Binance announced covered-call and cash-secured-put selling strategies on Oct. 15, allowing eligible stock-options customers to collect premiums while committing shares or USDC to potential assignment.
Under the new offering, cash-secured put sellers must reserve the full strike-price amount in USDC within their Funding Accounts. “The premium is credited separately and does not reduce that full reserve,” Binance stated in its seller FAQ. Reserved money is held when the sell order is placed and cannot support other orders or withdrawals; it is released if the order is canceled or expires unfilled.
Covered-call sellers commit shares already held and must sell them at the strike if assigned, capping gains above the strike while leaving exposure to stock declines. For put sellers, assignment means having to buy the underlying shares at the agreed price, even if their market value has fallen. “Early assignment can happen overnight, and the seller cannot control the buyer’s decision to exercise,” Binance noted in its seller FAQ.
Settlement and Assignment Mechanics
Premium payments and share settlement after assignment follow T+1 settlement. Written positions are not automatically closed at expiry, unlike eligible long options subject to best-efforts closure.
The stock-options offering routes orders through Nest Trading Limited, an introducing broker, to Alpaca Securities LLC for execution, clearing, settlement, and securities custody.
Regulatory Documentation Inconsistency
Binance’s new seller FAQ describes put and call selling strategies, but the linked Stock Options Trading Product Terms (version 1.0, effective Sept. 1) expressly exclude writing and short positions in Section 6.2. The older general FAQ, last updated Oct. 9, also describes long-only trading and does not reflect the newly announced selling strategies.
The Stock Options Trading Product Terms exclude US persons, people located in the US, and accounts they beneficially own or control. Terms also flag possible restrictions in China, Hong Kong, the European Union, and other prohibited jurisdictions.
Binance did not clarify which version of terms will govern put and call selling going forward, leaving public documentation inconsistent with the new seller instructions.
Unanswered Implementation Details
Binance did not name the specific eligible customers or customer criteria for stock-options selling. The exchange also did not specify the exact premium amounts or strike prices for any contracts, whether Binance itself is the counterparty or if counterparties are other customers, or how early assignment notifications are delivered or their timing. Binance did not specify whether the new selling strategies are live or pending further documentation updates.
