Nakamoto Inc. is running an actively managed options program with Bitwise and Kraken, writing covered calls and buying puts on part of its Bitcoin stack to turn volatility into income and partial downside hedges.
Summary
- Nasdaq-listed Nakamoto Inc. has detailed an actively managed Bitcoin derivatives program designed to turn BTC’s volatility into recurring income while hedging part of its downside risk.
- Bitwise Asset Management will manage a separately managed account using Nakamoto’s Bitcoin, custodied by Kraken Institutional, to run covered calls, call spreads, protective puts, and put spreads.
- Premiums generated can be used to pay for hedges, increase Bitcoin holdings, or fund corporate expenses, with results set to appear in Nakamoto’s Q1 2026 Form 10‑Q.
Nakamoto Inc. (NASDAQ: NAKA) has announced the details of an actively managed Bitcoin derivatives program that it has been running since the first quarter of 2026, positioning the strategy as a complement to its core “long Bitcoin” treasury approach. The company said the program is “intended to generate recurring volatility income from a defined portion of the Company’s Bitcoin holdings and hedge a portion of the Company’s downside exposure to Bitcoin price risk.”
Under the program, a slice of Nakamoto’s Bitcoin stack is held in Kraken’s qualified custody solution and pledged as collateral into a separately managed account overseen by Bitwise Asset Management. Within that SMA, Nakamoto and Bitwise jointly run a portfolio of listed and over‑the‑counter Bitcoin‑linked derivatives under a single mandate that caps notional exposure as a percentage of total BTC holdings and sets guardrails on instruments, counterparties, and tenor.
The structure is split into two sleeves. On the income side, Nakamoto “writes covered calls and call spreads against a defined portion of its Bitcoin holdings to convert the implied volatility embedded in Bitcoin options markets into recurring premium income,” with position sizing, strike selection, and expiries dictated by the firm’s risk framework. On the hedging side, it buys protective puts and put spreads “against a defined portion of its Bitcoin holdings to reduce the Company’s mark‑to‑market exposure to adverse Bitcoin price movements over defined time horizons,” with premium outlays “partially funded” by the call income where appropriate.
In a post on X, Nakamoto framed the trade very simply: “Bitcoin’s implied volatility is one of the most persistently mispriced assets in global markets,” adding that the program is designed to “generate volatility income and hedge downside risk” on part of its treasury. The company noted that premiums may be received in either Bitcoin or U.S. dollars and can be “reinvested in the Company’s Bitcoin treasury, applied against operating costs (including interest expense), or retained as working capital.” Performance figures for Q1 2026 will be disclosed in its next 10‑Q.
For crypto markets, the move matters on several fronts. First, it shows a listed “Bitcoin operating company” adopting the kind of systematic covered‑call plus put‑hedge structure long used by commodity producers and gold ETFs, but now applied directly to a corporate BTC stack via regulated managers and qualified custody. Second, it reinforces Bitwise’s role as an institutional bridge between traditional derivatives infrastructure and on‑chain exposure, at a time when more corporates are experimenting with Bitcoin on their balance sheets. Finally, it adds another live example of how treasuries can treat Bitcoin not just as a passive store of value, but as yield‑bearing collateral — with upside capped on the covered portion, but cash flow and downside protection gained in return.
