The favorite lottery ticket for Bitcoin traders in the first half of the year is the $300K BTC call.

“There will always be people looking for protection against hyperinflation,” one analyst said of the steady increase in open interest in the $300,000 call option expiring June 26.

Omkar Godbole | Edited by Aoyon Ashraf May 4, 2025, 6:41 PM

Key facts:

• The $300,000 call option is the second most popular option expiring in June, indicating speculative interest in a possible rise in the price of Bitcoin.
• The June due date is the largest of all upcoming payments this year.
• One analyst compared the bet to buying lottery tickets.

In the world of cryptocurrency, bold predictions aren't just words – they're backed by real money, often through lottery-ticket-like options trades that offer huge upside potential for a relatively small investment.

At the time of writing, the one getting the most attention is a $300,000 Bitcoin call option that trades on Deribit and expires on June 26. The option is theoretically a bet that the spot price of BTC will triple to above $300,000 by the end of the first half of the year.

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At press time in June, the $300,000 call had more than 5,000 contracts outstanding, with notional open interest of $484 million. That makes it the second-most popular option with a major June expiration, behind only the $110,000 call.

Deribit is the world’s leading crypto options platform, accounting for over 75% of all options activity in the global market. On Deribit, one option contract is worth 1 BTC. Quarterly expirations, such as the one expiring on June 26, lead to increased activity and volatility in the market as traders use these expirations to hedge positions, lock in profits, or speculate on future price movements.

“People may like to buy lottery tickets. As the call skew shows, there are always people who want to hedge against hyperinflation,” said Spencer Hallarn, a derivatives trader at crypto market maker GSR, explaining the high open interest in the so-called out-of-the-money (OTM) call with a $300,000 strike price.

Deep OTM calls, also known as “wings,” require a significant move in the underlying asset's price to generate a profit, and are therefore significantly cheaper than those that are closer to or below the asset's current market price. However, the payouts can be huge if the market rises, making them akin to buying lottery tickets with low odds but the potential for significant wins.

The BTC options market on Deribit has shown similar trends during previous bull cycles, but such bets have rarely achieved enough popularity to become the second most preferred option among quarterly expiration options.