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Data sources · where we take the options leg from
Deribit — is the world’s largest exchange for options on BTC and ETH. This is where the overwhelming majority of the world’s crypto options trading happens, so this is where the key levels that move the market are formed: max pain, open-interest walls, the volatility curve and skew, plus large block trades by whales.
We read Deribit every day, because the price on the chart is a consequence, and the causes are often born in the options market. Below: what options are in plain words, why Deribit is the main source of options data, and how this options leg fits into our Radar.
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Sign up on Deribit →An option — is the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an asset at a price agreed in advance (the strike) up to a certain date. A call gives the right to buy, a put — the right to sell. For that right the buyer pays a premium. The seller (often a market maker) receives the premium but takes on the obligation.
Why this matters for reading the market: to buy an option at a given strike, somebody has to pay real money in advance. So the mass of options shows which prices and events capital is preparing for — where it expects the move, where it puts protection, and where it holds a wall. A map of intent, visible before spot moves.
Liquidity gathers in one place. Deribit holds a dominant share of BTC and ETH options turnover, so option levels there carry real weight, rather than being statistical noise from a thin market. Here is what we read there:
The cause, not the consequence
Why options at all. The chart shows what has already happened. The Deribit options market shows what they are preparing for in advance: where the walls stand, which way the skew is tilted, what structures the whales are assembling. This is the causal side of the market — and it is what we read every day.
The Deribit options leg — one half of our Radar. Every day we cross max pain and walls Deribit with skew and the state of the market makers — and overlay that on the Hyperliquid perp leg (whale positions, the liquidation map, funding). Options tell you where the walls stand; perps — where the leverage sits. When these two independent instruments agree, the signal carries the most weight. That crossing point is what we publish.
INDICIA DESK · Crypto options market intelligence (BTC / ETH).
Educational content and a journal of the system’s decisions. Not financial or investment advice.