Ether, the native token of Ethereum’s blockchain, currently on the verge of switching its consensus mechanism; from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS), has overtaken the industry leader, bitcoin.
The cumulative dollar value of ether options contracts open on Deribit, one of the world’s largest crypto options trading exchanges; stands at $5.7 billion, representing 32% of the total contracts.
This is higher than the $4.3 billion locked in open bitcoin options trades. Deribit is the world’s largest crypto options exchange; accounting for over 90% of the global total trading volume and open interest.
Open options trades or open interest refers to the number of options contracts (call and put) traded but not squared off with an offsetting position. The notional open interest is calculated by multiplying the number of contracts open with the going spot market price of the underlying asset.
Ether continues to play second-fiddle to bitcoin in terms of daily trading volume in futures and options markets and open interest in the futures market. However, some analysts are confident that ether will soon replace bitcoin as the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value.