Options Traders Brace for Volatility as BNB Nears Record High

• BNB is less than 10% away from its record high of $705.
• Options traders remain cautious with purchases of puts with strikes from $550-$650.
• BNB has been performing well due to high participation in Binance Launchpad and Launchpool projects.

Binance's native BNB token is approaching an all-time high of $705 after surging by more than 10% from Sunday's low of $597.

BNB$1,182.08 is currently trading at $663 having risen by 6.25% over the past 24-hours, outperforming the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) which has marked a 0.23% gain over the same period.

The token has been buoyed of late by strong participation in the Binance Launchpad and Launchpool platforms, which require users to purchase and stake BNB to earn a share of a newly-issued token. The most recent launch was Telegram-based gaming token notcoin (NOT).

However, with trading volume nears $3 billion over the past 24-hours, options traders are proceeding with caution by purchasing put options with a strike price of $550-$650.

"11,250 BNB options traded, call strikes ranging from $600-$700 and put strikes from $650-$550," PowerTrade's chief commercial officer Bernd Sischka told CoinDesk. "Traders are expecting a lot of volatility as prices are pushing towards 2024 highs."

Options are a derivative contract that give the buyer the right to either buy or sell an asset at a set price before the contract expires. Buying call options is seen as a bullish bet whilst the inverse is true on buying put options.

Of the $7.5 million worth of open interest on the BNB options, many of the puts will expire worthless if BNB continues to rise of stays at its current level.