Crypto prime broker GCEX began offering Bitcoin and Ether options to professional and institutional clients today (Thursday). The contracts trade over the counter with its UK arm, GC Exchange Limited, which is authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Hedge funds, asset managers and family offices that qualify as professional clients can request prices from the GCEX trading desk, the company said. Retail investors are shut out, because the FCA has barred the sale of crypto derivatives to them since January 2021.
GCEX is pitching the product to clients who do not want an exchange account. One such venue, the crypto options exchange Deribit, has belonged to Coinbase since the US company agreed to buy it for $2.9 billion in May 2025.
Deribit handled more than $185 billion of trading volume in July 2025, according to Coinbase.
London's trading industry is coming home!
Monthly Contracts Settled in Fiat
At launch, the desk quotes European-style calls and puts, which can only be exercised at expiry. They expire monthly and settle in fiat currency.
Prices come from GCEX's liquidity providers, the company said, and positions show up in its XplorPortal reporting alongside clients' spot crypto and FX activity.
The options sit with the same UK entity that runs the company's FX and CFD business. GC Exchange Limited fell to a pre-tax loss in 2025 during an expansion push.
Lars Holst, the founder and chief executive of GCEX, said institutional clients had been asking for "a regulated way to hedge ... without onboarding to an exchange."
Holst said the company hedges every trade with its liquidity providers and does not take the other side of client positions. Buyers can lose no more than the premium they pay, while sellers can lose more than they collect, according to the release.
Kraken and FalconX Already Quote on Request
Several crypto firms have started offering institutional options over the counter since mid-2025. Ripple-owned Hidden Road added cross-margined OTC crypto options to its prime brokerage in July 2025.
FalconX opened round-the-clock electronic access to its options desk that September, covering Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and HYPE, according to the company.
Kraken's contract has the same design. In July it launched European-style Bitcoin and Ether options settled in US dollars, traded only by request for quote, with expiries from weekly to semi-annual.
Three Regulators, Separate Entities
Few crypto businesses clear the FCA. The regulator registered 68 cryptoasset firms between January 2020 and August 2026, or 17% of the 391 applications it decided, FM Intelligence data show.
GC Exchange Limited holds its authorization under firm reference number 828730. The FCA is one of 12 regulators whose public registers FM Intelligence's license monitoring tool tracks.
Spot crypto trading stays with GC Exchange A/S, which the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority authorizes under the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). A third unit, in Dubai and now led by Alya Marrakchi, holds a license from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA).
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
Source: Finance Magnates
