Deribit DVOL — the institutional benchmark for crypto implied volatility. 30-day forward annualized IV from the BTC and ETH options surface, daily close. Updated .
DVOL is to crypto what VIX is to equities: a single number summarizing the implied-vol surface. Compressed DVOL = options are cheap (option sellers complacent or markets efficient at quiet); elevated DVOL = options are expensive (option buyers hedging tail risk). Cross-reference against realized vol for the IV-RV premium — what option buyers are paying over historical realized volatility.
Weekly close of daily DVOL since 2021-03 (Deribit launched DVOL on 2021-03-24). BTC DVOL 5-year median is (dashed line); current sits at the ᵗʰ percentile. Compressed regimes (≤20ᵗʰ percentile) tend to precede mean reversion higher; extreme regimes (≥80ᵗʰ) tend to break before they normalize. Neither is a forecast — these are conditional historical patterns.
Implied vol (DVOL) is forward-looking — what options markets price for the next 30 days. Realized vol is backward-looking — what BTC actually delivered over the trailing 30 days. The gap (IV − RV, the "premium") is what option buyers pay above historical norms; long-term it averages around vol points. Today's premium is — .
DVOL vs realized vol
Implied above realized = options market is pricing more vol than actually delivered (option buyers paying premium). Implied below realized = options market is mispricing tail risk to the downside (option sellers underpriced the tail). Persistent IV-RV premium near zero or negative is unusual and suggests market complacency about a regime that's been quietly volatile.
What the percentile regime tells you
Percentile rank against the 5-year DVOL distribution. Compressed (≤20) historically resolves higher (mean reversion); extreme (≥80) historically resolves lower. Neither is a directional signal for the underlying — DVOL going up doesn't tell you which way BTC moves, just that the market expects volatility. Pair with positioning data (Crypto Positioning Watch) for direction context.
Source:
Deribit DVOL via the public API (no key required). Cached locally at
cache/alternative_data/deribit_dvol/ and refreshed daily via
scripts/alt_data/fetch_deribit_dvol.py. BTC realized vol computed from yfinance daily prices in
cache/alternative_data/macro_extended/btc_usd_daily.pkl.
Related research: the
Crypto Positioning Watch shows directional positioning (CFTC TFF crypto futures); the
ETF Flow Tracker shows institutional spot demand. DVOL adds the volatility-regime axis these don't capture — the "what's the option market pricing?" dimension. Together they make up the full institutional crypto-flow data surface.