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While the international scene for crypto derivatives seemed to hit the brakes last month, the Panama-based Deribit Exchange tells a different tale. The exchange, which specializes in derivatives like options, futures, and perpetual futures, has reported a spike in trading volumes. According to their recent monthly report, Deribit had a total trading volume of $42 billion in August. This is a 17% rise compared to July’s numbers, running counter to the global decline of 12.1% in the same period, which totaled around $1.6 trillion.
Deribit's success last month mainly stems from a robust options segment. The exchange dominates the global market for crypto options, holding nearly 90% share. Luuk Strijers, the chief commercial officer of Deribit, credited the surge to a robust performance in Ethereum (ETH) options. ETH options volumes were at their highest since March this year. Bitcoin (BTC), despite its volatile pricing between $25,000 and $30,000, also showed resilience. Strijers mentioned that Bitcoin’s initial strength came from its role as a hedge in the banking system back in March, which is now further fortified by an upcoming ETF decision.
Options, for those unfamiliar, are contracts that provide the buyer an option but not an obligation, to purchase or offload an asset at a predetermined price later on. In the case of Deribit, this strong demand was evident. The exchange's Bitcoin Implied Volatility Index and its Ethereum equivalent showed a noticeable uptick from their historical lows, surging to 53% and 50%, respectively.
Last month, more than 5.6 million ETH option contracts changed hands on the exchange. At Ethereum’s current market value of $1,627, that would be around $9 billion. These numbers are the highest since March. As for Bitcoin, about 700,000 BTC options contracts were traded. It’s worth noting that a single options contract on Deribit represents one unit of the respective cryptocurrency, whether it be Ethereum or Bitcoin.
