Nasdaq is moving to dramatically expand the trading capacity around BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, filing a proposal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise options position and exercise limits from 250,000 contracts to one million.
The request, submitted by Nasdaq’s International Securities Exchange, represents one of the most aggressive efforts yet to scale Bitcoin derivatives for deep institutional use.
A Push to Meet Growing Institutional Demand
The increase is designed to give large trading firms and asset managers more room to execute complex hedging and directional strategies tied to BlackRock’s fund. IBIT has rapidly become the dominant Bitcoin options market in the U.S., and Nasdaq argues that the current limits are no longer adequate for the scale of activity occurring on the platform.
By lifting the cap to one million contracts, the exchange intends to place IBIT in the same liquidity tier as some of the largest equity index ETFs, including the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets fund and the iShares China Large-Cap ETF.
Reflecting the Rise of a New Institutional Benchmark
The filing points to IBIT’s growth as a central reason for the proposed expansion. Over the past year, the fund has overtaken even long-standing crypto-native options venues such as Deribit in open interest, underscoring how quickly regulated U.S. markets are capturing Bitcoin derivatives volume. Nasdaq maintains that increasing the limits will not threaten market stability, noting that Bitcoin’s depth has grown enough to absorb larger options flows without distorting price discovery.
A Continuation of Nasdaq’s Broader Strategy
This is the second time in 2025 that Nasdaq has sought to raise IBIT’s contract limits, following an earlier request that received SEC approval in July. The exchange’s repeated efforts signal an ongoing attempt to cement Bitcoin options as a mainstream institutional product, with IBIT positioned at the center of that transition.
The SEC formally opened the public comment window on November 26, giving market participants until December 17 to submit feedback. The decision will determine whether IBIT joins the highest-tier ETF derivatives group, further extending Bitcoin’s reach into traditional financial architecture.
