Nasdaq is asking U.S. regulators for permission to greatly increase the trading limits for options tied to BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF, IBIT. This change may sound technical, but it is one of the biggest steps in bringing bitcoin fully into traditional finance.

Nasdaq’s International Securities Exchange wants to raise the position limit for IBIT options from 250,000 contracts to one million. Right now, the limit is too small for large investors who need to hedge or manage risk. Nasdaq says the current limit is now restricting market makers and institutional desks that depend on options for hedging and yield strategies.

Interestingly, less than a year ago, the limit was at 25,000, and it was increased once by 10x to 250,000. Now Nasdaq wants to quadruple that limit.

If approved, IBIT would join the same tier as some of the biggest ETFs in the world; products like SPY, QQQ, and EEM. That means bitcoin would officially sit next to major stock-market giants in terms of trading capacity.

IBIT options trading has grown very quickly in 2025. Nasdaq says demand is rising so fast that the old limits are now holding back the market. Some analysts say big trading desks cannot properly hedge their positions with such a low cap.

Analysts say that raising limits is normal when an asset becomes highly traded, highlighting that these adjustments are normal once an asset proves it can handle real volume. Raising the limits would help tighten spreads and improve overall market efficiency.

Nasdaq also stressed that even if someone used all one million contracts at once, it would still be only 7.5% of the ETF’s shares and 0.284% of all bitcoin in the world. That is too small to pose a serious risk.

The exchange is also asking regulators to remove limits on FLEX IBIT options, which are custom options used mainly by big institutions. This would match the rules used for gold-based ETFs.

Analyst Adam Livingston, contributor at Bitcoin For Corporations, said that IBIT is now trading like a mega-cap asset. He noted, “This is the moment every banker secretly feared,” and added, “You don’t scale options by 40× unless you know demand is about to detonate.”

The change also opens the door for new financial products. With higher limits, banks can start offering structured products, yield-based instruments, and other bitcoin-linked investments for clients who might never buy bitcoin directly.

The market reacted quickly to the news. Bitcoin options open interest jumped by $4 billion in a single day, reaching $62 billion. Bitcoin’s price also bounced back sharply, rising toward the $90,000–$92,000 range after weeks of fear in the market.

Bitcoin advocate Max Keiser thinks the new limits are bullish. He highlighted the increase of the limit by 40x since last year, adding that a new all-time high is now “in play.”

He said: