A few years ago, US hedge funds and banks legally couldn't touch crypto, so Block Scholes was the firm knocking on their doors. Today those same institutions are the ones reaching out. That reversal is the story of how crypto options grew up, and it's what we explored on DimeTV with Cody, CTO of Block Scholes.
This isn't a how-to on options mechanics. If you want that, our options series covers calls, puts, the Greeks, and pricing end to end. This is the view from inside the institutional plumbing: who's arriving, what they're doing to volatility, and where the market goes next, from a firm whose data sits on the Bloomberg Terminal.
Watch the full episode on DimeTV with Block Scholes CTO Cody Gîdei, recorded 29 April 2026, or read the highlights below.
Featured guest
Cody Gîdei, CTO of Block Scholes. Block Scholes is an FCA-regulated institutional crypto-derivatives analytics and research firm, and the first and only provider of crypto implied-volatility data on the Bloomberg Terminal. Before Block Scholes, Cody spent over five years at Bloomberg in trading and analytics and worked at Goldman Sachs in investment banking. He joined Paradex on DimeTV to break down where the crypto options market is heading.
From the episode
Institutions have flipped from absent to active. US hedge funds and banks now seek out crypto-options data and tooling they once couldn't legally use
Block Scholes' data sits on the Bloomberg Terminal, the same option-pricing data professional desks rely on
Treasury companies are selling volatility, becoming structural sellers that help dampen crypto's big swings
For retail, options are still in a "pre-Robinhood phase", where the gap now is education and UX, not access
Institutions favour options because they express more than direction: timing, ranges, and volatility itself
A quick orientation before we get into it. This conversation isn't about how options work, calls, puts, strikes, premiums; our plain-English options series covers all of that. What Cody offered on DimeTV is rarer: a view from inside the institutional plumbing of the crypto options market, from a firm whose data sits on the Bloomberg Terminal. Here's what he's seeing.
How institutions went from absent to active in crypto options
The single biggest change Cody has watched is the institutional reversal. A couple of years ago, the US hedge funds and banks Block Scholes wanted as clients simply couldn't participate: the regulatory picture was too unclear for them to touch crypto at all. Block Scholes was knocking on every door, in his words "begging and pleading," building the data and tooling before the buyers were allowed to arrive.
That has inverted. Today those same desks reach out to Block Scholes looking for data, analytics, and ways to backtest options strategies. The demand isn't theoretical; it shows up as inbound requests for higher-frequency data and custom views on the Bloomberg Terminal. When the people who couldn't legally hold the asset become the ones chasing the tooling, you're watching a market change category.
"A couple of years ago these desks weren't able to touch crypto, so we were knocking on all doors trying to reach them. Now there's a clear trend of attention to it, and we don't see that slowing down at all."
— Cody Gîdei, CTO, Block Scholes
Why Bloomberg-grade data is the signal that matters
The clearest marker of how far the market has matured: Block Scholes is now the only provider of crypto implied-volatility data on the Bloomberg Terminal. If you're a trader at a major bank pulling up Bitcoin volatility, that number is coming from Block Scholes.
That detail matters more than it first appears. Institutions arrive with an expectation of tooling, the same data quality and analytics they have in traditional markets. For years that simply didn't exist in crypto. The fact that it now lives inside the terminal hundreds of thousands of professionals use every day is both a cause and a symptom of institutional adoption: the rails had to be built before the money could move, and now they have been.
How treasury companies are quietly compressing volatility
One of the most interesting structural shifts Cody flagged has nothing to do with retail traders. Crypto treasury companies, firms sitting on large token holdings, increasingly sell options against those holdings to generate yield rather than just holding spot. They might sell cash-secured downside puts: if the token holds, they keep the premium; if it sells off through the strike, they accumulate more at a lower net cost.
Do this at scale, across many treasuries, and they become structural sellers of volatility. Block Scholes' thesis is that this is a meaningful reason crypto volatility hasn't whipped around the way it used to. It's a subtle, market-wide consequence of sophistication: the same instruments retail finds intimidating are being used by treasuries to dampen the very swings crypto is famous for.
Why it matters
If you've wondered why crypto feels less violently volatile than in past cycles, part of the answer is structural, not sentiment. A growing base of programmatic option sellers absorbs and offsets moves that once went unhedged. It's one of the clearest examples of an institutional behaviour reshaping the market for everyone.
Why retail options are still in a "pre-Robinhood phase"
For all the institutional momentum, Cody is blunt that retail options haven't had their breakout moment. He calls it the "pre-Robinhood phase."
Two forces held retail back. Perps arrived early, were highly liquid, and were easy to understand, so they "sucked the oxygen" out of the space options might otherwise have filled. And the options experience itself wasn't friendly: an order book full of strikes and expiries is intimidating, and the learning curve felt like a wall. Crucially, the barrier was never that options are bad instruments. It was education and user experience, the two things that are now improving fastest. (If you're on the retail side of that learning curve, our plain-English options series is built to close exactly that gap.)
Why institutions reach for options over perps
If institutions can already trade perps, why the pull toward options? Because options express far more than direction. As Nick, host of DimeTV and part of the Paradex team, put it in the conversation:
"Lots of the US guys want to get into crypto options because you can express so many more views than with just delta-one instruments."
— Nick, DimeTV (Paradex)
A perp or spot position is a bet on one thing: direction. An option lets a desk take a view on timing, on a range, or on volatility itself. For a sophisticated trader, that expressiveness is the entire point, it's the difference between a blunt instrument and a precise one. As the data, liquidity, and venues mature, that toolkit becomes usable by far more than just the largest desks.
What the maturing market means next
Put the pieces together and a direction emerges. Institutional-grade data now exists and sits where professionals work. The firms that couldn't participate are now the most active buyers of tooling. Sophisticated holders are using options structurally, changing the market's volatility profile. And the one segment still waiting, retail, is held back by education and UX rather than access.
That last point is the opportunity. The infrastructure built for institutions, deep liquidity, fair pricing, real analytics, increasingly underlies the venues retail can use too. On Paradex, the same institutional-grade options rails are open to anyone with a wallet, including perpetual options that never expire and aren't liquidated by price moves alone, removing one of the timing traps that has historically punished newer traders.
The institutional toolkit, open to anyone. Paradex offers perpetual options, perps, and spot from a single self-custodial USDC account, built on the institutional liquidity of the team behind Paradigm. No account creation, no gatekeeping.
Crypto options grew up on the institutional side first. The data, the liquidity, and the sophisticated users arrived before the retail wave did, which is the reverse of how perps spread. For Block Scholes, the most exciting part isn't a price call; it's how fast serious institutions are educating themselves and moving in. The infrastructure is now in place. What follows, as the education and UX catch up, is the rest of the market discovering what those desks already know.
Frequently asked questions
According to Block Scholes CTO Cody, the clearest shift is institutional: hedge funds and banks, especially in the US, that a couple of years ago could not touch crypto are now actively seeking data, tooling, and ways to backtest options strategies. The same option-pricing data professional desks use is now available on the Bloomberg Terminal, supplied by Block Scholes.
One driver Block Scholes points to is crypto treasury companies selling options against their holdings to generate yield. By systematically selling volatility, these structural sellers help dampen the large swings crypto was once known for. It is one of several effects of a maturing, more institutional market.
It is maturing fast but, in Cody's words, still in a "pre-Robinhood phase" for retail. Institutional infrastructure (data, analytics, liquidity) is now genuinely institutional-grade, while the retail experience still lags on education and user experience. The gap that remains is knowledge and UX, not access.
Block Scholes is an institutional crypto-derivatives analytics and research firm. It is the only provider of crypto implied-volatility data on the Bloomberg Terminal, and its data powers risk, pricing, and research workflows for hedge funds, banks, and trading desks.
Because options let a desk express far more than direction. As Paradex's Nick put it in the episode, institutions want options because you can express many more views than with delta-one instruments alone: views on timing, on a range, or on volatility itself, rather than just up or down.
About DimeTV
DimeTV is the media channel of Paradex, where the operators, traders, and builders shaping crypto's market structure share what they're seeing. This episode features Cody Gîdei, CTO of Block Scholes. Thanks to Cody for joining us. Follow DimeTV on X for new episodes.
Trade on the rails the institutions use. Open Paradex for perpetual options, perps, and spot from one self-custodial account, built on the institutional liquidity of the team behind Paradigm.
Trading options, perpetual futures, and other crypto derivatives involves substantial risk, including the loss of premiums paid and, on sold positions, losses beyond the premium received. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Do your own research before trading.
Access to Paradex may be restricted in certain jurisdictions. Verify your local regulations before using the platform.
Quotes are drawn from the DimeTV episode and have been lightly edited for clarity and length. This article reflects the views of the guest and does not represent investment advice or the views of Paradex.
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