Crypto Gambling
Crypto Volatility Index CVI: Reading It as a Daily Swing
How the CVI turns Bitcoin and Ethereum option prices into a 30-day volatility number, and the divide-by-20 rule that makes it a daily swing.
By The cryptoslot Ledger5 min read
The crypto volatility index (CVI) is a single number, published on-chain, that says how much options traders expect Bitcoin and Ethereum to move over the next 30 days, expressed as an annualized percentage. Divide the reading by the square root of 365 (or, as a rough shortcut, by 20) and you get the typical one-day swing a crypto-denominated balance should be ready for.
That conversion is the part most CVI explainers skip, and it is the part that matters at a cashier: a deposit sitting in BTC or ETH while it waits to be played or withdrawn rides the same swings the index prices.
What the crypto volatility index CVI measures
The CVI tracks the 30-day implied volatility of Bitcoin and Ethereum. As of October 2026, the CVI docs put the base index on a scale from 0 to 200.
Implied volatility is not a record of past price moves. It is the size of move that current option prices assume, backed out of what traders pay for protection and leverage. Like the VIX, which Cboe calls a non-directional, annualized expectation of standard deviation, a CVI reading says nothing about direction. A reading that climbs means the market is paying for bigger moves either way.
How the CVI is calculated from crypto options
The CVI starts from option prices and runs them through a pricing model to recover the volatility those prices imply.
- Model. As of October 2026, the index is derived with the Black-Scholes model, which turns an option's price back into the implied volatility that would produce it.
- Data. Option data comes from crypto derivatives venues, with Deribit named among the sources.
- Delivery. Chainlink oracle nodes fetch that option data, aggregate it off-chain and send the result to the CVI Oracle Contract as a single value. That is why the index can be read by smart contracts: the computation happens off-chain, one number lands on-chain.
- Weighting. The combined index is a market-cap weighted sum of per-asset indices.
How Deribit's DVOL builds a comparable number
Deribit publishes its own implied volatility index, DVOL, and its write-up spells out choices that shape any options-based reading:
- It drops far out-of-the-money options with delta below 5%, along with in-the-money calls and puts, before computing variance. The thinly traded wings never get a vote.
- It brackets the 30-day target with the 2 nearest expiries, then interpolates between the two expiries and takes the square root, the variance swap approach.
- All option prices it uses are quoted in BTC rather than USD.
Cboe's VIX makes a similar choice on timing: it uses options whose expiries land 23 to 37 days out. The common thread is that a "30-day" index is built from the options closest to that horizon, not from a single contract.
Converting a CVI reading into daily and monthly swings
An annualized volatility number converts to a shorter window by scaling with the square root of time. Crypto trades every day, so the daily divisor is the square root of 365.
| Window | Conversion | Source example |
|---|---|---|
| One day, rough | Reading divided by 20 | DVOL 90 gives about 4.5% |
| One day, precise | Reading divided by the square root of 365 | Deribit's stated method |
| 30 days | Reading times the square root of 30 over 365 | Same square-root scaling |
Deribit's own worked number: divide the reading by 20 and a DVOL of 90 points to an expected daily Bitcoin move of about 4.5%. The page adds that the precise divisor is the square root of 365. Cboe applies the same logic to equities, where a VIX of 16 implies about 1% a day against an expected annual move of plus or minus 16%.
Read these as a typical move, one standard deviation in Cboe's terms, not a ceiling. Days that move further are part of the same expectation.
What a reading means for a balance held in coin
For a crypto casino balance, the CVI is a price-risk gauge for the time money spends in coin between deposit and cashout.
- Deposits waiting to be played. A balance held in BTC or ETH moves with the coin every day it sits. The daily conversion above gives the size of a normal day's swing in dollar terms.
- Withdrawals in transit. Coin sent out and not yet converted carries the same exposure until it is sold or swapped.
None of this predicts direction or tells anyone what to buy, sell or hold. It sizes the swing so a balance can be planned around it.
Cashier questions
Is a higher CVI reading bad for a crypto balance?
A higher reading says options traders expect bigger moves in either direction. The index is non-directional, the same way Cboe describes the VIX, so it prices the size of a swing, not whether the coin goes up or down.
What is the quick way to turn a volatility index into a daily move?
Deribit's shortcut is to divide the reading by 20, and the precise version divides by the square root of 365. On that rule a reading of 90 points to a typical daily move of about 4.5%.
Which coins does the CVI cover?
As of October 2026 the CVI documentation describes the combined index as a market-cap weighted blend of Bitcoin and Ethereum indices, on a scale from 0 to 200.
Is the CVI the same as the VIX?
No. The VIX reads S&P 500 options, while the CVI reads crypto options. Both are annualized 30-day implied volatility numbers, so the same square-root conversion turns either one into a daily range.
Ledger sources
- CVI documentation, CVI Index: Index Calculation, undated, accessed 2026-10-19
- CVI documentation, CVI Index, undated, accessed 2026-10-19
- Deribit Insights, DVOL - Deribit Implied Volatility Index, 2021-03-31
- Cboe, What the VIX and VIX1D Indices Attempt to Measure and How They Differ, 2023-04-24
