BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF options made a historic debut, recording nearly $1.9 billion in notional value traded on the first day. Jeff Park, Head of Alpha Strategies at Bitwise Invest, shared his detailed observations on X , highlighting key takeaways from the inaugural trading day.
“Today marks the historic Day 1 of BTC ETF options launch. It did not disappoint, with over $1.86Bn in notional traded!” Park exclaimed. He provided a thread outlining the top 10 most interesting observations he made during the day.
BlackRock’s Historic Bitcoin ETF Options Day 1
Park noted that the market quickly established a “volatility smile” by 9:45 AM, which persisted and widened as the day progressed. “In fact, the smile got even wider throughout the day, finishing with higher wings by EoD,” he observed.
Analyzing the BVIV Index from Volmex Finance, Park highlighted that the implied volatility (IV) movements did not align predictably with Bitcoin’s price trajectory. “More interestingly, it did NOT match the upward sloping BTC price movement (then down) in a predictable way,” he commented.
The most heavily traded contract was the 01/17/24 C55 call option, exceeding 40,000 contracts. Park pointed out that this contract had already surpassed the position limit of 25,000. “As I shared yesterday, the 25k limit is too small relative to the deep liquidity IBIT has demonstrated over the months,” he stated.
Park was particularly intrigued by the 12/20/24 C100 call option, which he described as “a true lottery ticket.” Trading at an implied volatility of 105% and with a delta of just 3%, this option saw heavy volume early in the trading day. “The implied vol cleared at 105%. Even more interesting was how heavy the volume was at the first hour of the market open. It means a serious investor was loading it up at 10AM, and the price steadily increased with vol getting bid up. This was likely the been the biggest vega opportunity of the day,” he explained.
The overall put/call ratio stood at approximately 0.23, indicating a strong preference for call options over puts. “However, what is even more interesting is if you segment it by Expiry Date,” Park noted. Longer-dated expiries, such as the January 2026/2027 contracts, exhibited an even lower put/call ratio of 0.08. “That means there is roughly a 10x imbalance for upside,” he emphasized, highlighting a extremely bullish sentiment.
Contrary to some expectations, MicroStrategy‘s (MSTR) options trading remained robust despite the launch of IBIT options. “MSTR’s vol decoupled with Bitcoin meaningfully in the last hour, where it closed even higher than where we started in the day,” Park observed. “MSTR is in its own league,” he concluded, indicating that the company’s stock continues to attract its own distinct investor base.
Looking ahead, Park mentioned the upcoming launch of BITB options. “It will be another option chain alongside IBIT and others for investors to consider before buying/selling and determining where the best value may lie,” he said. Park expressed conviction that non-institutional trading would gravitate toward non-IBIT ETFs, potentially offering more opportunities for professional retail investors.
Bloomberg ETF expert James Seyffart provided additional insights, confirming the monumental trading volumes. “Final tally of IBIT’s 1st day of options is just shy of $1.9 billion in notional exposure traded via 354k contracts. 289k were Calls & 65k were Puts. That’s a ratio of 4.4:1,” Seyffart shared on X. He suggested that these options likely contributed to Bitcoin reaching new all-time highs during the day.
When crypto analyst James Van Straten queried about the notional target and position limits, Seyffart acknowledged the constraints. “25k position limit is likely a weight on volume and Open Interest for [the] foreseeable future,” he responded. Regarding the rationale behind the limits, Seyffart explained, “Not standard—no. But the SEC and CFTC were definitely worried about market manipulation etc. Was part of the requirement to get approved!”
At press time, BTC traded at $93,404.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
