With bitcoin kicking off the seasonally bullish October on a strong note, rising to record highs above $126,000, traders who missed the early rally might be feeling the urge to jump in.
If that latecomer’s FOMO, or fear of missing out, has struck, here are some bullish BTC option plays favored by analysts that might be worth considering to ride the wave smartly.
Call spreads
Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, prefers buying higher strike out-of-the-money (OTM) calls or call spreads.
“Buying 1–2 month out-of-the-money (OTM) calls or call spreads (for example, $130,000/$145,000) allows traders to participate in further upside without overpaying for implied volatility,” Thielen said in a note to clients Monday.
A call option gives the purchaser the right, but not the obligation, to purchase the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a later date. A call buyer is implicitly bullish on the market.
A bull call spread is an options strategy where you buy a call option at a lower strike price and simultaneously sell another call option at a higher strike price, both with the same expiration date, similar to the $130,000/$140,000 spread suggested by Thielen.
Selling the higher strike call limits your potential profit but also reduces the upfront cost of entering the trade. More importantly, this strategy limits your maximum loss to the net premium paid on the spread in the event the market unexpectedly falls, making it an ideal play for traders seeking to balance potential gains with limited risk.
While BTC is expected to rally into the year-end, the probability of a sudden correction, triggered by profit-taking, cannot be ruled out entirely.
Interestingly, traders are booking call spreads via block trades, Deribit’s Asia Business Development Head Lin Chen told CoinDesk.
Flows are dominated by large blocks of call spreads, either very long-dated (Sep 2026) or very short-dated, likely monthly ones,” Chen said. “On the other hand, obviously, we do see a lot of profit taking as well.”
Financing calls spreads with puts
Another way to gain bullish exposure while minimizing initial cost is to finance the bull calls spreads by writing (selling) lower strike OTM put options, according to Greg Magadini, director of derivatives at Amberdata.
“Selling the OTM put and using the proceeds to buy multiple call spreads, instead of an outright OTM call, can help minimize the term structure vol expense, still capture upside,” Magadini said.
However, it’s essential to understand the risks associated with this strategy. Selling put options obligates you to buy BTC at the put’s strike price if the market falls below that level, which exposes you to potentially significant downside risk if BTC’s price drops sharply.
While the bull call spread limits losses from the call side to the net premium paid, the short put leg introduces additional downside exposure that can be much larger than the initial credit received.
Broadly speaking, BTC calls, especially those with longer durations, are cheaper compared to put options, according to Magadini.
Lastly, for those looking for long-term exposure, simply buying and holding BTC has historically been the most rewarding strategy. Since 2011, BTC’s price has skyrocketed from $1 to over $120,000.