Digital Assets Watch: BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF just hit a massive milestone that proves crypto is now a mainstream bet

Across major exchanges, something notable happened on Friday, indicating the accelerating institutionalization of the bitcoin BTC$77,570.59 sector, which has been pioneered by everyday people for years.

This is because options, or hedging instruments, linked to BlackRock's bitcoin trading platform-traded fund (ETF), IBIT, have grown slightly larger on Nasdaq than total bitcoin options trading on the offshore giant Deribit.

It is particularly striking that IBIT options have, in just two years, closed the gap with Deribit’s bitcoin options market, which has been operating since 2016.

On Friday, the dollar value of open or active IBIT options contracts on Nasdaq, the so-called open interest (OI), was $27.61 billion, slightly higher than the $26.90 billion in Deribit's bitcoin options, according to data tracked by decentralized crypto price swings protocol Volmex.

This milestone indicates that the regulated, institutional-grade bitcoin investment and derivatives infrastructure in the U.S.

Is no longer second fiddle to the offshore trading market.

Moreover, a booming, regulated market in the U.S.

Could embolden more Wall Street institutions to explore digital assets, ultimately leading to more mature quote discovery.