Why Most Crypto Options Are Still OTC — And How Jetstream Changes That

The Game's Rigged. You Just Didn't Know It.

Everyone talks about how DeFi is eating TradFi. Cute story.

But here's the truth: when it comes to options, DeFi is still stuck in 2017. It's fragmented, collateral-heavy, and functionally unusable for any trader who actually moves size.

That's why most crypto options are still traded OTC. And that's not changing—unless we rebuild the rails themselves.

Enter Jetstream: the platform that brings the capital efficiency of clearing to crypto. On-chain. Real-time. Without needing a spreadsheet and a prayer.

🥷 The Silent Majority: OTC Options Dominate

Let's kill the illusion.

You see some on-chain options volume on-chain and think we're growing? That's the crumbs.

The real size—tens of millions daily—flows through OTC chat groups, PDFs, and messy reconciliation spreadsheets. Because:

On-chain margining sucks
Capital efficiency is non-existent
And DeFi protocols still pretend selling a single put option requires full collateral

You think market makers are going to lock 100% collateral for every leg of a spread? Lol. No. They run it through Deribit or do it OTC, then hedge it manually wherever it's cheapest.

📉 Why On-Chain Options Are Broken

Let's be blunt:

Zero Netting Logic
On-chain options protocols don't offset risk. Sell one put, buy another, and you're still on the hook for both margins. TradFi cleared that up decades ago.
100% Collateralization
A joke. TradFi margin desks would laugh you out of the room. You're not selling options, you're parking money and hoping someone takes the other side.
No Clearing = No Trust
Without clearing, the protocol is just a fancy venue. The real risk is still on you. That doesn't scale, especially not for funds running billions.

🚀 What Jetstream Gets Right

Jetstream isn't another front-end DEX trying to farm TVL. It's a platform built on Pascal Protocol — DeFi's first actual clearing engine.

Here's how it flips the model:

✅ Portfolio-Based Margining

You get credited for offsetting risk. That bull put spread? You only lock what you're actually exposed to. You know… like a real margin system.

✅ On-Chain, Real-Time Clearing

No middlemen. No 24-hour reconciliation. Your trades clear in real-time with deterministic logic. Built-in transparency, no surprises.

✅ OTC Give-Up Support

Did your trade start in Telegram? Fine. Pipe it into Jetstream to clear. Now it's netted, settled, and tracked on-chain — without trusting your counterparty to wire on time.

✅ Capital Efficiency on Day One

No more overposting. You free up collateral, trade more, hedge better, and stop playing in sandbox protocols pretending to be adult venues.

💡 Why This Changes Everything

Here's the big idea:

The reason crypto options haven't gone fully on-chain isn't demand. It's margin.

Market makers, funds, and desks want to trade options. They already are. But they need infrastructure that lets them do it without locking 100% of their treasury in every position.

That infrastructure? Jetstream + Pascal Protocol.

It's not another exchange. It's the backend rails the real market needs to migrate.

📈 What Happens Next?

Simple:

Derivatives grow up
OTC trades go on-chain
DeFi finally unlocks the volume it's missing

If you're a trader, builder, or just tired of holding your breath every time you open a position on-chain — Jetstream is your exit from fragility.

⚙️ TL;DR

Most crypto options are still traded OTC — because DeFi margin models are broken.
Jetstream clears that up (literally) with portfolio margining and on-chain netting.
It's built for serious flow — not memes, not gimmicks.
The future of options is composable, transparent, and capital-efficient.
The future of options is Jetstream.

🔗 Try it now → jetstream.trade