Selling cash-secured puts on COIN
A crypto proxy with equity-market hours. IV in the 60s–90s is routine, the chain is liquid enough for spreads, and the overnight gap risk is real because the underlying asset trades while the options market is closed.
A cash-secured put is a limit order you get paid to place. Sell the Aug 28 $135 put on COIN and you collect $550 today for the obligation to buy 100 shares at $135. Set aside $13,500 to honour it and the premium is 4.1% over 27 days — 55% annualized.
The trade, priced from the chain
27d to August 28, 2026| Leg | Qty | Price | Δ | IV | Cash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SellAug 28 $135 put | 1 | $5.50 | -0.30 | 71% | +$550 |
Every leg above is priced at the chain’s own quote — the identical number the builder will show you when you click through (last traded price), captured August 1, 2026 with a 15-minute delay. Only strikes whose print survives an implied-volatility check (within 20% of its own IV) and a no-arbitrage check across the ladder are priced here. Full methodology. Greeks, breakevens, max profit/loss and probability of profit are computed by OptionTracker’s engine at r = 4.2%. Educational analysis, not investment advice.
Yield on the capital this actually ties up
Annualized figures assume the same trade repeats every 27 days at the same premium. Nothing does. Use them to compare strikes and tickers, not to forecast a year.
How a cash-secured put works
Selling a put transfers the downside between $135 and zero to you, and you are paid $5.50 per share for taking it. "Cash-secured" simply means you hold the $13,500 required to buy the shares instead of leaning on margin. Same position, honest denominator.
At August 28, 2026: above $135 the put expires worthless and you keep $550 — that is the maximum this trade can make, $550. Below it you're assigned 100 shares at $135, with an effective cost basis of $129.5 once the credit is applied. That is 11.5% below where COIN trades today.
The engine puts the probability of keeping the full credit at 71% on COIN at $146.26 with 73% ATM implied vol on the Aug 28 expiry. High win rate, capped payoff, uncapped-to-zero loss — the risk profile of every short-premium trade. It is not free money; it is a rent cheque for underwriting someone else's insurance.
When it makes sense
- You genuinely want to own COIN at $135 — because roughly 71% of the time you won't get the shares, and the rest of the time you will, at the worst possible moment.
- IV is elevated relative to realized. At 73% ATM, COIN is the 3rd richest of the 20 underlyings on this site.
- It is the entry leg of the wheel: sell puts until assigned, then sell calls against the shares.
- The position survives the worst single session in this underlying's recent history at the size you are about to put on.
Where the risk actually is
Max loss is $12,950 — the strike, less the credit, times 100, if COIN goes to zero. That number is not theoretical on single names; it is simply unlikely. Size the position against that figure, not against the premium.
Assignment is not the loss — being assigned at $135 when COIN is at $108 is. If you are running the wheel, that is the moment the plan is tested: you own shares at a basis of $129.5 and the market disagrees.
Liquidity is a risk, not a convenience. The moment you most want out of a short-premium position is the moment the spread is widest, and the exit price you modelled at mid will not be available.
COIN specifics: ladder, surface, and the implied move
The premium is the highest per dollar of spot on this list and the honest reason is that the risk does not stop when the closing bell rings. Bitcoin trades all weekend; Coinbase options do not. A short strike that was two standard deviations away on Friday afternoon can be through the money before Monday's open with no opportunity to manage in between. Defined risk is not a preference here, it is the only responsible construction.
COIN's Aug 28 strikes are $2.5 apart near the money (1.71% of spot). That is a coarse ladder: one rung is a large fraction of the implied move, so precision on the short strike is an illusion. 5.5k contracts of open interest on Aug 28 is thin, and a structure that needs four separate fills will pay for it. 27 strikes on that expiry — 33% of the board — carry prints that agree with their own implied volatility and hold up across the ladder, and those are the strikes priced here. Workable around the money, genuinely thin in the wings. Price your condor width against the open interest, not the ladder.
Skew is inverted: the 25-delta CALL implies 1.7% more vol than the put. That is the market pricing upside risk above downside risk — a squeeze, a takeover rumour, or a crowded short. Selling calls into an inverted skew pays better than usual and is riskier than usual for exactly the same reason. The term structure is flat inside 1.5% between the two captured expiries, so there is no calendar edge to harvest and no event visibly priced into one month over the other.
At 73% ATM implied vol, the Aug 28 options are pricing a one-standard-deviation move of $28.93 over 27 days — roughly −19.8% to +19.8%, or $117.33 to $175.19. A short-premium structure here is a bet that 19.8% over 27 days is more than COIN will actually use. That is the thesis, stated honestly.
The mistake this name punishes hardest: Weekend gap risk. Every other name on this list stops moving at the close on Friday; the asset behind this one does not.
Picking the strike on COIN
Put delta is the shorthand for assignment odds: a 0.30-delta put is roughly a 30% chance of being assigned at expiry. On COIN at $146.26, here is what the bands buy you:
| Band | What it means | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| 0.10 – 0.16 Δ | Deep OTM, ~1 in 8 assignment | Pure premium harvesting. Small credits; one bad gap erases many wins.On COIN: the Aug 28 $120 put at $2.01, 19% annualized |
| 0.20 – 0.30 Δ | The thetagang standard | Best balance of credit, cushion and assignment odds for a wheel entry.On COIN: the Aug 28 $130 put at $3.85, 36% annualized |
| 0.40 – 0.50 Δ | Near the money | You want the shares. Largest credit, near coin-flip assignment.On COIN: the Aug 28 $146 put at $9.05, 84% annualized |
| ITM | You will almost certainly be assigned | A synthetic buy order with extra steps. Compare against just buying the stock. |
The live Aug 28 put chain below shows real deltas and mids from the capture, with each strike's credit expressed as a percentage of the cash you must set aside. Compare the annualized column across strikes before you decide — the curve is rarely linear.
Across the nine rungs below, the premium runs 10.5× from the cheapest strike to the richest — that curve is the whole strike-selection decision, drawn. Open interest concentrates at $130 on this expiry, which is usually where the fills are cleanest.
| Strike | vs spot | Mid | Δ | IV | % of spot | Ann. | OI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $115 | −21.4% | $1.30 | -0.08 | 69% | 0.9% | 12% | 206 |
| $120 | −18.0% | $2.01 | -0.13 | 70% | 1.4% | 19% | 65 |
| $125 | −14.5% | $2.48 | -0.17 | 68% | 1.7% | 23% | 76 |
| $130 | −11.1% | $3.85 | -0.24 | 71% | 2.6% | 36% | 703 |
| $135used | −7.7% | $5.50 | -0.30 | 71% | 3.8% | 51% | 51 |
| $140 | −4.3% | $7.35 | -0.37 | 71% | 5.0% | 68% | 319 |
| $146 | −0.2% | $9.05 | -0.46 | 70% | 6.2% | 84% | 12 |
| $150 | +2.6% | $12.98 | -0.51 | 70% | 8.9% | 120% | 127 |
| $155 | +6.0% | $13.70 | -0.59 | 68% | 9.4% | 127% | 57 |
COIN puts expiring August 28, 2026· 15-min delayed capture · “Ann.” annualizes the mid as a percentage of spot over 27 days.
Managing the position
- Roll down and out for a credit if the stock breaks your strike and you still want the exposure. Roll for a debit and you're just averaging into a losing thesis.
- Never close at $0.01 to "keep the streak". If the option is worth a penny, let it expire — that penny is a commission and a distorted P/L record. Track the close at $0.00, which is what actually happened.
- Decide the exit before the fill. A short-premium position with no stated profit target and no stated loss point is not a trade, it is a subscription to whatever the market decides.
- Roll for a credit or do not roll. A roll that costs money is a new trade financed by refusing to book a loss on the old one, and the accounting hides that from you.
Common mistakes
Selling puts on a stock you don't want
The premium looks the same on every ticker; the assignment doesn't. If you would not buy 100 shares of COIN at $135 with your own thesis, this is a naked short-vol bet, not an entry.
Selling through earnings without meaning to
A 27-day put on COIN may straddle bitcoin's tape. If the credit looks unusually rich, that is why — check the calendar before assuming you found an edge.
Trading the annualized number
Annualizing a 7-day credit assumes 52 identical weeks, none of which include the one that goes wrong. It is a comparison unit, not a return.
COIN cash-secured put FAQ
What is my cost basis if I get assigned?
$135 minus the $5.50 credit, so $129.5 per share — 11.5% below COIN's $146.26. Our wheel tracker carries that adjusted basis forward automatically through every subsequent call you write.
Is selling puts on COIN safer than buying the shares?
Slightly, and only below the strike. You give up all upside above $135 in exchange for 11.5% of downside cushion. Whether that trade is good depends entirely on whether 73% implied vol is expensive relative to what COIN actually does.
How much is COIN expected to move by Aug 28?
The Aug 28 options imply a one-standard-deviation move of $28.93 — about 19.8% of the COIN share price — over the 27 days to expiry. That is the market's estimate, not a forecast: roughly a third of the time the actual move is larger.
Is COIN option skew favouring puts or calls?
Calls. The 25-delta call implies 1.7% more volatility than the 25-delta put on the Aug 28 chain — an inverted skew, usually a sign of squeeze or event risk to the upside.
Build it yourself
Everything above is one construction at one moment. Open it in the builder to drag strikes along the ladder, scrub the expiry, and watch max profit, breakevens and probability of profit recompute live against the real COIN chain — free, no account.
Related reading
- What a cash-secured put actually paysThe annualized-return column is the one everybody screenshots. It is also the one that tells you least. Here is the whole ladder — return, probability, breakeven, and the loss that takes six winners to repair.
- The wheel strategy, with real numbersEveryone can recite the four steps. Almost nobody can tell you what a completed cycle returned on the capital it tied up. Here is one, priced off a real chain and folded by the same engine that runs our tracker.
- Why closing at $0.01 is wrongRecording an expired option as a close at $0.01 costs almost nothing in dollars. What it does to assignment history, cost basis and your recorded win rate is a $599 hole in the middle of a wheel — here is the arithmetic.
Other COIN strategies
- COIN covered callSell upside on shares you already own and get paid for the cap.
- COIN iron condorSell a range, buy the wings, collect if the stock stays put.
- COIN bull call spreadBuy a call, sell a higher one — cheaper upside with a ceiling.
- COIN bull put spreadSell a put spread below the market: credit now, defined risk.
- COIN long straddleBuy the call and the put — pay for a move in either direction.
- COIN long strangleOTM call plus OTM put — cheaper than a straddle, needs more move.
- COIN long callDefined-risk upside with a deadline attached.
- COIN long putDefined-risk downside, or insurance with an expiry date.
- COIN calendar call spreadSell the near-dated call, buy the far one — rent time twice.
Cash-Secured Put on other tickers
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- QQQ cash-secured put
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- AAPL cash-secured put
- NVDA cash-secured put
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- MSFT cash-secured put
- AMZN cash-secured put
- META cash-secured put
- GOOGL cash-secured put
- AMD cash-secured put
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- PLTR cash-secured put
- SOFI cash-secured put
- F cash-secured put
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- DIS cash-secured put
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