9 Best Crypto Options Trading Platforms

More “options” for trading crypto options become available every year. As such, researching all of the best features that make an options trading platform worthwhile can take hours. This is time you could have spent trading! In crypto, it’s always our advice to DYOR. But we can help point you in the right direction. Read on to discover the nine best crypto options trading platforms on the market today.

What is crypto options trading?

Before we dive into the top crypto exchanges for options trading, here’s a quick rundown of options contracts. Trading crypto options is very similar to trading traditional options. Crypto options give an investor the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell crypto at a predetermined price and date.

There are two main types of options contracts. A call option gives an investor the opportunity to buy stocks or digital assets at a predetermined price in the future. Likewise, a put option allows an investor to sell a stock or digital asset at a predetermined price in the future.

We call the price of an option the premium. The predetermined price that an investor can buy or sell at is the strike price. The predetermined date that the investor must exercise the option contract by is the expiration date. An options writer is someone that sells options.

Writers sell call or put options, covered or uncovered. When a writer sells an option but does not have the underlying asset, this is referred to as uncovered. Conversely, when the writer does hold the asset, the option is covered. An underlying asset is the security or digital asset that must be delivered when a trader exercises the option. In our case, the underlying asset is crypto.

Best qualities of a crypto options trading platform

Choosing crypto exchanges for options trading doesn’t have to be complicated. If you want to know a platform’s best qualities, start with these basic criteria.

Fees and commissions

What are the commissions and fees? Over the years, transaction costs for options have steadily fallen. Many options trading platforms now offer zero-commission trades. This allows you to save money and lowers the barrier to entry for new traders. However, commission-free trading comes at a cost.

Generally speaking, if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. A commission-free platform might be the best choice for some, but not all, traders.

Liquidity

Depending on the context, liquidity can be understood in a variety of ways. On the one hand, liquidity is the ability to convert an asset into cash. In our case, liquidity is trade volume or the number of buyers and sellers. Liquidity determines price stability. A high number of buyers and sellers will result in a relatively stable bid-ask spread.

A market or platform with low liquidity will result in volatility. Volatility is the measure of how drastically a market or asset’s price changes. Low liquidity amounts to higher transaction costs.

Execution quality

In essence, execution quality is the best bid and speed at which your orders are executed. For example, one of the reasons why trading platforms can offer commission-free trading is because of order routing. In brief, some liquidity providers pay trading platforms to route your orders to them. This can cause a degraded order quality, which may result in a missed trade.

Altogether, traders save more money on trades with good execution quality in the long run. Execution quality is easy to overlook, even for advanced traders, so don’t worry if you don’t notice it right off the bat.

Trading tools

Trading tools are the little “je ne sais quoi” that separates a good crypto options trading platform from a great one. This will determine the ultimate user experience. These tools aren’t for beginners, but in the hands of the right trader can be proverbial “money printers.” Platforms such as TradingView offer excellent trading tools, including indicators, analytics, technical tools, automated screeners, and more.

9 best crypto options trading platforms

Now for the fun part, what are the top crypto options trading platforms? Only you can determine what the best options trading platform for you is. However, there are a few that stand above the rest.

1) Binance

What is it?

Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume, daily visits, and assets under management. Changpeng Zhao, commonly known as CZ, is the founder and owner of Binance. The world-renowned exchange is commonly known as a one-stop shop for all your cryptocurrency needs and offers a huge range of altcoins for trading.

Features

In addition to options, they also offer futures, perpetual, and spot trading. Binance has a long list of coins and tokens available for traders. They are typically very quick to list popular coins. Furthermore, the world-renowned exchange also lets users stake their crypto.

Binance has its own blockchain (BNB chain) and token (BNB). BNB chain has a budding ecosystem of DApps built on its blockchain. In addition, traders holding BNB can take advantage of trade discounts. The exchange supports a variety of trade orders: limit, market, stop-limit, and one-cancels-the-other (OCO) orders. Lastly, Binance has a robust NFT marketplace that is sure to please any trader.

Pros

• Offers a helpful guide to options trading on Binance
• Simple trading interface
• Low trading fees
• Beginner friendly

Cons

• European-style only
• No stop limit
• Limited contracts (BTC, ETH, BNB)

Fees or any other charges

• Transaction fee: 0.02%
• Exercise fee: 0.015%

2) Bybit

What is it?

Founded in 2018, Bybit is a cryptocurrency exchange with headquarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Some of Bybit’s distinguishing features are its uptime and security. To date, Bybit has never been hacked.

Features

Options on Bybit are settled in the European style. Moreover, contracts available on the trading platform are ETH, BTC, and SOL. Bybit does not offer options alone; you can also trade futures, perpetuals, and spot trade. In addition, it allows up to 100x leverage for the brave and bold.

One of Bybit’s key features is its insurance fund. Simply put, Bybit’s insurance fund is a reserve that the system can draw from to safeguard traders in select circumstances. The crypto exchange also has advanced trading tools to support seasoned traders.

Pros

• Advanced trading tools
• Up to 100x leverage
• Allows paper trading
• Multiple order types

Cons

• Not available in the US
• Limited contracts (ETH, BTC, SOL)

Fees or any other charges

• Trading Fee
  • Maker fee (0.03%)
  • Taker fee (0.03%)
• Delivery Fee: 0.015%
• Liquidation Fee: 0.2%

3) StormGain

What is it?

StormGain is a cryptocurrency trading platform based in the United Kingdom. It’s a convenient solution for users looking to profit from the crypto market’s growth or decline and long-term investments in crypto assets.

Features

Though it is an options trading platform, StormGain is also a full-service broker. If crypto options trading isn’t your forté, you can explore some of the platform’s other features. Cloud mining is a popular activity on the StormGain platform.

Like many other crypto exchanges, you can also stake select assets. StormGain also has perpetuals and allows up to 500x leverage on futures. However, only contracts for ETH and BTC are available when it comes to options trading.

Pros

• Simple user interface
• No swap costs

Cons

• Limited contracts (ETH and BTC)
• Limited support for fiat deposits

Fees or any other charges

• 10% commission is only taken from successful trades

4) GateIO

What is it?

GateIO is one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges. Hailing from China, it has been around since 2013 (making the exchange practically an OAP in crypto years!)

Features

This global exchange has a suite of products. Users can enjoy everything from European-style vanilla options on BTC and ETH to perpetuals and even spot trading. The crypto trading exchange also allows copy trading and bots.

Furthermore, users are not limited to trading on GateIO. You can delve into the world of borrowing and lending as well. The exchange supports crypto loans and liquidity mining, too. Speaking of mining, users can also use the platform for cloud mining. To top it all off, GateIO offers a Gate Visa card, which you can use worldwide.

Pros

• Has simulation trading
• Simple interface

Cons

• Cluttered display
• Limited contracts (BTC and ETH)
• The options trading fee schedule is not transparent

Fees or any other charges

• N/A

5) Huobi

What is it?

The Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange Huobi was established in China in 2013. It has a strong presence in Asia but has also expanded to the West, partly in response to the ICO and crypto transaction ban in China.

Features

Unlike most of our choices, Huobi has both European and American-style options. Users can also enjoy spot trading, futures, and margin trading. To top things off, you can even use a trading bot.

Huobi also supports OTC and crypto loans. Users can engage in staking, voting, and Huobi Earn. Huobi Earn allows you to earn passive income on your crypto. The company also has a cloud wallet and a global crypto wallet, which acts as a gateway to web3.

Pros

• European and American-style options
• Multiple expiries
• Simple interface

Cons

• Limited support for fiat deposits
• Not available in the U.S.

Fees or any other charges

• Only buyers of in-the-money options are required to pay delivery transaction fees, which are limited to 12.5% of the delivery profits
• Each transaction fee shall not exceed 12.5% of the premium charged
• BTC options (per contract)
  • Maker fee: 0.002
  • Taker fee: 0.005
  • Delivery fee: 0.002
• ETH options
  • Maker fee: 0.0005
  • Taker fee: 0.00125
  • Delivery fee: 0.005
• VIP clients enjoy preferential fees and rebates

6) Lyra

What is it?

Lyra is an automated market maker for crypto options (AMM). Using a pool of liquidity enables traders to buy and sell cryptocurrency options. Nick Forster and Michael Spain founded Lyra in 2021. It is built on Ethereum layer-2’s Arbitrum and Optimism. Unlike most of our contenders, Lyra is a decentralized application (DApp).

Features

Unfortunately, Lyra only supports ETH and wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) contracts. Lyra has liquidity provider staking in addition to options trading. This is what drives the platform. The trades generate fees for the LP stakers.

The platform also has its own native token (LYRA), which has a max supply of 1 billion. Lyra token holders can enjoy rebates on their trades. It has a simple user interface for beginners but may feel slightly elementary for the more advanced trader.

Pros

• Simple user interface
• Allows you to buy or sell options
• Pricing comparable to centralized exchanges
• Deep liquidity

Cons

• Limited contracts (ETH and WBTC)
• Smart contract risks

Fees or any other charges

• Flat fee based on the option price (differs by liquidity providers)
• Flat fee for exchanging costs (differs by liquidity providers)
• Dynamic fee based on the pool’s vega risk
• Dynamic fee based on the difference between the expiry’s base and its GWAV, as well as the traded strike’s skew ratio and vega.

8) OKX

What is it?

Star Xu founded OKX, formerly known as OKEx, a global cryptocurrency and derivatives exchange based in Seychelles. The OK Group, which also owns the crypto exchange OKCoin, also owns OKX. Investors based in the U.S. are not currently permitted to access it.

Features

OKX offers European-style options contracts with multiple due date options. They settle their contracts for options in BTC, ETH, SOL, and other cryptocurrencies. The trading interface is tailor-made for advanced traders. There are also futures, perpetuals, and spot and margin trading.

You may also take advantage of the Earn products on the platform, which includes staking to earn yield. If you need a loan, OKX offers multiple loan plans. OKX is also dedicated to web3, offering products for developers on its native blockchain OKB, such as a Hackathon.

Pros

• Advanced user interface
• Integration with trading view
• Supports multiple languages

Cons

• Doesn’t natively support fiat deposits
• Limited contracts (BTC and ETH)

Fees or any other charges

• The fee structure of OKX’s options trading platform is tiered. Fees vary by:
  • VIP users: assets (USD) ≥ 100,000 | 30-day trading volume ≥ 5,000,000
  • Regular users: OKB holdings, assets < 100,000 | trading volume < 5,000,000
• Regular users
  • Maker fees: 0.02%-0.015%
  • Taker fees: 0.03%
• VIP users
  • Maker fees: 0.01%- (-)0.01%
  • Taker fees: 0.02%-0.013%.

9) Dopex

What is it?

Dopex is a decentralized protocol designed for high liquidity and low-risk exposure. It aims to maximize option liquidity while limiting losses by using rebates and delegated controlled incentives for providers of option liquidity. The decentralized application is designed to meet option writers’ and buyers’ needs.

Features

Option pools, also known as farms on Dopex, are essentially liquidity pools in which users provide liquidity for option buyers in the form of a base and a quote asset. This allows you to generate passive income by charging option buyers fees in exchange for the use of your liquidity.

Dopex also has its own protocol native token, DPX. Users can also earn rDPX. The latter is minted and distributed as compensation for option writers’ losses. dpxETH is created when users bond assets.

The options platform is live on Ethereum, Polygon, and Arbitrum. This allows the DApp to offer traders low fees with speedy transaction execution. Some of the flagship products of Dopex are single staking options vaults (SSOV) and Atlantic options. SSOVs allow users to earn yield for writing options, while Atlantic options have several uses, like liquidation protection.

Pros

• Decentralized application
• Allows writing and buying options
• Good model for hedging risk from losses

Cons

• Fee schedule is not transparent
• Permissioned automated market maker (AMM)

Fees or any other charges

• Premium and service fee (converted to DPX and distributed to veDPX holders)
• 5% fee on the sale of rDPX

Crypto options trading platforms compared

Choose the best crypto options trading platform for your personal needs

Crypto options trading platforms are not a panacea. They are the merging of two complex asset classes. Therefore, it is rare that one exchange can offer everything that another cannot. Furthermore, at the moment, crypto options have very limited offerings, typically relegated to BTC, ETH, and European-style contracts.

That being said, some platforms do stand out above others. If you really want the best platform, figure out how you like to trade and take a look at some of the top crypto trading platforms. The ‘best’ crypto options trading platform really is dependent on your skill level and individual requirements. As long as the outcome is income, you won’t be disappointed.

Frequently asked questions