THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY IN CRYPTO: ONCHAIN OPTIONS

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

Onchain options represent 6.9% of Deribit's volume, but infrastructure constraints around regulation, market-making, and RFQ systems are now resolved, leaving distribution of retail taker flow as the primary barrier to growth. Retail has been the growth driver in each major options market: US contracts tripled from 4.19B to 15.2B between 2017 and 2025 after Robinhood launched commission-free options, 0DTE options grew from 5% to over 60% of S&P 500 index volume in a decade, and India's NSE now processes 34.7B equity index contracts per year, 89% of global volume. The Korea case study illustrates the offshore spillover opportunity: after regulations cut domestic retail participation by 85%, Korean retail shifted offshore and now trades 3.6x more there than at home, positioning onchain venues to capture demand displaced from over-regulated local markets.