The journey for Bitcoin investors back to all-time highs hasn't been an easy one

Bitcoin continues to hover near the $100,000-level and looks poised to retest the highs from last year.

For the past year, Bitcoin investors have enjoyed a remarkable journey, witnessing a nearly seven-fold surge in the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. However, this path to all-time highs hasn't been without its challenges. As Bitcoin continues to trade at the $100,000-level, setting the stage for a retest of the highs from last year, several stocks are also making waves in conjunction with Bitcoin's ascent.

One such stock is Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, which has become a major beneficiary of the latest move in crypto prices. The company offers the primary financial account in the crypto economy, encompassing a brokerage platform with a vast pool of liquidity for both institutions and retail investors. Moreover, Coinbase provides a suite of products that grant developers the ability to build on-chain.

Earlier this month, Coinbase completed the acquisition of Dubai-based Deribit, a significant cryptocurrency exchange, for $2.9 billion, marking the largest deal in the crypto industry to date. This acquisition will further boost Coinbase's position as a leading international player in crypto derivatives.

COIN, currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), has consistently exceeded the earnings mark in each of the past 9 quarters. Last week, Coinbase reported first-quarter earnings of $1.94 per share, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 4.9%. The company has also delivered a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 32.7%.

As a leading crypto exchange, Coinbase is enjoying several tailwinds, including investments in infrastructure and expanded partnerships, such as the integration with Stripe for direct deposits to and from Coinbase.

Coinbase will officially be added to the S&P 500 later this month, a significant milestone for the company.

While there are many ways to take advantage of a bullish move in COIN shares, options provide us with the flexibility to tailor our strategy to the current market environment.

Option spreads are extremely effective in this type of environment. Call option debit spreads are implemented by purchasing a call option and selling a related call option with a higher strike price. These types of trades are limited risk trades because the short option is 'covered' by the option purchase.

When done correctly, trading options provides huge profit opportunities with limited risk, making options one of the most versatile investment vehicles.

Before we analyze today's trade, let's review some option fundamentals as a refresher. There is no need to worry about complex mathematical formulas or equations. Over the years I've found that the more complicated a strategy is, the less likely it is to work over the long run.

Options are standardized contracts that give the buyer the right - but not the obligation - to buy or sell the underlying stock at a fixed price, which is known as the strike price. A call option gives the buyer the right to buy a particular security, while a put option gives the buyer the right to sell the same. The investor who purchases an option, whether a put or call, is the option buyer, while the investor who sells a put or call is the seller or writer.

These contracts are valid for a specific period of time which ends on expiration day. There are weekly options, monthly options, and even LEAPS options which are longer-term options that have an expiration date of greater than one year.

Options consist of time value and intrinsic value. In-the-money options consist of both components; at-the-money and out-of-the-money options consist only of time value. At options expiration, options lose all time value.

Below we're going to explore a call option spread strategy.

The Power of Option Spreads

Coinbase currently meets our criteria for initiating a bullish call option spread position.

The table below displays the risk/reward profile for this trade. COIN is trading at $266.58/share at the time of this writing. This trade involves purchasing the June 220-strike call at 51.9 points, and selling the June 240-strike call at 37 points for a total cost of 14.9 points. As option contracts represent 100 shares of the underlying security, this would represent a total cost of $1,490 per spread (orange box).

The top (blue) row in the lower section shows the performance of COIN stock based on different percentage scenarios at expiration. The last (purple) row shows the corresponding percentage return for our debit spread trade. We can see that regardless of whether COIN increases in price, remains flat, or even loses 10% from our entry, our option spread trade will produce a roughly 34% return.

These are types of odds I like to have in my favor when trading options.

Advantages of Spread Trading

1) The Option Sale Provides Downside Protection

The sale of a call option results in cash being credited to your