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Kraken has started offering Bitcoin and Ether options to eligible clients in the European Economic Area through Kraken Pro, relying on MiFID permissions held by a Cypriot investment firm it acquired in 2025. The options appear in the same interface as spot and futures trading, and clients can draw on shared collateral even though different Kraken group entities provide the services.
Options join existing products
The contracts track XBT/USD and ETH/USD and have weekly, monthly, quarterly and semi-annual expiries. They are European-style, cash-settled instruments priced in US dollars. Premiums, gains or losses, and settlement are therefore calculated in dollars rather than paid out in Bitcoin or Ether.
RFQ handles initial execution
For now, Kraken is using a request-for-quote (RFQ) process, with no public order book for these contracts. A client can combine up to five components, ask for prices and accept a quote before it expires. Acceptance commits both sides to the trade, allowing multi-leg positions to be arranged without sending each leg to a market separately.
Portfolio margin changes exposure
The margin model follows futures practice: clients do not pay the entire option premium when opening a position, while profit and loss are accounted for against collateral. Portfolio margin is on by default, so positions that offset one another can lower the collateral needed across the account. Kraken accepts more than 30 currencies and assets as collateral, but says selling some options can lead to losses greater than the margin initially posted. Further margin calls or liquidation can follow losses. Access is confined to eligible customers in EEA countries where Kraken offers derivatives.
Separate firms provide the services
Ireland-based Payward Europe Solutions Limited holds the account's cryptoassets within the EU MiCA regime. The options provider is Payward Europe Digital Solutions (CY) Limited, also known as PEDSL-CY, which holds CySEC licence 342/17. Kraken acquired the firm, previously called I.F. Greenfields Wealth, in 2025 to secure its MiFID permissions. Finance Magnates had previously described it as a CFD provider associated with the PU Prime group; CySEC now lists it under the Payward name. Kraken began offering options outside Europe in July and said EEA availability would come later in 2026. A public order book and more underlying assets are possible future additions, but Kraken has given no schedule.
What this means on the desk
Operations teams will need to account for the split between cryptoasset custody and options provision, despite the unified account view. They should establish how shared collateral is represented across those services, which assets qualify, and how margin calls and liquidations are handled when portfolio offsets change.
The RFQ workflow also makes quote validity and trade acceptance important control points: once a quote is accepted, the trade is binding. Before enabling access, teams should confirm how those events feed into their order, position and reconciliation processes, and ask whether any planned changes to the execution model will require new integrations.
