Top cryptocurrency exchange Binance has officially launched Bitcoin (BTC) options on its futures trading platform.

Confirming hints earlier this month, the rollout was announced this morning, April 13. It is, for now, limited to the exchange’s mobile app.

Binance offering U.S.-style Bitcoin options contracts

Options contracts offer traders the chance to purchase either a right to buy (a call option) or sell (a put option) on a given asset at a specified “strike price.” Binance is offering the American, as opposed to the European, version of the derivative, in which traders can exercise their rights — i.e. settle the contract at the chosen strike price — at any time before or on the expiry date itself.

For Binance’s BTC/Tether (USDT) options contracts, traders first transfer their USDT holdings from their spot wallet to their futures wallet and choose an expiry date, ranging from 10 minutes to one day.

In a note to traders, Binance indicates that a fixed value premium must be paid at the start, meaning that any prospective profits on trades will be net, i.e. profits minus the premium. The exchange cautions that:

“There is no guarantee that your options purchase will execute at a profit after the premium has been deducted. Most options purchases will not be profitable, but a minority will be very profitable. Please use at your own discretion.”

Options contracts in the crypto space

As previously reported, Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange OKEx has already launched Bitcoin options trading for a select group of traders in December 2019, ahead of their public launch early this year.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group announced plans to launch an options product for Bitcoin futures back in September, later indicating it was anticipating high demand in Asia in particular.