Will Degens Flock to Options on Leveraged Bitcoin ETFs?

For Bitcoin traders on Wall Street, Thursday’s introduction of options on two leveraged ETFs thrust crypto’s iconic volatility into new, uncharted territory.

In collaboration with Tuttle Capital Management, Rex Shares—a purveyor of ETFs—launched the T-REX 2X Long Bitcoin Daily Target ETF alongside an inverse alternative. Amplifying returns, the products are meant for active traders trying to capitalize on Bitcoin’s frequent price swings.

Options are sophisticated financial tools that derive their value from movements in an underlying asset. They have emerged as a cornerstone of bombastic bets within online communities like Reddit’s WallStreetBets, with posts showcasing lucrative gains and devastating losses.

A $26 call option expiring July 19 on the T-REX 2X Long Bitcoin Daily Target ETF, for example, had surged 14,200% in value Thursday, as of this writing. Meanwhile, a $25 call option expiring that same day for the leveraged ETF had collapsed 99.5% in value.

Among those that trade derivatives on Rex Shares’ new products, Tuttle Capital Management CEO and CIO Matthew Tuttle said a notable number of degens could wade into that mix, alongside certain financial institutions, such as smaller hedge funds.

“I think we’re going to get a lot of self-directed retail,” he said in an interview with Decrypt. “For a lot of [them], I don’t know that 1x moves [in Bitcoin] are enough to interest them that much.”

Since their introduction in January, Spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen $15.5 billion worth of inflows so far this year. Months after their debut, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wrote in an April disclosure that it would “designate a longer period of time” to consider options on spot Bitcoin products from asset managers Bitwise and Grayscale.

Bitcoin-based ETFs that already offer amplified returns received approval for options first because of their classification as investment vehicles for securities, Tuttle explained. Rex Shares’ product derives its exposure to Bitcoin’s price from swaps in BlackRock’s IBIT, the leading spot Bitcoin ETF with $18 billion in assets under management (AUM), he added.

“Because of the way that the spot Bitcoin ETFs are categorized, they can’t get options, so they’re working very hard to try to get the rules changed,” Tuttle said. “It doesn’t seem like there has been any movement on it, and there may not be a big push.”

Investors can use options in a myriad of ways, and they are a common tool for hedging downside risk among some, especially institutions. At the same time, the complexity of options affords special risk to retail traders who aren’t well-versed in how derivatives work.

Options aside, leveraged ETFs have grown significantly in popularity since they were first introduced within U.S. markets in 2006. Today, 150 leveraged ETFs have a collective AUM of $116 billion, with ProShares UltraPro QQQ leading the pack at $26 billion, according to etf.com.

Among leveraged ETFs for tech giants like Google and Apple, Rex Shares’ largest ETF has become its 2x long Nvidia ETF, with $789 million in AUM. Recently, the company proposed a leveraged fund for the Bitcoin-buying software firm MicroStrategy, and the company is eyeing other cryptocurrencies as candidates as well, with an Ethereum-based product currently in the works.

“We filed for Ethereum already, so […] we’ll be ready to go once that comes out,” Tuttle said of spot Ethereum ETFs. “We’ll look at Solana too—that looks like it may be the next one.”

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.

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