Binance has added physically settled options on more than 1,000 selected US stocks and exchange-traded funds to its platform, enabling eligible users outside the US to access the products alongside existing crypto and equity offerings within a single account.
The options are processed through a defined chain of intermediaries. Nest Trading Limited acts as the introducing broker, routing customer orders to Alpaca Securities LLC, which handles execution, clearing, settlement, and custody of any shares delivered upon exercise. Nest operates under financial services permission in the Abu Dhabi Global Market, while Alpaca holds SEC and FINRA approval.
How the Options Work
The contracts are physically settled, meaning exercising a call option delivers the underlying shares, while exercising a put requires delivery of them. Customers must submit an exercise instruction through Binance's platform by a cutoff time as late as 30 minutes before expiry. Without an instruction, in-the-money contracts become subject to best-efforts auto-liquidation before market close and may expire worthless.
Binance states that eligible retail users may buy calls and puts, with maximum potential loss limited to the premium paid. The platform requires account approval and financial documentation before customers can execute their first options trade.
Integration Within Binance's Equity Offerings
The stock options join three existing routes to equity exposure available through Binance accounts: direct US stock ownership held through a US-regulated clearing broker, bStocks tokenized securities that do not confer direct ownership, and equity-linked perpetuals that provide derivative exposure without share delivery.
Shunyet Jan, Binance's head of exchange and trading, called stock options an important step toward building a fuller multi-asset platform. Equity-linked perpetuals generated approximately $342.9 billion in volume during August, representing about 79% of Binance's TradFi perpetual activity and growing more than 800-fold from January.
