Leaps Finance: Solana Options for Covered Calls and Puts

How a Leaps covered call works, using 15 SOL

An option is a deal about a future trade. When you sell one on Leaps, you agree to sell (or buy) an asset at a set price on a set date, and the buyer pays you for that agreement straight away. That payment is the premium. The set price is the strike: the app has you pick it on a price bar, and the docs call it the trigger price. The set date is the expiry. If DeFi itself is still new to you, our Solana beginner guides are a better first stop.

Leaps’ homepage uses this example, so I’ll use it too:

• You deposit 15 SOL (shown as $1,500, so SOL at $100)
• You pick a sell price of $145
• Duration: 24 days
• Premium paid upfront: $12.32, shown as 12.5% APR

That APR is annualised. $12.32 on $1,500 over 24 days, scaled up to a full year, comes to about 12.5%. You don’t earn 12.5%. You earn $12.32, once, for locking 15 SOL for 24 days. To earn again after expiry, you open a new position.

On day 24, one of two things happens:

• SOL ends below $145. The option expires worthless. You get your 15 SOL back and keep the $12.32.
• SOL ends above $145. Your 15 SOL is sold at $145, so you get $2,175 in USDC or USDT, and you keep the $12.32. Whatever SOL did above $145 goes to the buyer.

Only the price at expiry counts. These are European-style options, so if SOL spikes to $160 on day 10 and is back at $130 on day 24, you keep your SOL. The settlement price comes from Pyth, an oracle (a price feed the contract reads). At expiry Leaps checks it every 5 minutes for 30 minutes and uses the average, so one wick right at expiry can’t trigger it on its own.

Here’s what the position is worth at expiry in that example:

The premium barely cushions a drop: $12.32 across 15 SOL is about 82 cents per SOL. Above $145 the line goes flat, and at $200 you’d be $812.68 worse off than if you’d just held. That flat line is the trade. You swap the chance of a big pump for cash today.

This example uses a far strike, 45% above the price, which is why the premium is small. Move the strike closer to the current price and the premium goes up, and so does the chance your SOL gets sold.

If you LP on Meteora, this will feel familiar: a token-only position above price also sells your tokens on the way up. The difference is that Leaps pays you upfront and only cares about one price on one day, where an LP position earns fees the whole time price moves through your range. I post my LP results on X if you want to see how that side plays out.

Covered call or cash-secured put: start from what you hold

A covered call is the Sell the asset higher button. You deposit SOL or BTC and name a higher price you’d be happy to sell at. A cash-secured put is Buy the asset lower. You deposit stablecoins and name a lower price you’d be happy to buy at. Those are the only two things you can do on Leaps right now: you sell options, you can’t buy them.

Leaps’ put example: deposit $1,000, buy price $75, 21 days, 45% APR, $25.96 premium upfront.

• SOL ends above $75: you get your $1,000 back and keep the $25.96.
• SOL ends below $75: your $1,000 buys SOL at $75, about 13.33 SOL, and you keep the $25.96. Counting the premium, that works out at about $73.05 per SOL.

The trap is a big drop. If SOL ends at $60, you own 13.33 SOL worth $800, plus the $25.96. Holding the cash would have been better, and the premium only takes a little off that loss.

The rule that matters most: only pick a strike you’d honestly be happy to hit. If SOL at $145 would leave you thinking “I should have held”, don’t sell a call at $145.

Solana options on Leaps vs covered calls on stocks

Yes, you can sell covered calls on crypto, and Leaps is one way to do it on Solana. If you’ve sold calls on stocks, it’s the same trade with a few differences:

• Positions typically run 7 to 28 days, picked from the expiry dates on offer.
• Settlement only happens at expiry, off the 30-minute Pyth average.
• The premium arrives upfront in USDC or USDT, straight into your wallet.
• Your collateral sits in a Solana smart contract, not with a broker, and Leaps says neither it nor the market makers can touch it. The code isn’t public yet and the audit report is only available on request, so for now that’s their word to weigh.
• You can’t buy the option back to get out early.

Leaps Finance fees: who pays the premium

Leaps doesn’t publish a seller fee in its docs or on its homepage. The figure to watch is Premium Upfront on the review screen: that’s what lands in your wallet when you confirm. On top of that you pay normal Solana network fees, so keep a little SOL in the wallet.

The yield itself comes from trading firms buying your option. When you set your price, your option is priced and bought in an on-chain auction by market makers (trading firms that quote buy and sell prices all day and run hedged books). The app shows you the resulting premium, and when you accept, the cash moves straight from the buyer’s wallet to yours as the position opens. Leaps matches you with the buyer and never holds the premium.

Why would they pay? Owning your option helps them stay market-neutral, and the premium is the cost of that hedge. Premiums follow volatility too: fatter when markets are jumpy, thinner when they’re calm.

How to use Leaps Finance: open a position step by step

You need a self-custody Solana wallet, a bit of SOL for transaction fees, and the SOL, BTC or USDC you want to use. Any of the big Solana wallets should connect. I’d use Solflare over Phantom these days, which feels a lot slower now (my wallet picks). Only holding SOL but want to sell a put? Swap some to USDC first.

1. Connect your wallet

Open the app, click Connect Wallet, choose your wallet and approve. Connecting doesn’t move anything. Before you sign anything later, check the address bar says app.leaps.finance. Leaps’ team won’t DM you first, ask for your private key or ask you to send funds, so anyone who does isn’t them.

2. Pick SOL and read the dashboard

As of 9 October 2026, the docs list SOL and BTC, with stablecoins used for puts and premiums. The homepage also mentions HYPE, which the docs don’t list yet. Pick SOL. You’ll see the Current price, the APR Range (lowest to highest APR on offer right now) and Fill %, which shows how much of the option cap has been used. At 100% no more options can be sold until capacity frees up. Click Earn Premium.

3. Choose your strategy

Sell the asset higher is the covered call. Buy the asset lower is the put.

4. Set the amount, expiry and price

Enter the amount and pick an expiry from the dates on offer. Then drag the price bar (or type a price) and watch Premium Upfront and the APR next to it change. Try a few prices before you settle on one. Further from the current price means a smaller premium but less chance of your SOL being sold or your USDC buying SOL.

5. Read both outcomes, then Approve and Confirm

The review screen shows the two scenarios, and both pay the premium today. Read the one you’d like less (SOL sold at your price, or SOL bought at it) and ask whether you’d genuinely be fine with it. Then click Approve and Confirm and sign in your wallet. The premium lands as the position opens. For a first go, use a much smaller amount than the 15 SOL in the example.

Can you close a Leaps position early?

No. Once you accept a quote and get paid, your collateral stays locked until expiry. A buyback feature may come later, but it isn’t there now. You can open more positions, you just can’t undo one.

After expiry, the buyer gets a 24-hour grace period to settle, and after that anyone can force the settlement. So don’t count on having the money back the minute your position expires.

Then go to My positions:

• Active: positions that haven’t expired yet
• Settled: expired positions. Click Complete and Close to withdraw
• Completed: fully closed. Kept Asset means the option wasn’t triggered and you got your deposit back in the original asset

Is Leaps Finance safe? The catch and the risks

• Capped upside. For me this is the main catch. If SOL pumps past your strike, you miss those gains, and a few dollars of premium won’t feel like much if SOL runs.
• A put can leave you holding SOL after a bigger drop. You buy at your strike even if the price ends well below it.
• Your money is locked for weeks, with no early exit if you change your mind or need the funds.
• Smart contract risk. Sec3 audited the V1 contract and all findings were fixed as of June 2026, but you have to ask for the report on Telegram, and the docs don’t point to public source code. The program (34KB5Vft9tBhxt5R7svx3YdDTFKNDLA61j5pwSgaTD8t) is on Solana mainnet and the app is labelled beta. One docs page still says devnet, which is out of date. Leaps is built by RPS AI and backed by investors including Wintermute Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Permanent Ventures, OrangeDAO and MetropolisDAO. Big backers, but it’s still a new protocol in beta.
• Oracle and stablecoin risk. Settlement relies on the Pyth price feed working, and premiums and put deposits are paid in stablecoins, which can lose their peg.

Leaps’ docs have the FAQ and the security page if you want the detail. Use a wallet you’re happy connecting to a beta app, check your approvals now and then, and start small.

Leaps Finance airdrop: is there a token?

No. As of 9 October 2026, Leaps hasn’t announced a token, points programme or airdrop, and its Jupiter platform listing says “no platform token”. If that changes, check Leaps’ official X or its docs. Anyone DMing you a “Leaps claim” link is a scammer, and here’s how to spot those.

Who I think Leaps suits

Leaps makes sense for one type of person: you already hold SOL, you have a price you’d happily sell at, and you’d like cash now for agreeing to it. The same goes for USDC holders with a price they’d happily buy SOL at. Then the premium is money for a decision you’d have made anyway.

It’s not for you if missing a pump would bother you, or if you might need the money before expiry. If you want to keep all the upside on your SOL, stake it instead. If you’re sitting in USDC and don’t want to end up owning SOL, plain stablecoin yield is the simpler choice, and there are other ways to earn on Solana DeFi that don’t lock you in for weeks.