Bitcoin surged past $126,000 in October 2025. Just four months later, it plummeted to less than half of that price. To say that Bitcoin’s volatility is legendary may be an understatement.
Bitcoin has plunged by more than 60% on an annual basis three separate times in its 17 years of existence. And its maximum crest-to-trough declines have been even larger.
But following each decline, the original cryptocurrency has rebounded, setting new all-time highs.
It’s exactly this volatility, as risky as it is, that traders see as opportunity. The ups and downs offer a chance for profit to traders who can ride through them and size their positions effectively.
While Bitcoin’s volatility may be enough for most traders, those looking for even higher potential gains can turbocharge this volatility further… if they’re willing to take on even more risk.
For those who see the long-term trajectory of Bitcoin as “up and to the right,” it may even make some sense to take on more leveraged wagers. Those wagers aren’t for everyone, of course…
For traders looking to play the recent Bitcoin plunge and bounce, it could make sense to go with a higher-leverage alternative because of the potential to accelerate the upside.
Below are five high-leverage alternatives that could magnify a rebound in Bitcoin. These Bitcoin alternatives are not recommendations but rather education about what’s available, how it works, and the potential risks of any wager.
5 Ways to Play a Bitcoin Bounce for More Profit
Traders have many ways to accelerate the returns on any Bitcoin bounce without buying the cryptocurrency directly. They all involve increasing the risk in exchange for potentially higher returns.
1. Buy Call Options on Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (“ETFs”)
Bitcoin ETFs own bitcoins directly, and their price closely tracks Bitcoin. So Bitcoin ETFs can be an excellent proxy: If Bitcoin rises 20%, so do these ETFs. For example, the iShares Bitcoin Trust Fund (IBIT) and the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) both track spot Bitcoin prices.
Many of these funds also offer the ability to use options, which have been available since late 2024. By purchasing call options, traders may be able to accelerate their returns if Bitcoin rises.
However, options on a volatile asset such as Bitcoin can be pricey. So, advanced traders may look for more complex strategies such as the bull call spread. This two-legged strategy helps offset the cost of volatility while still offering potentially higher returns.
Whether you use a long call or a more complex strategy, you can multiply Bitcoin’s move.
Downsides: Options add the power (and peril) of leverage on top of a volatile cryptocurrency. Options offer the potential for magnified gains, but traders can lose their whole wager if things don’t work out. Plus, options can be expensive on a volatile asset such as Bitcoin ETFs.
2. Trade Bitcoin Futures
Futures are often associated with commodities such as oil and wheat, but they’re also available for Bitcoin. Futures also offer the power of leverage, letting you magnify your initial investment.
With futures, you put up only a portion of the full contract’s value as margin to open the contract. If Bitcoin rises, the value of your contract rises. But your profit rises even faster, since you’ve put up only a small portion of the contract’s value.
The leverage works the other way, too. If Bitcoin falls, your losses will accelerate. In this case, you’ll need to post more cash to hold your contract. If you can’t, the broker will close out your position, and you may end up losing even more money than you initially invested.
Downsides: The leverage of futures works both ways, and you’ll need to be ready to post more collateral if Bitcoin moves unfavorably and you want to maintain the position.
3. Buy Shares of a Digital Asset Treasury
A number of publicly traded companies own sizable stakes in Bitcoin, including Strategy (MSTR) and GameStop (GME), for example. Probably the most notable of these, Strategy owns more than 713,000 bitcoins as of February 1, or 3.4% of the cryptocurrency’s maximum issuance.
Strategy is highly leveraged to the price of Bitcoin. It moves up and down faster than Bitcoin itself. That’s because it has borrowed billions of dollars to buy bitcoins.
When Bitcoin moves favorably, Strategy and other digital asset Treasurys can soar. Strategy was up hundreds of percent at one point in 2024 when the crypto surged higher. That said, it has fallen a significant amount as Bitcoin plunged – again, moving down even faster than the crypto coin.
Downsides: Traders may end up paying more for Bitcoin by purchasing it through one of these publicly traded companies than by buying it directly. In the case of Strategy, the company needs access to financial markets in order to grow and to refinance debt when it matures. So, traders have the risk of the company itself piled on top of the risk in Bitcoin.
4. Trade Options on Strategy
If you’re looking to amp the volatility and potential returns on Strategy or another digital asset treasury, then you can trade options on these stocks. With options, you can play both up and down moves in the stock, letting you profit in either direction.
For example, if you expect Strategy to move higher, you can buy call options that magnify this move. On the other hand, if you expect the stock to fall, you can buy put options. Either way, you can magnify your gains if you’re correct.
As with other option strategies in this list, you can use more advanced approaches, such as the bull call spread or bear put spread, to offset some of the cost due to volatility.
Downsides: This strategy piles leverage on top of the stock’s leverage, which is on top of Bitcoin’s inherent volatility – that’s a lot of risk. Options on such a volatile stock can be expensive, so you may need to invest significant money and then run the risk of losing it all.
5. Buy a Leveraged Strategy Fund
You don’t even need to turn to options if you want access to leverage on Strategy’s stock. That’s because a few ETFs attempt to provide 2 or 3 times the daily move on Strategy shares.
For example, the Defiance Daily Target 2X Long MSTR ETF (MSTX) uses financial derivatives to target 2 times the stock’s daily performance. So, if Strategy rises 5% in a day, this fund targets a 10% gain. Some funds ratchet up the target return to 3 times.
Some of these funds also offer options, letting you stack even more leverage on top. This strategy piles on multiple layers of leverage, adding tons of risk on top of the already risky Bitcoin.
Downsides: Leveraged funds suffer from significant tracking error, meaning they don’t closely follow their target. Plus, over time, these funds can suffer major declines as they’re forced to roll over their derivative positions. Of course, these funds are likely to be even more volatile than Strategy itself or any other stock they’re based on.
What to Know About These Alternatives to Bitcoin
Again, these leveraged alternatives are not recommendations to buy but rather education about what’s available on the market.
Every single one of these alternatives to Bitcoin involves using some form of leverage to magnify the performance of the cryptocurrency. That is, it uses even more risk on top of the already substantial risk inherent in Bitcoin. That’s the source of the higher potential returns.
These trades could work phenomenally when they work. And those that layer leverage on top of leverage could move even more aggressively when Bitcoin moves. So those layers of risk could accelerate into huge returns quickly… again, if Bitcoin moves favorably.
But they have the potential to wipe out an entire investment if Bitcoin moves lower… maybe in just days or even hours.
Anyone attempting these leveraged alternatives to Bitcoin needs to have an iron stomach and keep a tight rein on position sizing. If you size this kind of leveraged position too high, you run the risk of a complete wipeout. This type of trade is a lottery ticket.
Beyond the leverage in these alternatives, it’s important to remember that Bitcoin itself is highly risky. It’s not backed by the assets or cash flow of an underlying company, as a stock is.
So, Bitcoin’s returns are based entirely on sentiment and what the next trader will pay for it. (This trait is actually why Bitcoin may be a great indicator of sentiment in the stock market.)
Because of this setup, Bitcoin can be highly volatile as traders’ risk tolerance shifts wildly. Volatility is the name of the game with Bitcoin, and leverage magnifies it many times.
If you’re trading these alternatives, you’ll want to be comfortable with the potential for losing it all.
Regards,
James Royal
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This obscure startup is the front-runner in a technology that could generate virtually limitless energy.
Bill Gates says that it “could be as transformative as the invention of the steam engine before the Industrial Revolution.” (Details here.)
No wonder Microsoft recently inked a massive deal to generate electricity from this breakthrough power source.
Even the firms that are most vulnerable to its disruptive potential are piling into it… Oil supermajors ExxonMobil, Chevron, Eni, and Shell are staking billions of dollars in a technology that – according to Live Science – could “make oil obsolete.”
And now – thanks to a little-known “backdoor” into this technology – it’s your turn.
