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 $18.93M for call options and $3.97M for put options on Bitcoin. Largest print: $4.20M of premium for the BTC 30OCT26 $68K calls.
Today's tape
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09-02 07:43 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 30OCT26 $68K Call DERIBIT | 375 | $4.20M | 39% |
| 09-02 07:43 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 4SEP26 $67K Call DERIBIT | 375 | $3.98M | 0% |
| 09-02 07:48 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 25DEC26 $75K Call DERIBIT | 255 | $2.17M | 39% |
| 09-02 08:14 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 4SEP26 $67K Call DERIBIT | 200 | $2.10M | 110% |
| 09-02 07:49 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 30OCT26 $69K Call DERIBIT | 200 | $2.07M | 39% |
| 09-02 07:49 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 4SEP26 $68K Call DERIBIT | 200 | $1.92M | 95% |
| 09-02 07:48 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 27NOV26 $75K Call DERIBIT | 255 | $1.89M | 38% |
| 09-02 08:14 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 30OCT26 $71K Call DERIBIT | 200 | $1.75M | 38% |
| 09-01 05:50 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 25DEC26 $78K Put DERIBIT | 250 | $1.43M | 39% |
| 09-01 05:50 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 25DEC26 $78K Put DERIBIT | 250 | $1.42M | 39% |
| 09-02 07:52 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 30OCT26 $69K Call DERIBIT | 125 | $1.29M | 39% |
| 09-02 07:48 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 25DEC26 $75K Put DERIBIT | 255 | $1.24M | 39% |
| 09-02 07:52 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 4SEP26 $68K Call DERIBIT | 125 | $1.20M | 100% |
| 09-02 07:48 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 27NOV26 $75K Put DERIBIT | 255 | $1.03M | 38% |
| 09-02 07:48 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 30OCT26 $75K Call DERIBIT | 150 | $912K | 36% |
| 09-02 09:11 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 4SEP26 $67K Call DERIBIT | 75 | $751K | 92% |
| 09-02 07:48 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 25SEP26 $75K Call DERIBIT | 150 | $636K | 35% |
| 09-01 06:00 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 30OCT26 $84K Call DERIBIT | 200 | $585K | 37% |
| 09-01 05:50 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 25SEP26 $78K Put DERIBIT | 250 | $566K | 36% |
| 09-01 05:50 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 25SEP26 $78K Put DERIBIT | 250 | $560K | 35% |
| 09-01 06:00 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 25DEC26 $84K Call DERIBIT | 100 | $533K | 39% |
| 09-02 09:11 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 30OCT26 $73K Call DERIBIT | 75 | $518K | 36% |
| 09-02 07:52 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 30OCT26 $69K Call DERIBIT | 50 | $517K | 38% |
| 09-02 07:52 | BoughtBLOCK | BTC 4SEP26 $68K Call DERIBIT | 50 | $480K | 88% |
| 09-01 07:23 | SoldBLOCK | BTC 25SEP26 $80K Call DERIBIT | 200 | $465K | 35% |
Methodology and honest caveats
The tape covers listed crypto options on Deribit and OKX (each print carries its venue) 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.
FAQ
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.