What Are the Big Options Players Buying?
Every option trade leaves a print: who paid premium, for which strike, at what volatility. Single prints can be noise, but the large ones, and the direction premium flows day after day, show where sophisticated money positions itself. This tape tracks the biggest prints and the daily call-versus-put premium balance.
In the last 24 hours, traders paid $2.45M for call options and $1.51M for put options on Bitcoin. Largest print: $488K of premium for the BTC 26MAR27 $65K calls.
Which side is premium flowing to?
Taker-bought premium per day: green bars are call buying (upside), red bars are put buying (downside or protection). A regime where one side persistently dominates tells you more than any single print.
The biggest prints (48h)
The 25 largest trades by premium paid. BLOCK marks privately negotiated institutional trades. Bought = the aggressor paid premium; Sold = the aggressor collected it.
| Time (UTC) | Side | Contract | Size | Premium | IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08-06 18:04 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 26MAR27 $65K Call | 54 | $488K | 42% |
| 08-06 03:05 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 25DEC26 $80K Call | 200 | $382K | 38% |
| 08-06 03:03 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 25DEC26 $80K Call | 200 | $382K | 38% |
| 08-06 03:05 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 25DEC26 $96K Call | 500 | $242K | 39% |
| 08-06 03:03 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 25DEC26 $96K Call | 500 | $242K | 39% |
| 08-06 20:47 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 25SEP26 $72K Call | 200 | $170K | 33% |
| 08-06 07:47 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 30OCT26 $65K Put | 35 | $153K | 37% |
| 08-06 07:42 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 30OCT26 $66K Put | 25 | $121K | 36% |
| 08-06 07:47 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 28AUG26 $67K Put | 35 | $111K | 30% |
| 08-06 07:42 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 30OCT26 $66K Call | 25 | $107K | 37% |
| 08-06 08:56 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 30OCT26 $65K Call | 20 | $97K | 37% |
| 08-06 03:05 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 25DEC26 $40K Put | 150 | $95K | 57% |
| 08-06 03:03 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 25DEC26 $40K Put | 150 | $95K | 57% |
| 08-06 13:08 | Sold | BTC 25JUN27 $82K Call | 18.1 | $92K | 41% |
| 08-06 08:56 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 30OCT26 $65K Put | 20 | $86K | 37% |
| 08-06 09:59 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 25SEP26 $65K Put | 25 | $81K | 34% |
| 08-06 09:59 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 25SEP26 $65K Call | 25 | $81K | 34% |
| 08-06 00:45 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 25SEP26 $64K Put | 25 | $71K | 35% |
| 08-06 00:42 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 25SEP26 $64K Put | 25 | $71K | 35% |
| 08-06 09:37 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 30OCT26 $65K Call | 15 | $70K | 37% |
| 08-06 00:42 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 28AUG26 $63K Put | 50 | $65K | 33% |
| 08-06 00:45 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 28AUG26 $63K Put | 50 | $65K | 33% |
| 08-06 15:31 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 10AUG26 $63K Put | 500 | $65K | 27% |
| 08-06 16:28 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 26MAR27 $50K Put | 25 | $65K | 46% |
| 08-06 13:35 | Bought | BTC 25JUN27 $72K Call | 7.8 | $62K | 42% |
Methodology and honest caveats
The tape covers listed crypto options and refreshes every 15 minutes; history runs about 30 days and grows daily. Premium is the dollar value paid for the option at trade time; Bought/Sold is the taker side of each print.
Bought call premium is the cleanest simple gauge of aggressive upside positioning, and bought puts of downside or protection demand. It is still a simplification: a bought call can hedge a short book, a sold put can be a bullish income trade, and block trades often have both legs elsewhere.
Read the tape together with open interest: the flow shows what changed today, the walls on our options page show where the accumulated positions sit.
What is a block trade and why does it matter?
A privately negotiated trade between large counterparties, printed to the tape after agreement rather than executed on the public book. Blocks are almost always institutional, so a burst of block activity at one strike is one of the stronger clues that serious money is positioning.
Does big call buying mean the price will go up?
Not by itself. It means someone paid real money for upside exposure, which is information, but the same print can be a hedge or part of a spread. The persistent daily balance of call versus put premium is more informative than any single trade.
Why show premium instead of contract counts?
A thousand cheap far-out-of-the-money contracts can cost less than one at-the-money print. Premium measures actual dollars committed, which is what makes a print meaningful.
How fresh is this data?
The capture runs every 15 minutes and the page notes the newest print it has seen. For intraday event trading treat it as a near-real-time tape with a short delay.