An option’s price is determined by spot, strike, time, rates and volatility. Four of those five are observable and agreed. Only volatility is a view.
So quoting a premium communicates one opinion buried inside four facts. Quoting the volatility communicates the opinion directly, which is why crypto desks quote each other in vol and why venues display it beside the price.
What it makes possible
Comparing strikes. Two options at different strikes have different premiums for reasons that have nothing to do with anyone’s view. Their implied vols are directly comparable, and the difference between them is skew — a real signal that a premium comparison cannot show.
Comparing expiries. Same logic across time, and the resulting shape is the term structure.
Comparing coins. A BTC premium and a SOL premium are not comparable in any currency. Their implied vols are.
A quote that does not go stale
The practical reason desks prefer it: a price quoted in dollars is invalid the moment spot moves, and in a market that moves continuously that is immediately. A quote in vol stays meaningful while spot moves underneath it, because the arithmetic converting vol to a premium simply re-runs.
In a market with no close and no auction, that is not a convenience — it is close to a requirement for negotiating anything of size, which is why block trades are negotiated this way.
Reading a vol quote
Implied volatility is annualised, so the number is scaled to a year regardless of whether the contract expires tomorrow. A daily option showing a large vol figure is not necessarily expensive in premium terms — it has very little time in it.
And whether it is expensive at all is a comparison against what the asset actually does, which is implied versus realised.