2026-01-19 13:36:37

Interesting divergence has emerged in the Bitcoin derivatives market. Since the beginning of the year, futures open interest (OI)( has rebounded by 13%, but it has fallen again in the fourth quarter, currently stabilizing at 314,000 BTC. More notably, the options market OI has surpassed that of futures — $75 billion compared to $61 billion in futures.

Where are the market participants? The $100,000 strike price has become a trading hotspot, with the Deribit platform alone accumulating $2 billion in open interest. What signals does this reveal? — Institutions and large traders are adjusting their strategies. They are gradually shifting from pure directional futures trading to options hedging strategies, clearly aiming to hedge against extreme volatility risks. In other words, the market is becoming more cautious, and the increasing calls for reducing the risk of liquidation are becoming more prominent.

BTC-5.11%

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WhaleSurfer

· 01-19 22:02

Bro, options are getting more and more attractive. Big players are shifting their positions. Institutions are afraid of blowing up, while retail investors are still going all-in. That’s the gap. The $100,000 price level is tightly locked, feels like there’s a mole. Deribit alone has absorbed 2 billion, that’s really intense. Risk prevention, risk prevention. Everyone is thinking about avoiding extreme market conditions, but how do extreme conditions come about? Options open interest has surpassed futures, the pace has changed. Watching institutions gradually reduce leverage, I know exactly when to wake up. Switching to hedging? Or fleeing? Not quite sure which.

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GasFeeTears

· 01-19 15:05

Options have surpassed futures? This is the taste of a mature market.

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ZkSnarker

· 01-19 14:06

okay so options are finally eating futures' lunch... institutions doing the sensible thing for once, actually hedging instead of just YOLO-ing directional bets. imagine if this was the baseline behavior instead of the exception lol

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GasWaster

· 01-19 14:04

Options are surpassing futures, and big players are hedging. What does that mean? It just shows they're all scared.

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BridgeNomad

· 01-19 13:53

options quietly eating futures' lunch rn... $750B vs $610B, the shift's real. deribit's 10k strike concentration tho—that's what happens when ppl finally learn from bridge collapses and cascading liquidations. smart money's done with directional yolo, hedging structures are the play now. risk-adjusted returns > rekt accounts, period.

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DaoResearcher

· 01-19 13:47

Hmm, this data is quite interesting. What does the options surpassing futures indicate? Institutions are starting to hedge, probably to avoid being caught in a one-sided market. From the perspective of Token economics, this is a rebalancing of the market risk appetite function. To verify this hypothesis, we need to look at the flow data of large wallets on the chain. The $2 billion in Deribit is concentrated at the $100,000 strike price. According to game theory, it's clearly building a defensive line. The conclusion is that the incentive mechanism for market participants is shifting from "bet on the right direction for quick profits" to "reducing losses from extreme events." This paradigm shift warrants in-depth study.

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