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    BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust options launch on Nasdaq with record trading, hitting $44 billion market cap despite regulatory limits

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    BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) options debuted on Nasdaq with over $2 billion in options trading a day before rivals, achieving a market cap of $44 billion and over $4 billion in trades. However, regulators have imposed a 25,000 contract position limit on the ETF options, significantly less than the financial world norm of about 7%. Despite this, Bitcoin hit record highs of over $94,000 and data from Glassnode shows over $40 billion in options open interest. The U.S. Bitcoin ETFs reported a net inflow of $816.4 million, reaching a net inflow of $28.5 billion.

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    So, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) options kicked off on Nasdaq recently and they’re already killing it. They got out of the gate a day before other folks and clocked over $2 billion in options trading, which is Ba-na-nas! All up, its market cap is $44 billion, and they made over $4 billion in trades. Not too shabby for a newbie.

    Now, compared to old-timers like SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (QQQ), and iShares Russell 2000ETF (IWM), who’ve got much bigger market caps, this is still small. But, Eric Balchunas, a big guy at Bloomberg ETF, thinks they’re off to a good start.

    Eric figures that making $1.9 billion in the first day is pretty unheard of. To put that in context, BITO made a third of that, and they’ve had four years of practice. But, he’s quick to add that $1.9 billion isn’t quite top-dog just yet.

    Here’s where it gets interesting though. The folks who approved these bitcoin ETF options have slapped a 25,000 contract position limit on it. That basically means that a player can only manage a max of 25,000 contracts at a time. That’s quite strict compared to what’s generally allowed in financial circles.

    Ask Jeff Park, the alpha strategies chief at Bitwise. He reckons the ETFs got stiffed. You see, the option contracts that can convert to real shares amount to less than 0.5% of IBIT’s outstanding shares. According to Park, the norm is about 7% in the finance world.

    Now, even with roadblocks, BTC still managed to hit record highs yesterday, topping $94,000. Additionally, data from Glassnode says that there’s over $40 billion in options open interest. Small fry compared to futures with their $60 billion interest, but these new options could give them a run for their money.

    After these U.S. bitcoin ETFs made the news, they pulled in a net inflow of $816.4 million, according to Farside, setting the net inflow at a big $28.5 billion.

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