Kraken Opens Bitcoin and Ether Options to Eligible Traders in the European Economic Area
Key Facts
On October 26, 2026, Kraken announced that it had made Bitcoin and Ether options trading available to eligible customers in the European Economic Area through the Kraken Pro platform and their existing derivatives accounts. The move gives eligible traders access to options contracts on the two digital assets through the platform. The company said the contracts are linear and cash-settled in dollars, including premiums, profits and losses. At launch, the products are limited to BTC and ETH, and the announcement did not specify that availability was intended for any particular institutional or retail group. The European rollout follows an earlier expansion plan, which had scheduled access to the region for the second half of 2026.
The contracts are European-style and cover BTC (XBT/USD) and ETH (ETH/USD) markets, with weekly, monthly, quarterly and semiannual expiries. European style means the contract is tied to a specified expiry date, according to the product structure announced by the company. Cash settlement in dollars separates settlement of the contract’s value from delivery of the digital asset itself. Kraken says trading takes place through a request for quote, and a single trade can include up to five legs. Customers must also complete a questionnaire to unlock options trading, as part of the platform’s eligibility requirements.
The options use the same collateral as futures, with portfolio margin enabled by default. The platform accepts more than 30 currencies as collateral, so accepted collateral is not limited to dollars even though settlement, premiums, profits and losses are denominated in them. Pooling collateral in the derivatives account allows margin to be shared between options and futures, according to Kraken. Multiple expiries offer a range of contracts from weekly to semiannual, while execution remains based on a request for quote. These terms show that the launch combines options with multiple expiries, multi-currency collateral and pre-qualification procedures.
Kraken linked the availability of options in the European Economic Area to its license under the MiFID framework, saying options services are provided by Payward Europe Digital Solutions (CY) Limited, which is regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission under license number 342/17. The company says the Cyprus entity provides financial instruments as an intermediary subject to the MiFID framework. Payward Europe Solutions Limited, meanwhile, handles digital asset custody as a custodian licensed under MiCA. This arrangement separates digital asset custody from the provision of financial instruments, with each entity operating within its regulatory remit. Kraken says its MiFID license allows it to offer options to eligible customers in the European Economic Area through a regulated platform.
The company warned that options trading requires passing an appropriateness assessment and that the risks vary depending on a trader’s position in the contract. An option buyer may lose the full value of their position, while a seller’s losses may exceed the margin deposited and may be unlimited. These risks set clear limits on the use of the contracts, despite the possibility of using options for hedging or trading—uses the launch announcement did not identify as specific product objectives. Alexia Theodorou, Kraken’s head of derivatives, said, "Crypto options activity remains a fraction of activity in traditional markets, but the gap is narrowing." Theodorou linked this to professional and institutional capital entering digital assets.
CME Group data reflect the expansion of activity in the crypto derivatives market: average daily volume across its futures and options contracts reached 280 thousand contracts in 2025, with a notional value of 12 billion dollars, after more than doubling from the previous year. As an indicator of activity in Ether options specifically, CME said open interest peaked at 7,240 contracts on November 26, 2025. These figures place Kraken’s launch in a broader derivatives market, but they relate to CME data and do not measure trading on Kraken’s platform. In July 2026, the company said later phases were expected to add a public order book and broaden geographic and asset coverage. It also said an order book could deepen price discovery as activity grows; the October announcement did not set a timetable for these phases.