According to Marc Sischka, Blockchain.com’s Global Head of OTC Trading, Blockchain.com’s OTC desk often sees institutional and ultra-high-net-worth clients begin with spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading. Concentrated holdings can carry substantial downside risk. Options may help manage particular exposures, or generate premium income against existing holdings, depending on the structure. Sischka says some clients have yet to consider how those instruments might fit their objectives.
That blind spot sits at the center of how Sischka has approached his new role. According to a company profile of his OTC leadership, he joined the firm after eight years trading crypto at one of the industry’s largest exchanges, adding to 10 years spent earlier in commodities and traditional finance.
The Institutional Blind Spot Around Crypto Options
In a January 13, 2026 report citing Checkonchain data, CoinDesk put aggregate Bitcoin options open interest at $65 billion, compared with $60 billion for futures. It reported that options open interest had exceeded futures since July 2025, with options on BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF accounting for roughly 52% of the options total at that January snapshot. These figures include ETF options as well as crypto-native contracts and should not be read as current market shares or a measure of Blockchain.com’s OTC activity. Open interest alone does not establish investors’ motives or show that options are less speculative than futures. Sischka nevertheless sees a gap between growth in the wider market and the use of options among clients who primarily trade spot and perpetuals. He views options education as an industry maturity issue.
Closing the Gap One Client at a Time
Here’s how Sischka describes closing that gap: Instead of pitching options as a new product, the desk starts from the position a client already holds and builds a structure around it, with execution available either on a principal basis or as an agent under an agency agreement, with a fee and a mandate the client can see in full before agreeing to anything. “The best trading relationships go beyond execution,” Sischka said. “Our job is to understand what clients are trying to achieve, help them navigate the market, and give them access to opportunities they may not be able to reach elsewhere.”
Clients can overlook options because they often see them as a more complex, standalone strategy rather than a tool for managing risk around positions they already hold. Awareness of Blockchain.com’s desk itself also plays a part. Though Blockchain.com remains best known as one of crypto’s earliest wallet and explorer brands, many active participants are less familiar with its OTC desk, which serves institutional, high-net-worth, ultra-high-net-worth, and foundation clients.
The benefits depend on the strategy. A protective put involves a premium and protection limited by its strike, expiry and contract terms. Selling a covered call can cap upside while leaving substantial downside exposure to the underlying asset. Option buyers can lose the entire premium; some option-selling strategies can produce losses exceeding the premium received. OTC contracts also introduce counterparty, liquidity and settlement risks. Premium income is not a guaranteed investment return. The SEC’s options investor bulletin explains general options risks.
Sischka sees scope for options growth among institutions and high-net-worth clients, and potential wider adoption where local rules allow. He identifies long-term Bitcoin and Ethereum holdings as positions around which clients may consider hedging or premium-income strategies. Such strategies require assessment of objectives, costs, liquidity and counterparty exposure. Access depends on jurisdiction, client classification and eligibility; the FCA’s ban on cryptoasset derivatives for UK retail clients remains in place. Separately, Cboe launched extended pre-market and post-market sessions for options on selected stocks and ETFs on October 19, 2026. That concerns listed securities options rather than direct access to OTC crypto derivatives.
Building One Desk Instead of Five
Sischka’s options focus is part of a wider plan for Blockchain.com’s OTC business. The company describes principal and agency execution alongside options, structured strategies, perpetuals and fiat services. Its institutional platform lists support for more than 670 tokens, although coverage and eligibility vary by product and jurisdiction. “The goal is to avoid forcing clients to piece together multiple relationships across their trading activity,” Sischka said. “Clients don't want five different relationships to solve five different trading needs. We’re building a desk that can support them across spot, options, yield strategies, perpetuals, and fiat.”
The company describes its agency execution as designed to reduce market impact on larger trades, rather than guaranteeing a particular execution outcome. Sischka says the desk is building structured strategies around Bitcoin, Ethereum and selected altcoins. Blockchain.com’s institutional page reports more than 1,500 institutional clients and over $1.2 trillion in transaction volume; these are company-reported platform figures, not a measure of options trading alone.
How Fast Institutional Crypto Trading Has Matured
What strikes Sischka most, after two decades split between commodities and crypto, is how quickly institutional trading habits in digital assets caught up with the infrastructure built to serve them. Conventions that took commodities markets generations to develop have taken hold in crypto in under a decade.
CoinDesk reported approximately $28 billion in Bitcoin options open interest on Deribit on July 24, 2026. This is another historical snapshot rather than a current figure, and it is not directly comparable with the broader January market total without accounting for venue coverage and dates.
For Sischka, closing the remaining gap means getting clients to look beyond simply holding or trading an asset and starting to use options to manage the risk around those positions. His expectation is that, as crypto markets continue to mature, options will become an institutional default in digital assets in much the same way they already are across traditional markets.
This article provides general information and a company profile, not financial or investment advice. Cryptoassets and derivatives can involve substantial losses and are not suitable for every investor.
