Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has opened Bitcoin Options writing to all, allowing retail traders to sell risk for the first time.
Options contracts can be of two types. A “call” gives the holder the right to buy the asset and typically corresponds to a bullish bet. Meanwhile, a “put” grants the right to sell, often signaling a bearish sentiment.
On Binance, retail users could so far only buy Bitcoin Options contracts, but following the latest launch, they can now also “write” the contracts. That is, they can now create and sell them to other traders.
Whenever a trader writes a contract, the buyer has to pay a premium in exchange. This premium represents an upfront income for the writer and gives the purchaser the right to exercise the option under the agreed terms.
If the market moves in the favor of the contract holder, the writer may be forced to take an unfavorable trade and incur a loss. On the other hand, if the purchaser loses the bet, the option expires unused and the writer keeps the premium as profit.
In order to access Options writing, traders will need to upgrade their accounts to the Options Long & Short Sell trading mode. For now, only BTC is available to all users, while ETH, BNB, XRP, SOL, and DOGE remain restricted to selected traders.
With this transaction, the network saw the movement of 1,000 BTC inactive since between seven and ten years ago, worth $114 million today. In another post, the analyst has explained using a chart what relevance transfers involving dormant tokens like this one have for the market.
From the graph, it’s visible that spikes in transfers of old Bitcoin have historically reflected elevated distribution on the network.
Bitcoin has broken out of its recent sideways range with a downward move that has brought its price to $114,300.