Options on BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) debuted on Tuesday, November 19, with a trading volume of $1.9 billion, with the lion’s share of activity seeing traders betting on the ETF’s price nearly doubling.

Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced it will be delisting wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) on December 19, over undisclosed failures to meet the exchange’s listing standards.

South Korea's ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is moving ahead with its plan to impose a 20% tax on cryptocurrency gains, starting from the beginning of next year.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Options Debut with $1.9 Billion Volume
• Coinbase Delists Wrapped Bitcoin Over ‘Listing Standards
• South Korea to Implement 20% Crypto Tax in 2025

BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Options Debut with $1.9 Billion Volume

Options on BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) debuted on Tuesday, November 19, with a trading volume of $1.9 billion, with the lion’s share of activity seeing traders betting on the ETF’s price nearly doubling.

According to data from analytics firm ConvexValue, 32,000 contracts of the $100 strike call option were traded, with most having a December 12 expiry date. This means investors are betting the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) will trade at $100 by December 12, up from its current price tag of around $52.

On offshore cryptocurrency options exchange, Deribit, $381 million in notional open interest is locked in the $200,000 strike bitcoin call which, assuming the buyers of these options aren’t market makers, suggests investors are expecting the spot price of BTC to double.

On the options debut, the $55 call options were the most traded contract, with the volume of call options – which give investors the right but not the obligation to buy the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a predetermined date – was four times higher than the volume of put options.

Put options give investors the right, but not the obligation, to sell the underlying asset at a specific price on or before a specific date.

Coinbase Delists Wrapped Bitcoin Over ‘Listing Standards

Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced it will be delisting wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) on December 19, over undisclosed failures to meet the exchange’s listing standards.

In a post on X, Coinbase said it regularly monitors assets that are listed on the exchange to ensure they meet its listing standards. The firm has already discontinued WBTC market orders, with users now only being able to issue limit orders.

The announcement comes amidst controversy surrounding WBTC's custody arrangements as in August BitGo, the custodian holding the Bitcoin reserves backing WBTC, granted partial control of the multisignature wallet to Hong Kong-based crypto exchange BiT Global.

BiT Global has ties to Justin Sun, making the announcement controversial as according to Threshold, a rival Bitcoin wrapper, many in the ecosystem are “expressing concern over his ‘affiliated projects show worrying signs of possible misappropriation’ of collateral.”

The move also comes after Coinbase launched its own wrapped Bitcoin, Coinbase Wrapped BTC (cbBTC,) back in September. The token has emerged as one of the most popular BTC wrappers with around $1.4 billion in total value locked, compared to WBTC’s $13 billion.

South Korea to Implement 20% Crypto Tax in 2025

South Korea's ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is moving ahead with its plan to impose a 20% tax on cryptocurrency gains, starting from the beginning of next year.

Originally scheduled to take effect in 2022, the tax plan has already been postponed twice. While there were discussions to delay the implementation further, possibly until 2028, the DPK has opted to move ahead with the 2025 deadline.

To mitigate the impact on individual investors, the DPK is proposing to raise the tax-deductible limit from 2.5 million Korean won (around $1,795) to 50 million won (around $35,900).

Additionally, the government is considering a measure to allow taxpayers to use a percentage of the sale price as a proxy for the original purchase price, particularly in cases where precise acquisition records are unavailable.

The DPK believes that raising the tax exemption limit to 50 million won would be akin to nulifying the tax plan, as only a small number of investors would exceed this threshold.

The amended tax plan is expected to be approved by the National Assembly's tax subcommittee on November 25 and by the legislature's general meeting on November 26.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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