BlackRock IBIT Options Open Interest Overtakes Deribit for First Time
Open interest in BlackRock IBIT options reached $27.61B on April 25, edging Deribit's $26.90B BTC options book for the first time and closing the gap with a venue that has run since 2016 in roughly two years.
Options on BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) have for the first time eclipsed Deribit in bitcoin options open interest, a milestone that underscores how quickly U.S.-listed crypto derivatives have absorbed institutional flow.
The numbers
According to CoinDesk, IBIT options open interest hit $27.61 billion on Friday, April 25, narrowly passing Deribit's $26.90 billion in BTC options. Deribit has been running its book since 2016; IBIT options launched roughly two years ago. Spot BTC was around $77,400 at the time of the report.
Positioning and vol
Call positioning on IBIT implies an expectation that the ETF could rally to a level equivalent to BTC trading near $109,709, about 41% above spot, while Deribit's call structure is more measured, pointing to roughly $106,000. IBIT's implied volatility runs richer than Deribit's, which Volmex attributes to a structural quirk: ETF holders cannot easily short BTC directly, so they buy puts as their primary hedge, keeping IBIT's vol surface elevated.
The Read
This is the cleanest data point yet that BTC derivatives are moving onshore, into regulated, exchange-listed venues. The spillovers matter: tighter dealer hedging in IBIT pulls liquidity into U.S. trading hours, deepens the U.S. put market for downside protection, and gives every TradFi allocator a familiar tape to risk-manage against. Deribit isn't going away — perps and altcoins still anchor it — but the center of gravity for BTC vol is shifting west.
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