BundieOptions Overlay (Thetanuts)
How Bundie layers an optional options strategy on top of your lending yield using Thetanuts
Options Overlay
On top of the lending yield your bundle already earns, Bundie can attach an optional options overlay powered by Thetanuts Finance. The overlay lets you do one of two things with the assets in your bundle:
- Boost — sell options to collect premium income on top of your base yield.
- Protect — buy downside protection to reduce drawdowns in a crash.
Choosing neither leaves your bundle as Lending-only — pure base yield with no options exposure. You pick at deposit, and just like everywhere else in Bundie, the AI only recommends — you confirm.
The three modes
| Mode | What it does | How it's built |
|---|---|---|
| Lending-only | Base lending yield, no options | No options leg |
| Boost | Earns option premium on top of yield. Wins in sideways / mildly trending markets. | Covered call (ETH/BTC) or a put-spread (USDC), monthly |
| Protect | Caps downside in sharp crashes by trading away some upside. | Collar — a covered call funding a protective put, monthly |
Typical structures by asset:
| Bundle | Boost | Protect |
|---|---|---|
| USDC | BTC put-spread (~15% OTM) | — |
| ETH | Covered call (~8–10% OTM) | Collar (~8% OTM) |
| BTC | Covered call (~8–10% OTM) | Collar (~8% OTM) |
The overlay is available only on bundles whose strategies are 100% on Base, because that's where Thetanuts' options market and its market-maker liquidity live. Mixed-chain bundles stay lending-only.
How the mechanism works between Bundie and Thetanuts
Thetanuts' OptionFactory is a sealed-bid RFQ (request-for-quote) options market: instead of buying from a pool at a fixed price, you broadcast exactly the option you want and let market makers compete to fill it. Bundie orchestrates that flow on your behalf.
1. The AI proposes the trade. Each cycle, Bundie's options engine (Claude) reads live market data — spot price, the implied-volatility surface, and recent realized volatility — and proposes the option structure, strike (as % out-of-the-money), and tenor for your mode. A deterministic validator then clamps that proposal to a safe, pre-set range and rejects anything outside it. In Simple mode the AI recommends a setup and explains why; in Advanced mode you configure it yourself — and either way the same validator enforces the bounds.
2. You stay in custody. The overlay runs from your own smart wallet, not a shared pool. Each RFQ is per-user, with your wallet as the requester. Collateral comes from your wallet and is only pulled by the protocol at settlement — never held by Bundie.
3. Bundie submits the RFQ to Thetanuts. Once you confirm at deposit, Bundie's off-chain orchestrator builds the RFQ and submits it to OptionFactory on Base. A collar (Protect mode) is two coordinated legs — a covered call plus a protective put — submitted together.
4. Market makers respond with sealed offers. Market makers quote against your RFQ with encrypted, sealed bids, so no one can front-run the price. Bundie decrypts the offers, checks them against a live pricing snapshot, and accepts the best one — rejecting it entirely if the premium markup is too high (a thin market degrades safely back to Lending-only rather than filling a bad trade).
5. Settlement and payout. Options run on a monthly cycle and are cash-settled by default. At expiry, Bundie's settlement service claims any payout back to your wallet. If the market moves sharply mid-cycle, you get an alert and a fresh suggestion — Bundie never auto-rolls or unwinds a live position without you.
What this means for you
- Your base yield keeps running. The overlay sits on top of the lending strategies in your bundle, using a portion of the assets as collateral.
- You're always in control. The AI suggests; you approve at deposit. Bundie can't open or close an options position without your consent.
- Self-custodial throughout. Positions live in your wallet, collateral stays yours until settlement, and Bundie holds no custody of your keys or funds.
- Honest tradeoffs. Boost earns premium but caps some upside; Protect cuts drawdowns but costs a little yield. Lending-only does neither — and is always a valid choice.
Options strategies carry market risk: a sold call can cap your gains, and premiums are not guaranteed. As with every Bundie strategy, past performance doesn't guarantee future results.
Next Steps
- How AI Powers Bundie — how the AI recommends modes and configs
- Supported Protocols & Chains — where Thetanuts fits in the integrated venues
- Your Vault Journey — the full deposit-to-withdraw flow
Ready to try it? Launch Bundie App →