BTC ETF 期权今年终于来到美国

经过几个月的尘埃落定，在现货比特币（BTC）交易所交易基金（ETF）上列出期权的申请终于引起了监管机构的关注。

Applications to list options on spot Bitcoin ( BTC ) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have finally caught the attention of regulators after months of gathering dust. Expect BTC ETF options to start trading on United States exchanges this year. Options on Ethereum ( ETH ) ETFs will soon follow.

经过几个月的尘埃落定，在现货比特币（BTC）交易所交易基金（ETF）上列出期权的申请终于引起了监管机构的关注。预计 BTC ETF 期权将于今年在美国交易所开始交易。以太坊 (ETH) ETF 期权即将推出。

Options are contracts that grant the right to buy or sell — “call” or “put” in trader parlance — an underlying asset at a certain price. They are attractive hedging instruments (don’t you wish you locked in the right to sell BTC at $73,000?) and are popular with speculators, too.

期权是授予以一定价格购买或出售（用交易者的话说“看涨”或“看跌”）标的资产的权利的合约。它们是有吸引力的对冲工具（难道您不希望锁定以 73,000 美元出售 BTC 的权利吗？）并且也受到投机者的欢迎。

Adding options trading may seem anticlimactic in the wake of BTC ETFs’ long-awaited launch in January. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Options are critical for institutional adoption — especially with highly volatile crypto ETFs. Plus, if existing crypto options are any indication, spot BTC ETF options will be a huge market.

在 1 月份期待已久的 BTC ETF 推出后，增加期权交易似乎有些虎头蛇尾。但这与事实相差甚远。期权对于机构采用至关重要——尤其是对于波动性较高的加密 ETF。另外，如果现有的加密货币期权有任何迹象的话，现货 BTC ETF 期权将是一个巨大的市场。

Regulators warming up to Bitcoin ETF options

监管机构正在为比特币 ETF 期权做好准备

In January, the three US equities exchanges that list spot BTC ETFs — the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Arca, Cboe, and Nasdaq — asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) if they could also list options on those funds.

一月份，上市现货 BTC ETF 的三个美国股票交易所——纽约证券交易所 (NYSE) Arca、Cboe 和纳斯达克——询问美国证券交易委员会 (SEC) 是否也可以上市这些基金的期权。

The SEC greeted the applications with a deafening silence, and outside input wasn’t encouraging. In May, private industry watchdog Better Markets Inc. urged the SEC to “proceed especially cautiously because… the inevitable marketing of such options to retail investors could cause tremendous harm,” as evidenced by “the meme stock frenzy surrounding GameStop in 2021.”

美国证券交易委员会以震耳欲聋的沉默迎接这些申请，外界的意见也并不令人鼓舞。今年 5 月，私营行业监管机构 Better Markets Inc. 敦促美国证券交易委员会“行事要特别谨慎，因为……向散户投资者不可避免地推销此类期权可能会造成巨大伤害”，“2021 年围绕 GameStop 的迷因股票狂潮”就证明了这一点。

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The SEC apparently took this to heart and asked for more time to make a decision in March, and, again, in April, and, again, in July. But the ice is finally thawing. On Aug. 8, Cboe filed an amended application to the SEC. It’s almost three times longer than the first and addresses issues such as market manipulation and position limits in greater detail.

SEC 显然牢记了这一点，并要求在 3 月份、4 月份和 7 月份有更多时间做出决定。但冰终于融化了。 8 月 8 日，Cboe 向 SEC 提交了修改后的申请。它几乎比第一个长三倍，并且更详细地解决了市场操纵和头寸限制等问题。

“There's definitely some movement on Bitcoin ETF options,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart said in a post on X. "The SEC likely gave some sort of feedback."

彭博资讯 (Bloomberg Intelligence) 分析师詹姆斯·塞法特 (James Seyffart) 在 X 上的一篇文章中表示：“比特币 ETF 期权肯定会发生一些变化。美国证券交易委员会可能会提供某种反馈。”

Bloomberg predicts spot BTC options go live in the fourth quarter. Given election-year pressures on the SEC, sometime before November is likely. Spot ETH ETFs will follow suit. According to an Aug. 6 filing, Nasdaq asked the SEC for permission to list options on BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA).

彭博社预测现货比特币期权将于第四季度上线。鉴于 SEC 面临选举年的压力，可能会在 11 月之前的某个时间进行。现货 ETH ETF 也将效仿。根据 8 月 6 日提交的文件，纳斯达克请求美国证券交易委员会允许其在贝莱德旗下 iShares 以太坊信托 (ETHA) 上列出期权。

Creating a new market

创造新市场

In the meantime, US investors have free reign to trade options on a strictly inferior class of Bitcoin ETFs — those that synthetically track BTC’s price performance using futures.

与此同时，美国投资者可以自由交易比特币 ETF 的期权，这些 ETF 是利用期货综合跟踪 BTC 价格表现的。

Futures ETFs generally underperform spot market equivalents because the cost of rolling over monthly futures contracts drags down overall returns. According to crypto researcher K33 Research, the most popular Bitcoin futures ETF — ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) — underperformed spot by around 2.6% between January and May.

期货 ETF 的表现通常逊于现货市场同类产品，因为每月期货合约展期的成本会拖累整体回报。根据加密货币研究机构 K33 Research 的数据，最受欢迎的比特币期货 ETF——ProShares 的比特币策略 ETF (BITO)——在 1 月至 5 月期间的表现落后于现货约 2.6%。

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But absent any better alternatives, the market for these options is white hot. In total, open interest on BTC futures ETFs — measured by the notional value of all active call and put contracts — exceeds $3.25 billion as of market close on Aug. 9, according to data from The Options Clearing Corporation, an industry self-regulatory organization (SRO).

但由于没有更好的替代品，这些选择的市场白热化。根据行业自律组织期权清算公司的数据，截至 8 月 9 日收盘，BTC 期货 ETF 的未平仓合约（以所有活跃看涨期权和看跌合约的名义价值衡量）总计超过 32.5 亿美元（自律组织）。

For comparison, the combined net asset value of all BTC futures ETFs is approximately $4.3 billion, according to data from Yahoo Finance. In other words, the market for options on BTC ETFs is almost as large as the market for BTC ETFs themselves.

相比之下，根据雅虎财经的数据，所有 BTC 期货 ETF 的总资产净值约为 43 亿美元。换句话说，BTC ETF 期权的市场几乎与 BTC ETF 本身的市场一样大。

Spot BTC ETFs command a vastly larger asset base — more than $58 billion as of market close on Aug. 9. So if options on BTC futures ETFs are any guide, a nearly $45 billion new BTC market is waiting to be born.

现货 BTC ETF 拥有更大的资产基础——截至 8 月 9 日收盘时超过 580 亿美元。因此，如果 BTC 期货 ETF 期权有任何指导作用，那么一个近 450 亿美元的新 BTC 市场正在等待诞生。

A milestone for mass adoption

大规模采用的里程碑

That’s more than just a big number. Options are crucial market infrastructure and mark an important waystation on the road to mass crypto adoption.

这不仅仅是一个大数字。期权是至关重要的市场基础设施，也是大规模采用加密货币的重要中转站。

Financial advisors — who control as much as half of investment flows in the $9 trillion ETF market — rely on options to safeguard against sharp market movements (like the 28% drop in Ether’s spot price on Aug. 5). More than 10% of advisers actively used options to manage client portfolios as of 2023, according to a survey by The Journal of Financial Planning.

财务顾问控制着 9 万亿美元 ETF 市场中多达一半的投资流量，他们依靠期权来防范市场剧烈波动（例如 8 月 5 日以太币现货价格下跌 28%）。根据《财务规划杂志》的一项调查，截至 2023 年，超过 10% 的顾问积极使用期权来管理客户投资组合。

Options also play a critical role in hedge fund strategies, such as the “covered strangle” touted by 10x Research, an investment research firm.

期权在对冲基金策略中也发挥着至关重要的作用，例如投资研究公司 10x Research 所吹捧的“备兑宽跨式期权”。

Already, Morgan Stanley — the largest financial advisory with some $3.75 trillion under management — has given its 15,000 advisors the greenlight to pitch spot BTC ETFs

管理着约 3.75 万亿美元的最大金融咨询公司摩根士丹利 (Morgan Stanley) 已经为其 15,000 名顾问开绿灯，推销现货 BTC ETF