Less than a half hour before US regulators cracked down on a key crypto exchange, an options trader made a short-term bet against Coinbase Global Inc. that may have netted them millions of dollars.
At 10:36 a.m. on Monday, a block of 4,806 contracts of Coinbase $50 puts expiring Friday hit the tape, when the stock was at $61.77. Roughly 24 minutes later, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it was suing Binance Holdings Ltd, sparking a selloff across the crypto universe.
By noon in New York, Coinbase shares had fallen nearly 12% and the options, which had been bought for 18 cents each, traded for as much as $1 — a gain of almost 460% if sold at the peak.
Source: Mystery Bet Before SEC Crypto Crackdown May Mint Trader Millions – Bloomberg
