Best Crypto Options Trading Platforms October 2023

Exchange	Assets	Fees	Minimum Order Size
Bybit	BTC, ETH, and SOL	Maker Fees: Starting at 0.03% of the underlying asset valueTaker Fees: Starting at 0.03% of the underlying asset value	BTC: 0.01ETH: 0.01SOL: 0.1
Bit.com	BTC, ETH, BCH	Maker Fees: Starting at 0.02% of the underlying asset valueTaker Fees: Starting at 0.05% of the underlying asset valueDelivery Fees: 0.015% for all options except those with daily expiration dates	0.01 BTC for USD-margined options0.1 BTC, 1 ETH or 1 BCH for token-margined options
Deribit	BTC, ETH, SOL	Maker Fees: Starting at 0.03% of the underlying asset valueTaker Fees: Starting at 0.03% of the underlying asset value	BTC options: 0.1 BTCETH options: 1 ETH
OKX	BTC, ETH, SOL	Maker fees: Starting at 0.02% of the underlying asset valueTaker fees: Starting at 0.03% of the underlying asset valueOptions exercise fee: 0.02% (daily options excluded)	BTC options: 0.01 BTCETH options: 0.1 ETHSOL options: 1 SOL

Want even more data to help you make trading decisions? Check out our guide on the top crypto research tools.

What Are Crypto Options?

Crypto options are contracts that allow you to either buy or sell crypto on some future date for a price that’s agreed upon ahead of time. Options allow traders to make money on price movements, insure against losses, take leveraged positions, and more.

Like traditional options, crypto options unlock advanced trading strategies and greatly increase the ways you can potentially earn with crypto trading. At their core, crypto options are “derivatives” of cryptocurrency assets — meaning they derive their value from the underlying cryptocurrency.

Options are an agreement to either buy or sell a cryptocurrency, such as BTC or ETH, at some point in the future for a certain price. Each option has a price, known as a “premium,” that is normally a fraction of the price of the underlying asset.

Options can either be bought or sold, depending on what side of the trade you want to take. The buyer of the option has to pay the seller a premium for their purchase and gets to choose whether or not they want to exercise the option, while the seller is required to accommodate the buyer if they choose to exercise the option.

“Both futures and options can be used to speculate or hedge crypto, but options provide traders with more flexibility for structuring unique trade setups,” says our expert, Ryan Grace, head of digital assets at tastytrade, which runs the financial network tastylive.com.

How Does Crypto Option Trading Work?

Crypto options are either “calls” or “puts.” Each option has an expiration date and price that the underlying asset can be traded at on the expiration date.

Buying a “call” option gives you the opportunity to buy a crypto like Bitcoin at a certain date in the future for an agreed-upon price. The date in the future is known as the “expiration date,” and the agreed-upon price is known as the “strike price.”

When the expiration date arrives, if the strike price of the call option is lower than what Bitcoin is trading for, you can exercise the option and make money by turning around and immediately selling Bitcoin for a profit.

Buying “put” options works the opposite way — they give you the opportunity to sell an asset like Bitcoin at a given price. If you have a put option and when the expiration date comes, Bitcoin is trading at less than the put option’s strike price, you can make money by purchasing Bitcoin on the open market for a lower price and selling it through your put option for a higher price.

Buying a call or put options contract gives you the right to buy or sell an underlying asset. For most option trades, however, underlying assets such as BTC or ETH rarely change hands. Since the value of the option contract itself is equal to the difference between the strike price and the market price of the underlying asset (such as BTC), most traders will just sell their option position to collect their upside.

For example, if you buy a BTC call option for $1,000 (the option premium) with a strike price of $20,000 and BTC is trading for $25,000 at the expiration date, your call option will have a price (value) of $5,000. You can then sell the call option itself and net a profit of $4,000. This makes trading the options themselves the preferred method due to cost efficiencies when compared with trading the underlying asset.

Each call or put option can either be bought or sold. The above examples are the benefits you receive when buying a call or put option. When selling a call or put, you will receive an option premium from the buyer, which is your immediate upside, but you are obligated to follow through on your option contract. This means you must allow the option buyer to buy the asset from you if it’s a call option or purchase the asset from them yourself if it’s a put option.

It’s important to note that crypto options are different from crypto futures. Buying an option gives you the right but not the obligation to buy or sell the underlying asset, while futures require you to buy or sell the asset once you engage in the contract.

Are Crypto Options Risky?

Crypto’s volatility makes it risker than many asset classes, and crypto options trading can be risker than simpler crypto spot trades.

When you buy a put or a call option, there’s a risk that you may lose the entire options premium (the amount you paid to buy the option). By contrast, with spot trading, the asset price would need to fall to zero to see the same 100% loss on investment.

Crypto Options Trading Vs. Traditional Options Trading

Crypto options work much like traditional options for trading stocks. There are some notable differences, however.

	Price Volatility	Risk	Trading Open	Exchanges
Traditional Options	Lower	Lower	Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time	Usually focus just on traditional options
Crypto Options	High	Higher	24/7	Usually focus just on crypto options

Why Trade Crypto Options?

There are a variety of reasons to trade crypto options. These range from opportunistic speculation to risk management.

“Options provide traders the opportunity to benefit from more than just price speculation. As a trader, you can use options to express a view on volatility or generate yield from the passage of time,” says Ryan Grace at tastytrade.

Traders find options attractive because they can:

• Price Speculation: Trading options is generally used to make leveraged bets on the price of an asset like BTC or ETH. For example, if you buy a BTC call option for $1,000, the option will appreciate in step with the appreciation of Bitcoin. So if BTC appreciates $5,000, your option value will also go up by $5,000. This represents leveraged price exposure. Generally, buying calls is bullish price exposure, while buying puts is bearish price exposure. Beware of leveraged trading, however, as it can just as easily turn against you if the price of the underlying asset goes in the opposite direction.
• Earn Passive Premiums: Selling options gives you an upfront premium that you can receive immediately. There are strategies such as selling covered calls that allow you to earn from premiums regardless of what direction the market moves in.
• Hedging: If you are holding a basket of crypto assets and banking on them appreciating in the long run, it may be worth buying some put options as a hedge just in case the markets don’t go your way. Put options have been described as a form of portfolio insurance.
• Earn Through Volatility: Each option has an “implied volatility” factor which is calculated using an option pricing model that takes into account its strike price, expiration date, and price premium. When volatility is high, options are expensive and when volatility is low, options are cheap. The implied volatility of an option can be used to value the option. If you believe that the implied volatility is low or cheap relative to the actual volatility of the underlying asset, you can buy the option and make the bet that volatility will increase. Selling options is betting that volatility will decrease.

Styles And Types Of Options

While all crypto options are contracts for trading crypto in the future, there are specific options for the right to buy crypto in the future — known as “call” options — and others for the right to sell crypto in the future — known as “put” options.

In addition, there are two types of calls and puts — European and American. European call-and-put options require that the crypto be traded on the exact day the contract expires. In contrast, American options allow trading at any point leading up to and during the day of the contract expiration.

• Calls: Give you the ability to buy a cryptocurrency at some future date for a predetermined price.
• Puts: Give you the ability to sell a cryptocurrency at some future date for a predetermined price.
• European: Can only be exercised on the option’s expiration date.
• American: Can be exercised any time before and/or on the option’s expiration date.

Below is a table describing what rights each type of options contract gives:

	Call Option	Put Option
European	You have the right to buy a cryptocurrency on an exact date.	You have the right to sell a cryptocurrency on an exact date.
American	You have the right to buy a cryptocurrency on any day leading up to and during an exact date.	You have the right to sell a cryptocurrency on any day leading up to and during an exact date.

How Expiration Works

Since crypto options are agreements to potentially trade assets in the future, there must also be a date associated with these contracts for when these trades would take place. This date is called the contract “expiry” date. In European options, if the option is exercised, it must be exactly on the date of the contract expiry. In American options, contracts may be exercised before the expiry date.

For example: If you buy a European call option to buy Bitcoin at $20,000 with an expiry date on November 20th, you are allowed to purchase Bitcoin at a price of $20,000 on November 20th, regardless of what the price of Bitcoin is that day.

How Strike Prices Work

Options give the owner the right to trade crypto at a certain price at some point in the future. This price is known as the “strike price.” Call options allow you to purchase crypto at a certain strike price in the future, while put options allow you to sell crypto for a certain strike price in the future.

For example: If you buy a call option for Bitcoin with a strike price of $30,000 and an expiration date of December 25th, you are allowed to purchase Bitcoin for $30,000 — regardless of what the actual price of Bitcoin is on December 25th. Inversely, if you purchase a put option with a strike price of $30,000, you can sell Bitcoin for that price regardless of what Bitcoin is actually trading for.

Examples Of Buying And Selling Calls

When you buy a call, you are buying the right, but not the obligation, to purchase an asset like Bitcoin for some price in the future. You pay a premium for this, so you start out at a loss but can make money if the price of Bitcoin at the expiration date is above the strike price + the option premium paid.

When you sell a call, you collect a premium upfront, meaning you start out profitable, but you are obligated to sell the asset, such as Bitcoin, on the expiry date if the buyer of the option decides to exercise it.

For example: If you sell a call option for Bitcoin with a strike price of $20,000, you earn a premium, but you are obligated to sell Bitcoin to the option buyer for $20,000. If the price of Bitcoin rises during the option’s lifetime, you will get a bad deal since you have an obligation to sell Bitcoin for a price that’s lower than what you could get if you sold it to the open market.

Examples Of Buying And Selling Puts

When you buy a put, you are buying the right, but not the obligation, to sell an asset like Bitcoin for a predetermined price at some point in the future. You pay a premium here also, so you start out at a loss, and you make money if the market goes down in price.

When you sell a put, you collect a premium upfront, but you are obligated to buy the asset from the option holder if they decide to exercise the option.

For example: If you sell a put option for Bitcoin with a strike price of $20,000, you will earn a premium on it, but you are obligated to purchase Bitcoin from the option buyer for $20,000 regardless of how much Bitcoin trades for on the open market. If the price of Bitcoin falls significantly, this will be a bad deal for you since you are contractually obligated to buy Bitcoin for a higher price than what it’s trading for — resulting in a loss for you.

How Do You Make Money Trading Crypto Options?

Making money in trading crypto options is all dependent on being correct about where the crypto market will move in the future. Crypto options have an associated cost to them known as a “premium” that must be paid in order to purchase them. As a buyer, money is made when the option is traded (or exercised) for more than the option premium you paid. As a seller, money is made when the option expires out of the money or is closed for a lower price than initially sold for, before expiration.

Let’s look at some examples.

A Profitable Example

Let’s say you sell a Bitcoin put option with a strike price of $30,000 and an expiry date of August 21st. To start out, you collect a premium on this option, so you make some money immediately.

On August 21st, the price of Bitcoin has gone up to $34,000. The person who purchased the put option from you will not want to exercise it and sell their Bitcoin to you for $30,000 since they can sell it on the open market for $34,000.

In this case, the option will expire unused, and you will get to keep your collected premium without having to do any more trading, so you have profited from selling a put option.

A Losing Example

Let’s say you purchase a call option for Bitcoin with a strike price of $40,000 and an expiration date of October 9th. You start out at a loss since you pay a premium for the option.

On October 9th, the price of Bitcoin is down to $28,000. Your call option is worthless because it gives you the opportunity to buy Bitcoin at $40,000. That is not useful since you can buy Bitcoin for much cheaper now.

In this scenario, you do not exercise the option, and you lose money since you had to pay the option premium.

Tips For Choosing A Crypto Exchange For Trading Options

When evaluating crypto options trading platforms, there are several important factors to weigh. You might be tempted to focus on fees and pick an exchange with the lowest fees, but this may not always be an optimal strategy. You should also consider:

• Options Offered: Not all crypto options exchanges support the same crypto assets. While most support BTC and ETH, if you’re trading altcoins such as SOL or others, it’s important to make sure the exchange provides options for your coin of choice.
• Fees: Every trade on a crypto exchange has associated costs. Some exchanges only charge transaction fees, while others charge option exercise fees, liquidation fees, and more.
• KYC Requirements: Know-Your-Customer, or crypto KYC, is a process of identity verification that many exchanges are required to use by law. Most crypto options trading platforms will only allow you to trade options after you’ve provided them with documents to verify your identity.
• Payment Options: Some exchanges only support deposits in crypto, while others support deposits in fiat currency. Due to conversion and gas fees, it may be beneficial to consider what payment you will be using before picking an exchange.
• Software Integration: If you want to use an API to make trades, there are exchanges with varying support for automation. Consider this if you’re a more advanced trader.
• Customer Support: When dealing with a lot of money, you want to be sure that your selected exchange has your back. Some exchanges are known for having great customer service, while others are notorious for the opposite.

Crypto Options Terminology

• In The Money (ITM): Options are profitable when they are “in the money.” For a call, this means that the strike price of the option is below the underlying asset’s price — meaning you can make money by buying the asset for the strike price. For a put, this is when the strike price of the option is above the underlying asset’s price — meaning you can make money by selling the asset for the strike price.
• At The Money (ATM): Whenever the strike price of an option — call or put — is the same as the open-market trading value of the underlying asset, the option is considered “at the money.”
• Out Of The Money (OTM): “Out of the money” is the opposite of “in the money,” meaning it’s when an option is not a good deal to exercise. This is when the strike price is higher than the underlying asset price for a call option and when it’s lower than the underlying asset price for a put option.
• USD-Denominated Options: Crypto options can be settled either in the cryptocurrency of the underlying asset (for example, BTC or ETH) or in some USD or stablecoin denomination. Many platforms offer USD-denominated options by default.
• Covered Call: When selling a call option, the call is considered “covered” if you own the underlying asset. Selling covered calls can be a good strategy to earn option premiums without a lot of risk.
• Uncovered Call: You can sell a call option without having to actually own the underlying asset. This is a dangerous strategy since, if the buyer exercises the call option, you are obligated to purchase the asset at whatever price it is trading and sell it to them for the predetermined strike price.
• Option Margin: This is the asset that you must hold in your account in order to sell an option. For example, if you want to sell a BTC call option, the underlying BTC that you promise to sell to the buyer if the option is exercised is known as the option margin.
• Unified Margin: Many platforms will provide margin trading options that allow you to leverage your positions across all assets rather than just levering up on a single asset. This is known as unified margin.
• Portfolio Margin: In order to determine the margin required to sell an option, platforms may look at your portfolio margin, which is simply the risk profile of all your portfolio assets taken together. The lower this risk profile, the less margin is usually required.

The Greeks

• Theta: Options are normally worth less as more time passes. Theta measures how much the price of the option is estimated to change given a 1 day passage of time, all else equal.
• Delta: Delta is a measure of how much the price of an option is estimated to change given a change in the price of the underlying asset, all else equal.
• Gamma: Gamma measures how much the delta of an option will change given a change in the price of the underlying asset. This measures the rate of change of delta, all else equal.
• Vega: Vega measures how much the price of the option is expected to change given a 1% change in volatility, all else equal.

To Sum It Up

Trading options allows you to buy or sell an underlying asset for an agreed-upon price at some future point. This can be done to speculate on the future price or to hedge existing holdings. Crypto options exchanges give you the ability to trade with precision and make larger trades than you’d be able to make with simple spot trading.

Frequently Asked Questions