Traditional finance has a simple story about crypto options. Retail traders pile in, buy calls, chase leverage, and blow up. It is a clean narrative. According to Maxime Seiler, CEO of STS Digital, it is also wrong.

Speaking to TheStreet Roundtable, Seiler pushed back on the idea that crypto options are a one-way leverage machine. The real flow, he says, is going the other direction.

“It’s actually not that much demand of buying options,” Seiler said. “In a lot of cases, there’s a lot more demand of selling options to earn yield.”

Related: 5 crypto experts explain why Bitcoin is stuck at $70K

The trade is a standard covered call. Investors hold their crypto, sell call options against it, and collect the premium as…