Grayscale to Launch Bitcoin ETF Options Following BlackRock’s Record Debut – Decrypt

Crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments plans to roll out options trading on its spot Bitcoin ETFs on Wednesday amid the first glimpses of solid investor appetite for such products.

The announcement comes a day after BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) achieved record-breaking activity on its first day of options trading, pushing Bitcoin to a new all-time high.

Grayscale will launch options trading on GBTC (Grayscale Bitcoin Trust) and BTC (Bitcoin Mini Trust) to “further [develop] the ecosystem around our US-listed Bitcoin ETPs,” it said.

Following the Options Clearing Corporation’s (OCC) approval of Bitcoin ETF options, Grayscale quickly filed an updated prospectus for its Bitcoin Covered Call ETF on January 11.

The tooling aims to generate income by employing a covered call strategy—writing and buying options contracts on Bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs) while holding Bitcoin or GBTC as collateral.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Seyffart called attention to the speed of Grayscale’s response following the OCC’s clearance, tweeting Tuesday that the asset manager was “wasting no time.”

“They’ve filed an updated prospectus for their Bitcoin Covered Call ETF,” Seyffart tweeted. “The fund will offer exposure to $GBTC & $BTC while writing &/or buying options contracts on Bitcoin ETPs for income.”

Grayscale follows the unprecedented debut of BlackRock’s IBIT options, which recorded nearly $1.9 billion in notional exposure traded on its first day

Seyffart shared details on X, observing that 354,000 contracts were exchanged, including 289,000 calls and 65,000 puts, representing a 4.4:1 call-to-put ratio.

The ratio indicates that a significantly larger number of investors placed bets on Bitcoin’s price rise (calls) compared to those hedging against a potential price drop (puts). 

“These options were almost certainly part of the move to the new Bitcoin all-time highs today,” Seyffart wrote, referring to Bitcoin’s surge to $94,041 on Tuesday.

Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas characterized the $1.9 billion trading volume as “unheard of” for any given options trading within an ETF during its first day.

“$For context, BITO did $363 million, and that’s been around for four years,” Balchunas wrote on X, referring to ProShares’ futures Bitcoin ETF.

Roughly 73,000 options contracts were traded in the first 60 minutes, placing IBIT among the top 20 most active non-index options on its opening day.

Grayscale’s launch comes a year after its major legal victory against the SEC. Last August, the U.S. Court of Appeals ordered the SEC to revisit its denial of Grayscale’s application to convert its Bitcoin Trust into a spot ETF.

This ruling was a turning point for crypto ETFs, challenging regulatory resistance that had stalled their approvals for nearly a decade.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair