Bitcoin (BTC) Makes New All-Time High of $94,000 as ETF Options Go Live

Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds options are making solid volume on their first day.

Bitcoin (BTC) price hit a new all-time high (ATH) on Tuesday as Wall Street rolled out a new product bound to increase the digital currency’s accessibility among financial institutions – options trading on spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

At press time, the leading crypto was trading above $94,000, up over 4% over the past 24 hours. This breaks its previous record of $93,450, set on Nov. 13.

Meanwhile, the CoinDesk 20 – an index of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization excluding stablecoins, memecoins, and exchange tokens – rose by about 0.3%. The index's biggest gainer was Hedera (HBAR), up 9%, while the biggest loser was Polkadot (DOT), down 0.8%.

Options contracts give investors the right to buy or sell an asset at a particular price and by a pre-determined time. While the CME already offers bitcoin options, the spot bitcoin ETF options are a big deal for retail participants and financial institutions, according to Noelle Acheson, former head of market insights at Genesis.

“A deeper onshore derivatives market will enhance the growing market sophistication,” Acheson wrote on Substack. “This will reinforce investor confidence in the asset, bringing in new cohorts while enabling a greater variety of investment and trading strategies.”

“Institutions will be attracted to the greater flexibility and access to high-volume exposure,” Acheson added. “Options offer deeper granularity in expressing an investment opinion, and can boost exposure relative to outlay, making them especially attractive to large players.”

Out of the eleven U.S.-based spot bitcoin ETFs, only one – BlackRock's IBIT – has options available for now, and the demand has been strong.

“A few hundred million so far in options volume on IBIT (a ton for day one),” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wrote on Twitter. Balchunas further noted that the vast majority of the contracts were calls, indicating bets that bitcoin's price will continue to rise.