Bybit has launched Perp Options, options contracts written on perpetual futures of traditional stocks, making it the first exchange anywhere to offer round-the-clock US equity options. The product went live on Sept. 17 at 20:00 UTC with SpaceX and Nvidia as the first two underlyings, and the exchange says Tesla, the QQQ index ETF, the SOXL semiconductor ETF and Micron are next.
The structure is unusual. Conventional equity options are written on shares, trade only during market hours, settle in groups of 100 and require roughly $25,000 in notional for many contracts. Bybit’s version is written on the exchange’s own TradFi perpetual contracts, the stock perps it has listed since April 2026. That means the options trade continuously, settle in USDT, and use a contract multiplier of one, so a trader can buy a fraction of a share’s worth of exposure.
European-style cash settlement removes early assignment risk, and portfolio margin lets options positions offset against related perp and spot holdings in the same unified trading account. Spreads, straddles and covered calls are supported from day one, and new expiries are added regularly.
Why it matters for traders
For crypto-native traders, the appeal is access. US equity options normally require a brokerage account, often a US one, plus margin infrastructure and market hours discipline. Bybit folds the exposure into an account the trader already has, with no separate broker relationship and no currency conversion leg, since everything settles in USDT.
For traditional options traders, the appeal is time. Earnings announcements, regulatory decisions and macro shocks do not respect the closing bell. An Nvidia options holder who wants to hedge after a weekend product announcement has historically had no way to do it until Monday. Now the position can be adjusted at 3am on a Saturday, and portfolio margin means the hedge can be cross-offset against existing holdings rather than margined separately.
Mike Xue, head of Bybit’s option business, framed the expansion plan in the launch statement. “Bybit Perp Options is kicking off with space-age ambition and AI-infrastructure potential, but we are looking to expand beyond sectors in coming months to provide our traders with market access to Tesla, QQQ, SOXL, Micron, and more,” he said. Bybit’s TradFi perpetuals line now covers more than 250 tickers, which sets the menu for future options listings.
Context in a crowded week
The launch fits a pattern. Bybit’s derivatives volume reached $321 billion in August, up 14.9% month on month, and the exchange has been pushing into traditional assets all year, adding weekly listings to its TradFi perps line, including pre-IPO contracts on private companies like Unitree Robotics and Moonshot AI. Those pre-IPO perps, which give traders exposure to companies before they list, were the natural foundation for an options product on SpaceX, which remains private.
Its larger rival Binance announced FX perpetual futures on Friday, bringing currency trading onto the same 24/7 model with a USDBRL contract launching Sept. 21 at up to 100x leverage. Meanwhile the traditional side is moving toward crypto. The SEC approved tokenized stock trading with a five-year innovation exemption last week and immediately convened NYSE, Nasdaq, BlackRock and Robinhood to discuss 24-hour equity trading. NYSE parent ICE has spent a year testing Avalanche blockchain technology for a tokenized securities platform, according to Ava Labs president Charley Cooper.
Both sides are converging on the same product: always-on trading of everything, on whatever infrastructure wins. Crypto exchanges got there first on hours; regulated venues still hold the compliance advantage, and the tokenized stock rules the SEC approved come with volume caps, issuer vetoes and a ban on synthetic tokens, constraints Bybit’s offshore product does not carry.
The risks worth naming
Options on perps inherit the risks of both instruments. The underlying perp tracks the stock through a funding mechanism and a price index, not through actual share ownership, so pricing can drift when the underlying market is closed, exactly the hours the product advertises. Weekend pricing on TradFi perps uses exponentially weighted moving averages of orderbook data, and a thin weekend book can make hedges behave strangely when liquidity returns Monday morning.
Leverage cuts the other way too. Fractional lots lower the barrier to entry, which brings in smaller traders who may not have traded options before. Options are among the fastest ways to lose money in finance, and a product with no market-hours pause removes one natural brake on impulsive trading. Bybit has made API trading, demo trade and trial funds available at launch, which helps newcomers practice, but the product is available to all users, not just accredited ones.
Regulators have not weighed in on options written on perpetual futures of US stocks, and the products are aimed at international markets where Bybit holds licenses. US traders remain shut out of both the options and the underlying perps. The CFTC has said its assessments of perpetuals tied to non-crypto assets apply contract by contract, and no US-registered venue offers anything like this product.
The first two underlyings are telling. SpaceX is private, so its perp is a synthetic proxy rather than a tracked security, giving retail traders exposure to the most sought-after private company in aerospace, one that has never sold shares to the public. Nvidia is the center of the AI trade, and its stock has been among the most optioned names on Wall Street. Bybit picked the two names retail demand screams for, and the rest of the lineup, Tesla, QQQ, SOXL, Micron, follows the same logic: high recognition, high volatility, heavy retail interest.