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Market Makers May Be Favorably Mispricing MARA Holdings Options: Here’s How We Know

Josh Enomoto

Tue, Jul 15, 2025, 12:30 PM 5 min read

With cryptocurrencies swinging higher after a period of extended consolidation, traders who missed the boat may consider crypto-mining specialist MARA Holdings (MARA). As a digital asset technology firm, MARA stock represents an indirect play on blockchain-derived coins and tokens. Still, this could have its advantages, given that cryptos are susceptible to distinct challenges, such as exchange hacks.

What makes MARA stock particularly intriguing at this hour is that it has been the subject of unusual options activity. Oftentimes, major investors use derivatives to quietly build a position. Also, the nature of options — with their myriad strategies — presents an opaque picture. With a bullish position in the open market, the intention is unambiguous. A rise in call option activity, though, has layers of interpretations.

Still, it’s always worthwhile to consider Barchart’s Unusual Stock Options Volume, which showcases the top 500 most aberrant transactions relative to prior norms. On Monday, total options volume for MARA stock hit 532,269 contracts, representing a nearly 53% lift over the trailing one-month average. Call volume reached 381,694 contracts while put volume was 150,575 contracts, yielding a ratio of 0.39.

On paper, the higher proportion of calls seemingly represents a positive development. However, it’s always a good idea to check options flow, which filters for big block transactions likely placed by institutional investors. Yesterday, net trade sentiment clocked in at $2,169 million above parity, thus favoring the bulls.

Interestingly, the biggest trade in terms of dollar volume was for $18 calls expiring Sep. 19, 2025. Given that this debit-based transaction carried an ask price of $3.40, MARA stock would need to rise to $21.40 (assuming intrinsic value) to break even. Of course, there could be hidden nuances behind this trade but the overall profile suggests an optimistic posture.

While unusual options represent an important datapoint, it doesn’t necessarily provide a blueprint for the two key components that options traders require in their theses: projected magnitude (y-axis) and timeframe (x-axis). These elements can be inferred but that leaves the broader concept open to a broad range of opinions. To solidify a strategy, traders can use game theory — processes to empirically determine the best time to make a move.

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