Lesson

Crypto options on Deribit, OKX, Bybit and Binance: coin vs USDT settlement

A December BTC option with an 80,000 strike exists on all four exchanges, but on Deribit and OKX it is paid in bitcoin, on Binance and Bybit in USDT, and each exchange has its own index, contract size and fee cap. We go through the differences that later explain price gaps.

AuthorAntonio MerklePublishedOctober 31, 20267 min read

To compare options across exchanges you need to know exactly how they differ. On the outside it is one instrument — BTC, strike, date, call or put. Inside, the premium and settlement currency, index, contract size and fees all differ.

Coin or USDT

On Deribit a BTC option costs, for example, 0.046 BTC, and the payoff at exercise arrives in bitcoin. On Binance the same option costs 3,640 USDT and settles in USDT. In dollars the payoff at expiry is the same, but along the way you hold different assets: a coin premium changes its dollar value with the BTC price, and margin and profit sit in different currencies. That is why “buy on Deribit, sell on Binance” is not a mirror lock but two different positions.

Settlement price and expiry

All four exchanges settle options at 08:00 UTC at the average index price over the last 30 minutes, but each has its own index: Deribit uses a capped median of several exchanges with a ±0.5% cutoff, Binance a spot index, and OKX samples its index every 200 ms. Settlement prices almost match but do not have to match to the cent. Since August 2026 Deribit first converts an in-the-money option into a future with the same date at the strike price, which then settles in cash; the final profit does not change.

Who is the largest

Deribit long held almost the entire crypto options market: in June 2025, nearly 90% of BTC options open interest. On August 14, 2025, Coinbase completed its acquisition of Deribit. In September 2025, open interest in options on BlackRock’s IBIT ETF exceeded Deribit’s BTC options open interest for the first time. According to the exchanges’ public APIs on the morning of October 31, 2026, before the monthly expiry at 08:00 UTC, BTC options open interest was: Deribit — 306,005 BTC, OKX — 34,873, Bybit — 21,167, Binance — 17,095. So Deribit has the deepest books, while quotes on the other exchanges more often lag and are wider.

Fees and their caps

An option fee is calculated not on the premium but on the underlying’s value: for example, 0.03% of the BTC price — about $23 per 1 BTC contract. For cheap out-of-the-money options such a fee would exceed the premium itself, so exchanges cap it as a share of the premium: Deribit 12.5%, Binance 10%, OKX and Bybit 7%. The takeaway for arbitrage: on cheap options the fee eats up to an eighth of the premium on each leg, and a “tens of percent” spread on penny options is usually worth nothing.

About the author

Antonio Merkle

Crypto expert, arbitrage trader and investor

Crypto expert and hands-on crypto arbitrage trader, investor and software developer with over 20 years of experience. On the P2P.Army blog he covers exchange news, P2P and cross-exchange arbitrage.

• Crypto arbitrage
• P2P arbitrage
• Cross-exchange arbitrage
• Crypto exchanges
• Investing
• Software development

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