Blab Crypto
IBIT Options Reach $53 B Open Interest, Matching Crypto-Native Deribit
In November 2024, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) launched a regulated options market that quickly grew to rival the crypto‑native derivatives exchange Deribit. A joint study by MerQube and Kaiko shows that IBIT options peaked at $53.3 billion in open interest, nearly matching Deribit’s $50 billion peak by December 2025. The research also documents a convergence of volatility surfaces across the two venues, indicating that Bitcoin risk is now priced on both TradFi and crypto rails.
IBIT was introduced as a regulated exchange‑traded fund that tracks Bitcoin’s price. Its options market began trading in November 2024, and within months the product attracted institutional interest. Deribit, which has long dominated Bitcoin derivatives trading, had been the largest venue for Bitcoin options. The MerQube‑Kaiko analysis, covering the full 2025 calendar year, compares pricing data from both exchanges and shows how the two markets evolved in parallel.
Regulatory changes accelerated the growth of the IBIT options market. In July 2025 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission increased the position limit for IBIT options from 25,000 to 250,000 contracts, a ten‑fold expansion. The introduction of FLEX options and clearer rules for supervised institutions further broadened the participant base and deepened liquidity. These structural shifts are reflected in the market’s pricing dynamics.
One key metric that illustrates the market’s evolution is the call‑to‑put ratio. At launch the ratio was 4.3:1, indicating a strong directional bias. By year‑end the ratio had fallen to 1.8:1, and during the April tariff shock it dipped to 1.56:1. The decline signals a shift from speculative trading toward hedging activity within a single calendar year.
The volatility surfaces of IBIT and Deribit diverged for much of 2025 but converged by late September. At‑the‑money implied volatility tracked closely across both venues throughout the year. The skew gap – the premium traders paid for protection against a Bitcoin crash – peaked on July 1, with IBIT at 33.4 % and Deribit at 18.1 %. By late September the gap narrowed to within 0.2 percentage points. The December unwind of open interest occurred in lockstep on both platforms, a signal that price discovery is functioning across the TradFi/crypto divide.
In late 2025 the relationship reversed for the first time: Deribit’s skew briefly exceeded IBIT’s. The study interprets this as a possible migration of the structural crash‑risk premium toward the crypto‑native market as TradFi infrastructure matures. Until mid‑2025, IBIT priced crash protection at a significant premium to Deribit, nearly double the relative downside premium at its peak. Practitioners who used Deribit’s volatility surface as a proxy for IBIT risk were therefore exposed to a meaningful gap in tail pricing.
While structural differences remain – trading hours, exercise style, and settlement mechanics vary between the two venues – the recent convergence indicates that institutional and Wall Street investors now influence Bitcoin options pricing as much as crypto‑native players. The research notes that the speed at which IBIT scaled to rival Deribit in open interest is unprecedented for a regulated U.S. options product.
"The speed at which IBIT scaled to rival Deribit in open interest is without precedent for a regulated US options product. Whilst this research shows scale alone does not create uniformity: these two venues still reflect different participant bases, regulatory environments, and structural mechanics," said Uday Goel, Global Lead, Research & Origination at MerQube.
Thomas Probst, Research Analyst at Kaiko, added, "As institutional participation in bitcoin options grows across both regulated and crypto‑native venues, understanding how each market prices risk is essential for robust portfolio construction. With IBIT options reaching USD53.3 billion in peak open interest in under a year, this research shows how quickly regulated and crypto‑native Bitcoin options markets have become comparable."
The convergence of volatility surfaces and the rapid scaling of IBIT options suggest that Bitcoin risk is no longer confined to crypto‑native platforms. Institutional investors now have comparable tools in both TradFi and crypto markets, but they must account for structural differences when building option strategies. The study highlights that while open interest and pricing have aligned, regulatory and operational distinctions remain significant. The next steps for market participants will involve monitoring how these dynamics evolve as further regulatory clarity arrives and as both venues continue to develop their product offerings.
IBIT was introduced as a regulated exchange‑traded fund that tracks Bitcoin’s price. Its options market began trading in November 2024, and within months the product attracted institutional interest. Deribit, which has long dominated Bitcoin derivatives trading, had been the largest venue for Bitcoin options. The MerQube‑Kaiko analysis, covering the full 2025 calendar year, compares pricing data from both exchanges and shows how the two markets evolved in parallel.
Regulatory changes accelerated the growth of the IBIT options market. In July 2025 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission increased the position limit for IBIT options from 25,000 to 250,000 contracts, a ten‑fold expansion. The introduction of FLEX options and clearer rules for supervised institutions further broadened the participant base and deepened liquidity. These structural shifts are reflected in the market’s pricing dynamics.
One key metric that illustrates the market’s evolution is the call‑to‑put ratio. At launch the ratio was 4.3:1, indicating a strong directional bias. By year‑end the ratio had fallen to 1.8:1, and during the April tariff shock it dipped to 1.56:1. The decline signals a shift from speculative trading toward hedging activity within a single calendar year.
The volatility surfaces of IBIT and Deribit diverged for much of 2025 but converged by late September. At‑the‑money implied volatility tracked closely across both venues throughout the year. The skew gap – the premium traders paid for protection against a Bitcoin crash – peaked on July 1, with IBIT at 33.4 % and Deribit at 18.1 %. By late September the gap narrowed to within 0.2 percentage points. The December unwind of open interest occurred in lockstep on both platforms, a signal that price discovery is functioning across the TradFi/crypto divide.
In late 2025 the relationship reversed for the first time: Deribit’s skew briefly exceeded IBIT’s. The study interprets this as a possible migration of the structural crash‑risk premium toward the crypto‑native market as TradFi infrastructure matures. Until mid‑2025, IBIT priced crash protection at a significant premium to Deribit, nearly double the relative downside premium at its peak. Practitioners who used Deribit’s volatility surface as a proxy for IBIT risk were therefore exposed to a meaningful gap in tail pricing.
While structural differences remain – trading hours, exercise style, and settlement mechanics vary between the two venues – the recent convergence indicates that institutional and Wall Street investors now influence Bitcoin options pricing as much as crypto‑native players. The research notes that the speed at which IBIT scaled to rival Deribit in open interest is unprecedented for a regulated U.S. options product.
"The speed at which IBIT scaled to rival Deribit in open interest is without precedent for a regulated US options product. Whilst this research shows scale alone does not create uniformity: these two venues still reflect different participant bases, regulatory environments, and structural mechanics," said Uday Goel, Global Lead, Research & Origination at MerQube.
Thomas Probst, Research Analyst at Kaiko, added, "As institutional participation in bitcoin options grows across both regulated and crypto‑native venues, understanding how each market prices risk is essential for robust portfolio construction. With IBIT options reaching USD53.3 billion in peak open interest in under a year, this research shows how quickly regulated and crypto‑native Bitcoin options markets have become comparable."
The convergence of volatility surfaces and the rapid scaling of IBIT options suggest that Bitcoin risk is no longer confined to crypto‑native platforms. Institutional investors now have comparable tools in both TradFi and crypto markets, but they must account for structural differences when building option strategies. The study highlights that while open interest and pricing have aligned, regulatory and operational distinctions remain significant. The next steps for market participants will involve monitoring how these dynamics evolve as further regulatory clarity arrives and as both venues continue to develop their product offerings.
