and report on this.
