Sygnum rolls out bitcoin and ethereum options contracts

Sygnum’s regulated options offering provides a trusted venue for investors to implement similarly sophisticated investment and trading strategies for their digital asset portfolios as they already have for their traditional asset portfolios. The options offering is highly flexible and can be employed in diverse trading strategies, enabling buyers to participate in larger price swings while sellers can generate additional yield from collecting option premiums.

Sygnum’s regulated digital asset options offering will include:

European OTC call and put options on BTC/USD and ETH/USD

Fully customisable strike and expiry date with an attractive minimum trade size

Long and short positioning

Cash settlement

Sygnum clients can now implement more sophisticated digital asset investment and trading strategies

Options have long played an important role in traditional financial markets as a tool to help investors navigate through unpredictable market conditions. By paying the option premium, buyers can participate in larger price swings, while sellers leverage elevated volatility levels and collect premium payments to generate additional yield on existing holdings.

With the increase in value of leading digital assets like Bitcoin – which saw its volume of traded options increase 7 times in 2020 – and the ever-increasing number of institutional investors entering the space, the market demand for options on digital assets is growing significantly. As a regulated Swiss bank, Sygnum already provides a trusted platform through which investors can invest and trade in digital assets. With the availability of options, clients can now implement more sophisticated investment and trading strategies for their digital asset portfolios.

“With options, clients can now profit from any price movement – be it a bull, bear or sideways market,“ said Dominic Lohberger, Head of Brokerage at Sygnum Bank. “They can also be used to hedge positions, take leveraged exposure to the market or trade volatility,â€� he adds.

Driving the rapid development of the digital asset space

Sygnum’s options offering has a full range of features that can be tailored to the individual client’s needs, such as fully customisable strike and expiry date as well as long and short positioning. This is another example of the rapid development of digital asset investing, providing investors with the same investment and hedging toolset proven for decades in other asset classes. Sygnum is shaping the regulated digital asset industry in many areas and actively strives to empower other established financial institutions to enable their end clients to benefit from the seemingly endless opportunities of regulated digital asset investing.

“At Sygnum we are building a portfolio of regulated banking services that makes the universe of digital assets bankable, conveniently accessible and completely trusted. Our expansion into options fills the gap for a regulated offering in this area, and further extends our product suite to meet the complex needs of an increasingly institutional client base,“ said Thomas Eichenberger, Head of Business Units at Sygnum Bank.