Nasdaq's ISE prompts SEC to quadruple daily trading limit on BlackRock's IBIT options

Nasdaq’s International Securities Exchange (ISE) has filed a proposal with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to increase position limits on options for BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust from 250,000 contracts to 1,000,000 contracts. 

The change to a higher limit is meant to allow institutional traders and market makers to establish larger positions, thereby increasing market depth and liquidity for the product. 

Nasdaq ISE requests exemption to eliminate limits entirely 

The filing also requested an exemption to eliminate limits for customized “FLEX” options that are physically delivered. According to the filing, this move would “align IBIT with other major commodity-based ETFs and help pull trading activity away from opaque over-the-counter markets.”

As a key factor supporting the change, Nasdaq highlighted IBIT’s market capitalization of $86.2 billion and an average daily volume of 44.6 million shares as of September 22, 2025. BlackRock holds over $71 billion in Bitcoin. The increased options limit would allow roughly $5.3 billion, representing about 8% of that total value, which is a standard, conservative practice for large ETFs

The ISE proposal is subject to SEC approval, and the public comment period runs until December 17, 2025.

“IBIT is now the biggest bitcoin options market in the world by open interest,” Eric Balchunas, Senior ETF Analyst at Bloomberg, stated.  Additionally, Jeff Park of Bitwise Invest Advisors stated,  “At last, IBIT options is finally getting the treatment it deserves. Institutional vol is finally here.”

Meanwhile, BlackRock continues to accumulate Bitcoin exposure in its in-house funds. A separate Wednesday filing revealed its Strategic Income Opportunities Portfolio increased its IBIT holdings by 14% in Q3 to $155.8 million.

Investors stick around even after IBIT records monthly outflows

The proposal coincides with over 2 billion monthly IBIT outflows. On-chain data shows the same wallet has fallen from a $117 billion peak to $78.4 billion, losing more than 30% of its value over the past month.

“…After months of steady inflows, the outflows reflect rising caution as Bitcoin falls ~22% over the past month and 7% year-to-date,” wrote Walter Bloomberg.

However, ETF analyst Eric Balchunas pushed back on the panic, stating that the majority of investors are sticking around despite the outflows. He also highlighted the collapse in short interest, ascribing plummeting IBIT short interest to traders who tend to short into strength and cover in downturns.

This take was supported by trading records from last week, which surpassed $40.32 billion across the 11 US-listed spot bitcoin ETFs. BlackRock’s IBIT led the industry with $27.79 billion in trading volume, accounting for nearly 70% of the total, according to data source SoSoValue.

Meanwhile, on November 26,  IBIT had a 1-day inflow of $42.82 million, while its cumulative inflow remains extremely large at $9.98 billion. This indicates strong long-term demand. However,  daily flows have been smaller recently. 

The fund’s net assets stand at $33.5 billion, and it is currently holding about 665.5K BTC. The premium/discount is 0.05%, meaning IBIT is trading almost exactly in line with the real Bitcoin price, with no major gap. The orange line on the chart is Bitcoin’s price trend, while the blue bars represent daily inflows/outflows. 

Meanwhile, Bitcoin has risen back to the $90k threshold. According to Coinmarketcap, the coin is up 5% in the last 24 hours and is now trading at $91,254.

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