Bitcoin Bear Makes a High Stakes Options Wager on a Drop to $100,00

A crypto trader has made a bold bet that Bitcoin will drop by at least 8%—falling below $110,000—before early August.

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This high-stakes wager took place on Tuesday, when the unidentified investor paid around $5 million in premiums on the Deribit exchange to purchase put options that expire on August 8, with a strike price of $110,000, according to FalconX, the prime broker that executed the transaction. The trade was split into two parts: one for 3,000 Bitcoin and another for 2,000 Bitcoin. Altogether, the notional value of the deal amounts to roughly $600 million.

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Griffin Sears, global head of derivatives at FalconX in New York, said the transaction appears to be the largest single-leg block trade in U.S. dollar terms in Deribit’s history. “The scale, simplicity, and short-term timeframe of the trade point to a high-conviction bet by an institutional player,” he said. Notably, the trade was executed as a single-leg option—meaning it wasn’t part of a more complex spread strategy—signaling the trader has a strong directional view that Bitcoin’s price will fall.

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Deribit has yet to issue a comment on the trade. While trades like this could be used to express bearish sentiment, they can also function as hedges against price dips or serve as ways to profit from increased market volatility. As of Thursday, Bitcoin’s price hovered around $119,000, showing little movement in response to the trade.

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Even though crypto options markets are still relatively young when compared to traditional finance, the scale and execution of this trade show that institutional investors are becoming more comfortable and confident in using crypto-native derivatives.

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Nicolas Quatravaux, head of EMEA at Paradigm—the leading liquidity network for crypto derivatives—said the deal is important not just because of its size but because it underscores how far the crypto options market has come. “This trade highlights the market’s maturity and depth, showing it can now handle institutional-level flows effectively,” he explained.

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Currently, most of the trading activity in the crypto bull run has been concentrated in derivatives like futures and options, rather than spot markets. On Deribit, open interest—meaning the number of outstanding derivative contracts—has reached record highs. Perpetual futures continue to dominate crypto trading volume globally, far outpacing traditional buying and selling of actual cryptocurrencies.

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Both crypto options and futures are typically settled in cash, meaning investors can speculate on price movements without actually owning any Bitcoin or other tokens. These products also allow traders to use leverage, increasing their exposure with relatively small capital outlays.

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Historically, such derivatives have been primarily traded on offshore platforms like Binance, but that landscape is starting to shift. As regulatory barriers ease, especially in the U.S. following Donald Trump’s return to the presidency—seen as a pro-crypto move—domestic exchanges have begun offering similar instruments.

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In a major step for the U.S. crypto market, Coinbase Global Inc. announced in May that it would acquire Deribit, a move expected to increase access to crypto derivatives for American investors and further legitimize these instruments within traditional financial frameworks.

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The recent blockbuster options trade reinforces a growing trend: crypto derivatives are not only here to stay, but they’re attracting increasingly sophisticated players with deep pockets. Institutional investors, once hesitant to engage with crypto due to regulatory uncertainty and concerns over market infrastructure, are now entering the space more assertively, seeking opportunities in an asset class that offers both volatility and liquidity.

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This latest wager on Bitcoin’s potential decline exemplifies that shift. Whether the bet is ultimately profitable or not, it’s a clear sign that big-money players are embracing the evolving tools of the crypto markets—and they’re doing so with conviction.

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In summary, what was once a niche corner of crypto finance is rapidly evolving into a complex and robust ecosystem capable of accommodating institutional-scale strategies. As more traders adopt advanced derivatives like puts, calls, and perpetual futures, and as regulatory clarity improves in major markets, crypto options are poised to become a key pillar of digital asset investing.

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