CME BITCOIN OPTIONS POSITIONS
Who holds Bitcoin options on CME, and which way do they lean?
The U.S. futures regulator counts who holds what on CME every week. This page picks out the options and splits them by kind of trader.
Which way each kind of trader leans, in Bitcoin
Each line is one group's options, counted as the Bitcoin they behave like. Above zero the group leans up, so its options taken together gain if the price rises. Below zero it leans down. Every option has two sides, so the five lines add up to zero. One point a week: positions at the close of business on a Tuesday (a Monday in some holiday weeks), usually published that Friday. They are what traders still held, not what they traded.
Inspect and compare dates
Pick two report dates to compare how each group leaned, then add a third to see the path between them.
| Measure | Change | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dealers | −310 BTC | +165 BTC | +475 BTC |
| Asset managers | +330 BTC | +2.5 BTC | −327.5 BTC |
| Leveraged funds | −379.2 BTC | −203.7 BTC | +175.5 BTC |
| Other large traders | +230.1 BTC | +18.4 BTC | −211.7 BTC |
| Small traders | +134.2 BTC | +17.8 BTC | −116.4 BTC |
Positions on 20 Oct 2026
Options make up 1,545.4 BTC of the 110,507.7 BTC open on CME's Bitcoin contracts, 1.40% of the total.
Counted at the close of business on 20 Oct 2026 and published on Friday 23 Oct 2026. The report counts positions held, not trades, and counts options as the futures they behave like.
Which way does each group lean?
Leveraged funds lean down the most, by 203.7 BTC. Dealers lean up by 165 BTC. The other three each lean by 18.4 BTC or less.
| Group | Which way it leans | Held both ways |
|---|---|---|
| Leveraged funds | −203.7 BTCleans down | 1,101.3 BTC |
| Dealers | +165 BTCleans up | 205 BTC |
| Other large traders | +18.4 BTCleans up | 181.3 BTC |
| Small traders | +17.8 BTCleans up | not reported |
| Asset managers | +2.5 BTCleans up | 0 BTC |
Long, short and spread, as the report counts them
Each figure is the report that counts options, less the report that counts futures alone, so a minus sign means the options took away from that count. It does not mean a short position in options. The net is long minus short.
| Group | Long | Short | Spread | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leveraged funds | −212.5 BTC | −8.8 BTC | 1,101.3 BTC | −203.7 BTC |
| Dealers | 0 BTC | −165 BTC | 205 BTC | +165 BTC |
| Other large traders | +26.5 BTC | +8.1 BTC | 181.3 BTC | +18.4 BTC |
| Small traders | +241.3 BTC | +223.5 BTC | not reported | +17.8 BTC |
| Asset managers | +2.5 BTC | 0 BTC | 0 BTC | +2.5 BTC |
Every option has two sides, so the five leans add up to zero, apart from rounding in the report of at most 14.9 BTC in any week. A group that leans up holds options that, taken together, gain if the price rises, and one that leans down holds options that, taken together, gain if it falls. That describes what a group holds. It does not say what the group expects, because it may be offsetting Bitcoin it owns somewhere the report cannot see.
How does this week compare?
The options part was 1,545.4 BTC, against 1,573.8 BTC a week earlier and 12,856.5 BTC a year earlier, on 14 Oct 2025. The biggest week on record was 26,274.8 BTC, on 19 Dec 2023.
Options are re-counted every week with a factor that moves as the price does, so the part can grow or shrink in a week when nobody traded.
How much is held both ways?
96% of the options part is spread: the same traders hold it long and short at once, so it has no direction of its own.
The report calls this spreading. It is why the leans above are small next to the whole, and why this page leads with the net lean and not with the long and short columns on their own.
Who are the groups?
- Dealers
- Banks and securities dealers. They sell products to clients and usually offset the risk they take on, so their positions tend to mirror other people's.
- Asset managers
- Pension funds, endowments, insurers, mutual funds and the managers who invest on their behalf.
- Leveraged funds
- Hedge funds and similar money managers, including some that trade for clients. They may take an outright position or trade one market against another.
- Other large traders
- Every other trader big enough to be counted by name, mostly firms using the market to hedge a risk in their own business.
- Small traders
- Everyone below the reporting threshold, counted together. The report gets this group by subtraction, so it cannot say how many traders are in it, and it has no spread figure.
What does this report not show?
- Positions, not trades. It counts what traders still held at the close of the counting day, usually a Tuesday. It cannot say when a position was opened, or whether it was bought or sold that week.
- Weekly, and a few days old. Usually counted on a Tuesday and published that Friday, so the newest week is at least three days old. The next one is a week away.
- Options are counted as futures. Each option becomes the share of a futures contract it moves like for a small change in the price. That share moves with the price, so the count can change in a week when nobody traded.
- Only CME. These are options on CME's two Bitcoin contracts (five Bitcoin and a tenth of a Bitcoin). Options on other exchanges are not in this report.
- Groups, not people. Each large trader sits in one group, by what it mainly does. Everyone smaller is counted together, and the report does not say who they are.
- A description, not a forecast. A lean says what a group holds, never why. It is not advice and not a prediction.
The numbers
behind the chart
What does the current reading show?
Options part, in Bitcoin: the latest reading is 1,545.4 BTC, on . The highest reading since is 26,274.8 BTC on ; the lowest is 155 BTC on .
Share of the 5-bitcoin contract: the latest reading is 1.20%, on . The highest reading since is 18.22% on ; the lowest is 0.57% on .
Share of the 0.1-bitcoin contract: the latest reading is 6.71%, on . The highest reading since is 51.73% on ; the lowest is 0.21% on .
Weekly readings from 14 Jan 2020, the first week the report shows an options position. Each counts positions at the close of one day a week, so the highest and lowest are the highest and lowest weekly reports, not the highest and lowest the market reached. The share is options divided by everything open on that contract.
What are the latest, highest and lowest readings?
| Measure | Latest | Highest | Lowest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Options part, in Bitcoin | 1,545.4 BTC | 26,274.8 BTC | 155 BTC |
| Share of the 5-bitcoin contract | 1.20% | 18.22% | 0.57% |
| Share of the 0.1-bitcoin contract | 6.71% | 51.73% | 0.21% |
How do the readings compare with earlier dates?
| Reference date | Options part, in Bitcoin | Share of the 5-bitcoin contract | Share of the 0.1-bitcoin contract |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 month ago | 2,349.1 BTC | 1.83% | 9.85% |
| 3 months ago | 1,703.2 BTC | 1.31% | 12.50% |
| 6 months ago | 3,144 BTC | 2.34% | 11.30% |
| 1 year ago | 12,856.5 BTC | 8.05% | 10.07% |
| 2 years ago | 5,931.6 BTC | 3.03% | 21.40% |
What was the reading at each month’s end?
| Reading date | Options part, in Bitcoin | Share of the 5-bitcoin contract | Share of the 0.1-bitcoin contract |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,354.7 BTC | 1.14% | 7.87% | |
| 3,470.6 BTC | 2.64% | 10.92% | |
| 1,784.3 BTC | 1.39% | 10.60% | |
| 1,839.8 BTC | 1.64% | 10.28% | |
| 2,497.8 BTC | 2.00% | 11.40% | |
| 2,393.5 BTC | 1.95% | 11.29% | |
| 3,324.3 BTC | 2.90% | 12.28% | |
| 8,568.3 BTC | 6.61% | 10.84% | |
| 3,443.4 BTC | 2.46% | 10.59% | |
| 2,823 BTC | 2.43% | 12.66% | |
| 13,468.2 BTC | 8.95% | 10.06% | |
| 12,491 BTC | 7.72% | 9.85% | |
| 9,520.9 BTC | 6.47% | 7.73% | |
| 8,815.8 BTC | 5.85% | 5.69% | |
| 6,541.7 BTC | 4.28% | 9.50% | |
| 7,340.3 BTC | 4.27% | 8.91% | |
| 11,444.6 BTC | 6.30% | 15.00% | |
| 8,211.7 BTC | 5.42% | 19.17% | |
| 8,922.8 BTC | 5.53% | 15.13% | |
| 8,484.3 BTC | 4.80% | 11.88% | |
| 9,881.6 BTC | 5.18% | 12.95% | |
| 5,289.3 BTC | 2.85% | 14.99% | |
| 22,685.4 BTC | 9.77% | 14.85% | |
| 8,248.8 BTC | 4.33% | 15.13% |
Understanding
CME Bitcoin Options Positions
Where it stands today
Options make up 1,545.4 BTC of the 110,507.7 BTC open on CME's Bitcoin contracts, 1.40% of the total as of .
What is the Commitments of Traders report?
Every week the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission publishes a report on who holds what in each futures market. It lists the positions traders still held at the close of business on a Tuesday (a Monday in some holiday weeks), and it usually comes out that Friday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern. A trader big enough to be named is placed in one group by what it mainly does, and everyone smaller is counted together. It counts positions, not trades, so it cannot say when a position was opened or closed.
How does the report count options?
The report comes in two versions: one counts futures alone, the other counts futures and options together. In the second, each option is counted as the number of futures contracts it behaves like for a small move in the price, using a factor the exchange supplies. A call that is held, or a put that is written, counts as a long futures position. A put that is held, or a call that is written, counts as a short one. Taking the first version away from the second leaves the options. The factor moves with the price and with time, so the options part can change in a week when nobody traded.
What are long, short and spread?
Long is a position that gains if the price rises, and short is one that gains if it falls. Spread is a trader holding both at once in equal amounts, so it has no direction. The report puts that overlap in spread and only the rest in long or short. This page therefore leads with the net, long minus short, which is the part with a direction. It is also why a group's long or short can come out below zero here: adding options can cancel part of what the same traders hold in futures, and the table shows the change the options made.
Why are the two contracts added in Bitcoin?
CME lists a standard Bitcoin contract worth five Bitcoin and a micro contract worth a tenth of one. A count of one is not a count of the other, so every figure on this page is converted to Bitcoin before it is added. The share view keeps the two apart, because in most weeks options are a bigger part of the micro contract than of the standard one.
Is a group's lean a forecast?
No. It describes what the group holds, and nothing in the report says why. A group that leans down can be protecting Bitcoin it owns somewhere the report cannot see, and one that leans up can be offsetting a short position held elsewhere. The report gives the position and never the reason.
Why does the chart start in 2020?
The report has covered the 5-bitcoin contract since 10 Apr 2018 but shows no options position on it until 14 Jan 2020. For the 0.1-bitcoin contract the report starts on 4 May 2021 and shows its first options position on 29 Mar 2022. Before a contract's first options week the options part is zero because the report shows none, which is not a measurement, so the chart starts at the first week that has one.
Keep exploring
Source: Positions from the Commitments of Traders reports of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a public-domain U.S. Government work: the report that counts futures and options together, less the report that counts futures alone, for CME's Bitcoin and Micro Bitcoin contracts. Counted at the close of business on a Tuesday (a Monday in some holiday weeks) and usually published that Friday. Reading for .