Coinbase options surge as traders bet on crypto rebound

Bitcoin reached its highest level since mid-June on Tuesday, but the most aggressive bets on a continued rally are playing out in the equity options market. While the S&P 500 has been effectively flat for five sessions, traders are pouring capital into call contracts on cryptocurrency-linked stocks.

Coinbase Global is the focal point of this optimism. By midday Tuesday, the exchange operator had seen over $100 million in options premium change hands, with $80 million of that tied to call contracts. The highest volume contract was the $190-strike call expiring Friday, a bet that requires the stock to rally 7.5% in a matter of days to reach profitability.

This bullish positioning extends to other retail trading infrastructure. Robinhood Markets saw 170,000 total options contracts traded, with 125,000 of those being calls. Data from ThinkOrSwim showed investors bought six calls for every put on the brokerage stock.

The sentiment is also visible in the underlying assets and proxy companies. In the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), traders bought more than twice as many calls as puts, though higher call selling tempered the overall stance to neutral-to-bullish. Notably, Michael Saylor’s Strategy, a bitcoin treasury company that has suffered a 75% decline over the past year, also saw call buying double put buying.

For market professionals, this options flow represents a high-conviction, short-term wager on the decoupling of crypto assets from broader equity malaise. The heavy concentration on out-of-the-money, near-dated calls on Coinbase and Robinhood suggests traders anticipate a sudden volatility squeeze or price spike rather than a gradual recovery. If the underlying crypto prices sustain their momentum, these leveraged proxy positions stand to deliver outsized returns. However, if the mid-June highs mark a resistance level rather than a breakout, the rapid time decay on these Friday contracts will quickly erode their value.