The open interest on Bitcoin (BTC) options contracts has reached a new all-time high at $6.5 billion on Dec. 17. That figure represents a three-fold increase from 90 days ago and is proof that the market has grown significantly in the past 6-months. Investors must keep in mind that even though a $6.5 billion open interest is an impressive number, it doesn't necessarily mean that professional investors are bullish or bearish. Call options provide buyers with an opportunity to leverage without running the risk of liquidation. Meanwhile, put options are an excellent way to hedge against a potential future sell-off. …

Amid an ongoing bull run of Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin options are hitting a new historical milestone. Bitcoin options are derivative contracts that grant the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell BTC at a predetermined price. According to data from Skew, Bitcoin options volumes crossed $1 billion on Dec. 16. Skew announced the news Thursday on Twitter, noting that Bitcoin options saw its “first $1 billion day.” Deribit, a major global crypto futures and options exchange, had the largest BTC options volume on the day at $879 million. The exchange has emerged as the most popular …

Perpetual Protocol, a new DeFi derivatives exchange, revealed that the platform had already crossed its $500,000 open interest (OI) cap for decentralized perpetual contracts. The announcement is coming less than 24 hours after the mainnet launch of the service on Wednesday. Following the achievement, the project has decided to double its OI limit to $1 million as well as the personal position cap for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) trading pairs. The limit was introduced to limit possible losses in the early days of the protocol's launch. The announcement is yet another crypto derivatives milestone attained with BTC Futures OI …

Today Bitcoin (BTC) price blasted through the $20,000 level and in the process, a record $7.9 billion in futures open interest was set. Although the price increased by 74% over the past two months, the total accumulated short-seller liquidations amounted to $4.3 billion, which is lower than the $4.8 billion from longs. As shown in the chart above, the futures aggregate open interest increased by 90% over the past two months. Thus, signaling that investors are increasing their positions, which in turn allows even larger players to participate. It is also worth noting that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) now …

Leverj, a non-custodial derivatives platform based on an Ethereum sidechain, announced on Tuesday their cooperation with leading industry participants to support the launch and marketing of its exchange. The exchange offers perpetual swaps for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), accepting both Tether (USDT) and Dai (DAI) as margin and settlement currencies. To achieve meaningful performance for trading, Leverj uses its in-house Plasma-based scaling solution, Gluon. The system was optimized specifically for high-performance non-custodial trading. Like other Plasma-based systems, it relies on the security of the Ethereum chain to guarantee the safety of the funds. To ensure a successful launch, Leverj …

As Bitcoin (BTC) tested a $17,580 low on Dec. 11, investors remained relatively calm despite some analysts issuing bearish estimates. The week may have finished at the same level where it started, but the fundamentals for Bitcoin have become even healthier. Whenever the Bitcoin price drops considerably, there is usually some blatantly bearish analysis popping up and while this may sway the investment decisions of retail investors, professional traders know better. They avoid the FUD and the excessive pessimism that is the result of negative price swings. In the past week, Bitcoin dominance continued its uptrend up, from 63.5% to …

Ether (ETH) price might have had a disappointing week after its price failed to hold the $600 level, but the fundamentals of the network and cryptocurrency remain solid. Traders are known for having short memories so it’s worth mentioning that Ether price is still 45% higher than it was in the previous month. To understand whether the recent correction reflects a temporary consolidation or an effective ceiling caused by the lack of adoption, it’s helpful to gauge the metrics which reflect network usage on the Ethereum network. A good place to start is analyzing transactions and transfer value. The chart …

Bitcoin mining started out as a small endeavor taken on by a few individuals repurposing home computers to mint virtual coins that were, at the time, almost worthless. Fast forward to 2020, and Bitcoin (BTC) mining has become a formidable industry of its own, constantly growing and evolving alongside Bitcoin itself. Today, the Bitcoin network’s hash rate is sitting at around 129 EH/s, acting in a similar way to the price of Bitcoin, even following the halving in October this year that saw the mining reward cut in half. James Bennett, CEO of ByteTree crypto data provider, told Cointelegraph that …

On Dec. 11, a total of $540 million in Bitcoin (BTC) options open interest is set to expire. This number mimics the past month's $525 million options expiry, as monthly and quarterly options typically concentrate the most volume. Although both dates present somewhat unusual activity, this time around, bears seem in control. Data also shows that the Bitcoin bulls appear to have become too optimistic. Currently, the exchange Deribit holds 85% market share for Friday's expiry, with $189 million worth of call (buy) options stacked against $282 million put (sell) options. Even though the 1.44 put-to-call ratio is favoring the …

FTX, a crypto derivatives exchange, has added Airbnb to its list of stock offerings on the eve of the online rental marketplace’s highly anticipated initial public offering. As of late Tuesday, cryptocurrency traders can gain exposure to Airbnb through a pre-IPO derivatives contract directly on FTX. As a pre-IPO product, the performance of the contract is linked to the market capitalization of Airbnb at the end of its first trading day. FTX says these derivatives contracts "will automatically roll over to Fractional Stocks contracts" at the end of Airbnb's first public trading day. The exchange adds: "If Airbnb stock does …

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, is having a banner year in crypto enforcement. Per the commission's annual review released on Tuesday, fiscal year 2020 featured seven monetary relief actions against firms engaged in illegal activity in crypto, which is a new record. The review said: "In conjunction with the Division’s Digital Asset Task Force, the Commission brought a record setting seven cases involving digital assets." These included charges against PanForex for offering leveraged trading to U.S. persons without registering in the United States, as well as against Digital Platinum for classic fraud. The CFTC is the U.S. federal …

A month ago, one would be hard pressed to find any investor who would have expected a $32,000 Bitcoin (BTC) price for January. At the time, a 140% upside was needed from the $13,300 price on Oct. 30 and this seemed quite far fetched. Therefore, the January $32,000 BTC call (buy) options traded at Deribit for a meager $67, or 0.005 BTC in late October. Fast forward to now, and the same call option peaked at $705. That’s an almost 10x gain in less than four weeks. Keep in mind that despite the rally to $19,484, an additional 67% upside …