Kraken Pro opens BTC and ETH options to eligible EEA clients

What Kraken launched

Kraken announced on its official blog on 26 October 2026 that eligible clients in the European Economic Area can now trade Bitcoin and Ether options on Kraken Pro, both on the web and in the mobile app. The markets are BTC (XBT/USD) and ETH (ETH/USD), and they sit inside the same Derivatives account that EEA clients already use for Kraken futures.

Kraken ties the launch to its MiFID licence, which it says lets it offer options to EEA clients on a regulated venue. The legal note names Payward Europe Digital Solutions (CY) Limited, authorised by Cyprus's securities regulator CySEC under licence 342/17, as the provider of the options service.

How the contracts work

The options are European-style, which means they can only be exercised at expiry, and they are cash-settled, so no Bitcoin or Ether changes hands at settlement. They are linear in US dollars: the premium, profit and loss and settlement are all counted in dollars. Kraken lists weekly, monthly, quarterly and semi-annual expiries.

Collateral does not have to be dollars. Kraken says options share the same collateral as futures and that more than 30 currencies can be used, with one wallet across spot, futures and options.

Margin, funding and liquidation

Kraken uses futures-style margining for options. The premium is not paid upfront; instead profit and loss is marked to market against your collateral. Portfolio margin is switched on by default, so offsetting positions reduce the margin required.

Options themselves carry no funding payments, although perpetual contracts held in the same account still do. If a portfolio becomes distressed, Kraken says it goes through a sealed-offer auction rather than being liquidated on the order book.

Trading by request for quote

There is no public order book for these options. Trades go through request for quote: you build a trade of up to five legs, submit it and receive time-limited quotes. You can accept one or pass, but Kraken stresses that accepting a quote is binding.

Before the first trade, clients have to complete a questionnaire, which Kraken's legal note calls an appropriateness assessment. Kraken also warns that a buyer can lose the full value of an option and that a seller's losses can far exceed the margin posted and may be unlimited.

Our take

Shared collateral, portfolio margin by default and dollar settlement make this a practical setup for EEA traders who already use Kraken futures and want to hedge or trade volatility. The RFQ-only flow and the risk on sold options mean it is a tool for experienced traders, so start small and read Kraken's key information documents first.