Options Market Update
Latest data shows BTC implied volatility (IV) holding around 51%, while ETH IV remains elevated at around 74%. In traditional markets, gold and crude oil volatility indices stand at approximately 41.9% and 89.35%, respectively. In percentile terms, BTC and ETH IV have edged lower but remain above the 80th percentile, while gold and oil vol have declined approximately 14% and 38% from recent highs. This suggests that extreme macro and geopolitical risk expectations have eased, though overall pricing remains relatively elevated on a historical basis.
Over the past week, BTC skew dropped sharply from around -5 to below -10, indicating strong demand for downside protection and a brief spike in market panic. It has since rebounded to around -6, suggesting hedging demand has eased and the market has returned to a mildly neutral-to-bullish structure. Overall, this move appears to be a short-term, event-driven shock rather than a structural bearish shift.
The current GEX term structure shows a clear front-loaded profile, with a significant positive gamma peak of around 5 million near the March 27 expiry. This suggests that market makers are in a strong positive gamma regime, where prices are more likely to be pinned and volatility suppressed in the short term. As expiry approaches or rolls off, the removal of gamma support could lead to a renewed expansion in volatility.
Block Trade Structure
In the past 24 hours, the largest BTC and ETH options block trades are as follows:
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BTC: Long BTC-27MAR26-70000-P / Short BTC-27MAR26-65000-P, total size ~525 BTC, with a net premium outlay of approximately $430,000.
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ETH: Long ETH-25DEC26-1700-P / Short ETH-25DEC26-3200-C, total size ~15,000 ETH, with a net premium income of approximately $11,000.
Options combination strategies can be executed via the portfolio trading tool available on Gate.
Gate has officially launched Gold and Crude Oil Options, marking a new era of multi-asset options trading. Building on support for 11 crypto asset options, the platform has introduced traditional asset underlyings for the first time, offering users more opportunities for cross-market volatility trading. The symbol for Gold options is XAUT, and for Crude Oil options is XTI. Amid rising global macro volatility, gold and oil — as core Commodity Assets — provide traders with new tools for volatility trading and risk management.
Options trading portal: https://www.gate.com/options/BTC_USDT
