Options adoption has been the strangest gap in crypto derivatives. Everyone on crypto Twitter seems to agree that options are underrated, underused, and probably inevitable. The debate always stalls at the same question: if that’s true, why haven’t perp traders actually adopted them? The answer starts with what crypto built first, and what it optimized for.
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Perps won because they solved access
Perpetual futures are a genuine DeFi success story. Anyone with a wallet can access leveraged perp trading 24/7 on major assets, with no brokerage account and no prime broker relationship required. That kind of access took traditional finance decades to extend to retail traders. Crypto did it in a few years, and the growth shows it: since early 2024, perp volume across DeFi has grown roughly 4x, while open interest has grown around 40x.
But the products that emerged were built for one thing: taking on more exposure. Perps are long or short with leverage, and liquidation is the risk management. The market grew because it gave traders size, speed, and constant access, not because it gave them a way to manage risk once they had a position on.
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The half that never followed
In traditional finance, options are the tool that changes that equation. Fund managers use them to protect portfolios. Institutions use them to define risk before entering a position. Retail traders use them to cap a loss while keeping their upside open.
This isn’t speculation about what options could do in crypto either. Onchain options have existed for years and have processed real volume. Aevo launched the first CLOB options DEX onchain four years ago and has since processed billions in options volume. Watching options adoption from that vantage point, the diagnosis became clear: the gap wasn’t demand. It was the interface.
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The interface problem behind slow options adoption
Open an options terminal for the first time and you’re confronted with a chain of strikes at intervals you didn’t choose, expiries you have to select, and Greeks you’re expected to monitor in real time.
The problem was never that options are hard. It’s that options feel like a completely different game, with a different vocabulary and a different set of things to track. Every perp trader wants what options deliver: defined risk, a floor on their position, and a worst case they can see before the market moves. But the interface that delivers those outcomes is the exact part they’ve been rejecting.
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What we built from that
So we started from one specific question: what if traders could get options outcomes without the options interface?
PERPS+ is where that question landed. It attaches one of three outcomes to a BTC or ETH perp at entry, so you can cap your downside while leaving upside fully open, collect a premium upfront on a position you’re already comfortable holding, or define both sides of your range for close to zero net cost.
Here’s how the three outcomes reshape a long position:
A long perp, with and without PERPS+
Illustrative P&L at expiry for a long position entered at 100, with example strikes and premiums. Live pricing depends on market conditions.
The options infrastructure runs underneath the whole thing, on the same order book, margin engine, and settlement layer we built for our full derivatives stack. Options and perpetuals share the same collateral pool and the same account. That’s only possible because Aevo built both options and perps on a single exchange from the start, rather than bolting one onto the other later.
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Where options adoption goes from here
The options conversation on crypto Twitter is only getting louder, and the debate has already shifted. It’s no longer about whether options are useful. It’s about why they haven’t arrived yet for the average perp trader.
PERPS+ brought options into a format perp traders already understand. That’s the first step, not the last one. The next step is rethinking the options experience itself.
We’re not done.
WHERE TO GO NEXT
If you want the option itself, Aevo is an options dex where Easy Mode reduces a trade to three decisions. To hedge perps with options in one tap, PERPS+ attaches a floor, a ceiling or both to a BTC or ETH perp. If calls, puts and premium are unfamiliar, options trading explained covers the building blocks. For market data, the crypto options statistics 2026 report sizes on-chain options against perps. For backers, products and dated figures, read about Aevo. New to derivatives? The crypto derivatives guides take you from your first perp to hedging in seven short lessons. To see how a hedge can lower what a perp needs, read how cross margin perps & options work together on one account.
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Frequently asked questions
Why haven't perp traders adopted options in crypto?
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Has options trading actually existed onchain, or is this a new idea?
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What outcomes do options actually deliver that perps don't?
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What is PERPS+, and how does it relate to options adoption?
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Are PERPS+ trades backed by real options, or a synthetic approximation?
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Is PERPS+ the end goal, or is more coming?
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Try PERPS+ on a BTC perp
Options outcomes without the options chain.
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This article is for information only and isn’t financial advice. Options and perpetual futures are high-risk products and you can lose your full position.