What is a crypto option?

A crypto option is a contract giving its buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a cryptocurrency at a fixed price, called the strike price, by a fixed date, called the expiration date. The buyer pays the seller a premium for the right. A call option is the right to buy; a put option is the right to sell. For example, a $10 premium is the most the buyer of a $100 call can lose.

Updated 2026-10-15

What is the difference between a call and a put?

A call option and a put option are the two kinds of option, and the difference is the direction of the right. First, a call option is the right to buy the coin at the strike price; according to Wikipedia’s entry on options, “an option that conveys to the holder the right to buy at a specified price is referred to as a call,” and a call is in the money when the market price is above the strike price. Second, a put option is the right to sell the coin at the strike price, and a put is in the money when the market price is below the strike price. Third, the two kinds serve different views: a call buyer expects the coin to rise, a put buyer expects the coin to fall. For example, with a $100 strike price and a $10 premium, a call makes money above $110 and a put makes money below $90.

What can a crypto option buyer lose?

A crypto option buyer can lose the premium and nothing more, and the known worst case is the defining feature of buying options. First, the premium is paid upfront, so the worst case is set before the trade starts; according to Binance Academy, “the premium is the most you can lose as a buyer of an option,” and the same holds when the option expires worthless. Second, the seller of an option faces the larger risk. Binance Academy notes that selling a call option without owning the coin carries significant risk if the price rises sharply, because the seller must deliver at the strike price however high the market goes. Third, the premium itself shrinks over time: the part of the premium reflecting the time left to expiration, the time value, falls as the expiration date gets closer, a pattern option traders call theta. For example, a $10 premium cannot grow into a $20 loss, whatever the coin does.

How does a crypto option work on Supervega?

Supervega is a crypto options app on Starknet where every option a buyer picks is a call, chosen with three inputs instead of an options chain. First, pick an asset and set a target price: the target price plays the role of the strike price. Second, set a deadline: the deadline is the expiration date. Third, pay a small fee upfront: the fee is the premium, and the fee is the most a Supervega buyer can lose, with no liquidations and no margin calls. Supervega ranks the available options for the chosen target and deadline by multiplier, where the multiplier is how many times the fee the buyer receives if the price reaches the target; for example, a $10 fee with a multiplier of 5 pays $50, 5 times the fee. If the asset hits the target price before the deadline, the payout is sent to the wallet automatically, and above the break-even price a partial profit can be claimed early from the portfolio.