Mar 10, 2025: Our weekly Institutional Insights explores the latest market developments — market performance, industry news, exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows, trending topics, upcoming events and token unlocks — to help you supercharge your crypto trading.

 explores the latest market developments — market performance, industry news, exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows, trending topics, upcoming events and token unlocks — to help you supercharge your crypto trading.

Weekly highlight — Fed likely to stay put amid softening job market

US job growth stabilized last month, with nonfarm payrolls increasing by 151,000 in February 2025, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.1%. This mixed report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests a softening labor market, with more people out of work permanently, a decline in federal government jobs and a rise in part-time workers due to economic conditions. The number of individuals holding multiple jobs reached nearly 8.9 million.

Concerns about US president Donald Trump's policies have added to the uncertainty, as persistent inflation and reduced consumer spending might lead businesses to reconsider hiring. Economists predict that continued government actions, such as tariff hikes and spending cuts, could have a further impact on job creation.

The advance in hiring was primarily in the healthcare, transportation and financial sectors, but government payrolls saw their weakest growth in nearly a year. The report reflects the initial impacts of Trump’s second term, with significant job cuts anticipated due to federal layoffs.

Additionally, restrictions on immigration may hinder job growth. The labor market participation rate dropped to its lowest in two years, particularly among men, while the number of part-time workers rose to a four-year high, pushing the broader underemployment rate up.

Average hourly earnings increased by 0.3%, but economists warn that layoffs from major companies could lead to a rise in unemployment in the coming months. The Federal Reserve is expected to maintain interest rates, awaiting clearer signs of inflation trends.

Weekly crypto highlight — strategic reserve proposal fails to lift sentiment

De-risking in the crypto derivatives markets persisted following President Trump's proposal to include Bitcoin, Ether and three other tokens in a national strategic crypto reserve. While Trump's announcement briefly boosted crypto prices, it didn’t improve premiums or open interest for Bitcoin futures on the CME. The basis, reflecting the annualized expected return from selling Bitcoin futures while buying spot, experienced a momentary increase, but quickly fell back, indicating that US institutional investors remain cautious.

Perpetual futures, popular among non-US investors seeking leverage, also mirrored this trend, with their funding rate hitting negative levels not seen since September 2024. Trump's announcement did little to enhance sentiment on the CME, as the basis remained in single digits during Bitcoin's brief recovery. It’s noted that Trump's policies continue to disrupt broader financial markets, with crypto failing to act as a safe haven amid global uncertainty.

Increased liquidations and record outflows from Bitcoin exchange-traded products suggest ongoing risk aversion. Even crypto investors, traditionally tolerant of volatility, are opting to stay on the sidelines as they observe the early months of Trump's second term. Although Trump's pro-crypto stance previously propelled Bitcoin to new heights, his recent tariff policies and unpredictable geopolitical maneuvers have unsettled the crypto landscape.

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Weekly Institutional Insights: Job market softens; ETF outflows send headwind to crypto

Our weekly crypto derivatives analytics report delves into macro events, the current state of crypto and trading signals from spot trading volume, as well as futures, options and perpetual contracts.

Crypto price movements remain heavily influenced by US president Trump’s policies. Recently, several SEC cases against crypto firms were dropped, which is positive for the industry. This was followed by Trump’s announcement to include BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL and ADA in a US strategic crypto reserve. However, ongoing bearish sentiment in risk assets, highlighted by a decline of over 5% in the S&P 500 since its February all-time high, has negatively impacted crypto. 

Consequently, BTC and ETH have experienced heightened volatility, resulting in an inversion of their at-the-money implied volatility term structures, with strong demand for short-term protective puts.

Please check out the report’s highlights.

President Trump’s announcement on Mar 2, 2025 regarding a US crypto reserve to include BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP and ADA led to a sharp rally in their spot prices. However, funding rates for these tokens have remained subdued, compared to previous highs seen before Trump’s inauguration on Jan 20, 2025. Over the past week, long positions have paid a consistently positive rate across all coins, indicating a lack of strong short demand and potentially robust demand for long positions.

The rally in spot prices following Trump’s announcement of a US crypto strategic reserve to include ETH quickly reversed, as his ongoing tariff pledges contributed to bearish sentiment in risk assets. This volatility has pushed realized volatility above options-implied levels to monthly highs, leading to increased demand for short-term options. The term structure of volatility has inverted, with short-term volatility skewing toward puts as traders seek protection against potential downside.

Open interest in Solana (SOL) options declined at the end of February, with over $5M in calls and more than $3M in puts expiring, most of which weren’t rolled into new positions. Despite SOL trading 44% below its January all-time high, the majority of new positions have been in calls. However, this new positioning is disappointingly weak, given SOL's inclusion in the list of tokens for a crypto strategic reserve announced by Trump alongside BTC, ETH, XRP and ADA.

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Bybit X Block Scholes crypto derivatives analytics report (Mar 7, 2025): Investors seek protection as strategic reserve news rattles market

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) linked to cryptocurrencies have seen notable activity, particularly in response to the recent market downturn. 

Market volatility and geopolitical influences

The cryptocurrency market has been marked by extreme price fluctuations in recent weeks, primarily influenced by political events and economic conditions. A notable catalyst has been US president Donald Trump’s aggressive financial policies, including his unexpected announcement of a US crypto strategic reserve. Initially, this announcement led to a surge in prices; however, the market quickly reversed, raising doubts about the effectiveness of government intervention in stabilizing the crypto sector.

Bitcoin, the top cryptocurrency, experienced a significant drop of 28.3% from its all-time high of $109,115, closing February at $78,226. This decline coincided with a heated exchange between Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky, which unsettled the crypto community amid discussions about potential tariffs and geopolitical stability. The broader crypto market lost over $640 billion in just 25 days, showcasing a direct correlation between traditional stock market movements and cryptocurrency trends.

Investor behavior has been characterized by emotional responses, including fear of missing out (FOMO) and fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD). These reactions have often led to price movements that contradict prevailing predictions. For example, during Bitcoin’s price decline, many retail traders panicked and sold off their holdings, only to witness a rebound shortly after. Conversely, price surges driven by FOMO frequently result in subsequent corrections, allowing larger investors (or 

Social media trends indicate a shift in trader sentiment, with discussions around high price targets for Bitcoin suggesting a market top, while talk of lower price expectations may signal a bottom. Recent data reveals a decline in discussions related to speculative investments, indicating a growing caution among retail investors. This shift toward stablecoins and Layer 1 tokens reflects a healthy level of fear that could potentially set the stage for bullish momentum in the future.

The role of ETFs and institutional interest

 (ETFs) linked to cryptocurrencies have seen notable activity, particularly in response to the recent market downturn. Significant outflows from crypto-backed ETFs occurred as investors reacted to declining asset values, resulting in heightened trading volumes. The interplay between ETF movements and underlying crypto assets continues to be crucial for assessing market health and investor confidence.

Despite the current volatility, institutional interest in digital assets remains strong, as indicated by Bitcoin's network growth and ETF trading volumes. This ongoing institutional engagement may provide a stabilizing effect on prices over time. Historically, periods of extreme pessimism in the market have preceded major bull runs, suggesting that traders could soon shift from panic to accumulation.

In conclusion, while the cryptocurrency market faces immediate challenges, the long-term outlook may be more optimistic. If key macroeconomic conditions improve and institutional buying increases, Bitcoin could potentially rise above the $100,000 mark by the end of 2025. For now, traders must navigate the volatility wisely to position themselves for future rewards.

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Bybit x Santiment: Crypto strategic reserve unnerves market; investors turn cautious

A crypto strategic reserve is essentially a state-sanctioned reserve of Bitcoin or other digital assets designed to function similarly to the gold reserves held by governments.

Over the past year, cryptocurrencies have gained more acceptance and legitimacy in the eyes of government officials and politicians. One positive result of this development is the concept of a Bitcoin and crypto strategic reserve, which aims to create a state-backed store of value similar to the more traditionally held gold reserves.

In this article, we’ll explore what a Bitcoin and crypto strategic reserve is, Trump’s executive order establishing the strategic reserve and the broader political and market implications of such a move.

Trump's signs executive order for US crypto strategic reserve

In August 2024, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump publicly supported the idea of a US Bitcoin reserve during his campaign, arguing that a state-backed digital asset would not only boost national prestige but also provide a critical counterbalance in an increasingly digital financial ecosystem.

On Mar 2, 2025, President Trump announced a broader 

 that would extend the idea to other major cryptocurrencies, such as ETH, SOL, XRP and ADA.

 an executive order (EO) to establish a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile.” Both the reserve and stockpile would contain BTC and other digital assets held by the Department of Treasury that were seized from criminal proceedings. However, the EO also mentioned the possibilities of developing “budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin” without using public funds.

The initial market reaction to the Mar 2 announcement was positive. All of the coins mentioned in the reserve saw significant buying and short covering, which led to double-digit gains across the board. For example, BTC was up 12%, ETH gained 16%, SOL rallied by 28% and XRP saw a major 35% gain. ADA was the biggest gainer, rallying as high as 72% following the announcement. 

While immediate reactions were positive, there were also several prominent figures, even within the crypto community, who questioned the inclusion of other assets — apart from Bitcoin — into initiatives for the strategic crypto reserve.

However, following Trump’s executive order to establish the strategic reserve on Mar 7, BTC 

 by around 5.7%, as market participants were left underwhelmed. Despite David Sacks, Trump’s crypto and AI tsar, calling the reserve a “digital Fort Knox,” investors were disappointed that this signalled no additional purchases of Bitcoin or other digital assets.

A Bitcoin strategic reserve is essentially a state-sanctioned reserve of Bitcoin designed to function similarly to the gold reserves traditionally held by governments. It's a common practice of governments to hold gold as a reserve to protect their national currencies in case of an emergency. Gold often forms a large share of forex reserves for most countries. The table below shows the top 10 nations holding gold reserves as of Feb 7, 2025.

Since Bitcoin has largely gained acceptance as 

, the idea behind a Bitcoin strategic reserve is to create a decentralized, secure vault system whereby Bitcoin is stored and managed by federal governments. By allocating a portion of national reserves to Bitcoin, governments could theoretically strengthen their balance sheets and diversify away from fiat currencies that are vulnerable to inflationary pressures.

Proponents of such a move argue that Bitcoin’s finite supply and decentralized nature makes it an effective store of value. Its global acceptance and increasing institutional interest lend further credibility to this idea.

In July 2024, US Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced the “Boosting Innovation, Technology and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide” 

. It’s a legislative proposal aimed at establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve in the United States. The press release from Senator Lummis’s office outlines several critical components of the bill, as follows:

What does the strategic reserve mean for the future of Bitcoin?

The idea of a Bitcoin strategic reserve is innovative, and aims to use Bitcoin to improve the balance sheet of nation states. This could be a win-win, as Bitcoin would benefit from increased legitimacy while nation states would be holding an asset that potentially provides better returns than those of gold. 

While there will be no immediate acquisition of Bitcoin from the US government, the reserve implies that there will be no selling pressure from the roughly 200,000 BTC (almost $17.4 billion) held by the US government. However, it remains to be seen if other strategies to acquire additional BTC without incurring cost to US taxpayers will be implemented.

Beginner

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Crypto Strategic Reserve: The BITCOIN Act and beyond

Altcoins

Following hot on the trail of Dogecoin, Shiba Inu is the latest 'meme' coin to gain popularity. Read all about it here.

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 appeared, many new cryptocurrencies offered alternatives in terms of how they are used. The likes of 

 added new real-world functions and services. And there is also 

, a cryptocurrency influenced by internet memes that were created.

As the “joke” approach goes on, a Dogecoin-inspired cryptocurrency was born — Shiba Inu (SHIB) coin.

The SHIB coin is a meme-based cryptocurrency that uses the Japanese Shiba Inu dog breed for its logo. SHIB started gaining attention during the bullish market of spring 2021 but the real momentum gained after Elon Musk’s SNL appearance.

Let’s take a look at some of the features such as the coin’s background, goals, and functionalities so that you can get a better idea if SHIB is a good investment for you.

SHIB is often referred to as a joke-influenced cryptocurrency that plans to outpace and be bigger than Dogecoin. The token working on the Shiba Inu 

 is — as we know it now — called SHIB, and it is an 

Shiba Inu is a project launched in the Ethereum network. This is the reason the consensus mechanism of Shiba Inu is the same as the consensus mechanism of Ethereum: 

The PoW mechanism entails that the mining rewards are based on the computational power of the nodes. The PoS mechanism bases 

As noted above, SHIB tokens are ERC-20 tokens in the Ethereum network. Such tokens are fungible, meaning that they can be replicated because each one has an equivalent value.

The total supply of Shiba Inu is 1 quadrillion SHIB. This is an extraordinarily huge supply. Therefore, even though the supply of SHIB is limited, it is still large enough to have inflationary properties. As of October 2022, the 

 of Shiba Inu is around 549 trillion SHIB.

At launch, 50% of the total supply of SHIB was locked on 

, and the other 50% was sent to a crypto address belonging to Vitalik Buterin, an Ethereum co-founder. These coins sent to Buterin are considered “burned,” even though they are still available if Buterin decides he wants to utilize them.

 DEX will be used for trading various cryptocurrencies with SHIB tokens. ShibaSwap claims that it will be one of the safest and 

A look at the ShibaSwap Decentralized Exchange (DEX). Source:

, users can deposit tokens in the SHIB pool of ShibaSwap to 

. ShibaSwap is going to use terms such as DIG, BURY, FETCH, TREAT, and BONEFOLIO. By “digging” SHIB tokens, you provide liquidity to the SHIB pool and earn BONE tokens (soon to be released).

By “burying” SHIB tokens, you can stake tokens in the Shiba Inu blockchain and get rewarded with additional SHIB tokens. “Fetching” allows you to directly swap your SHIB tokens with other tokens. “Treat” is another token that is expected to release very soon. Last but not least, “Bonefolio” is the portfolio where you can access your stash. 

A Visual representation of how BURY and DIG options work on Shiba Inu. Source: Shiba Inu Woofpaper

 released along with ShibaSwap has a total of 230 million tokens. The BONE tokens can be used for voting as well as trading. Shiba Inu plans to focus these tokens on the field of decentralized finance (

 that operates as an ERC-20 token in the Shiba Inu blockchain. This token has a much lower supply compared to SHIB and BONE, with only 107,647 LEASH.

Because of this relatively low supply, the price of LEASH is much higher, with the highest of all time being close to $8,900 on May 11th, 2021. LEASH can be purchased on both 

Let’s begin with the origin of the name Shiba Inu. Shiba Inu is a Japanese dog breed. This breed inspired internet memes with the name “Doge” in the 21st century. The meme became so big that it inspired some computer programmers to start a cryptocurrency based on it, which they called 

Initially, Dogecoin did not have any noticeable success. As the years went by and its community increased, Dogecoin started to become a serious investment. This influenced other people to launch their own cryptocurrencies based on 

, or simply based on Dogecoin itself. In this way, Shiba Inu was created.

The founder of Shiba Inu is anonymous and goes by the pseudonym of Ryoshi. But unlike other Dogecoin-influenced coins, Shiba Inu actually has a specific goal: surpassing Dogecoin. Shiba Inu plans to achieve this by providing more and better services than Dogecoin. Such services might be the very ones ShibaSwap soon plans to implement.

or any other sort of development funding. This might be one of the reasons why some of its features, such as ShibaSwap, are going to be added over time and were not included in the initial launch of the project.

The 50% of the total supply that went to Vitalik Buterin was initially considered as burned tokens. This was not the case when Vitalik Buterin actually used 

 that battles COVID-19 struggles in India.

Buterin’s donation accounted for approximately $1 billion worth of SHIB tokens. While this might have had a slightly negative impact on the price of SHIB, it helped to expand the Shiba Inu community even more.

SHIB started its price journey in August 2020 with a price lower than $0.00000001. These very low prices persisted throughout 2020 and into the beginning of 2021.

The price followed the bullish trend of the market as it started increasing, reaching new highs of $0.000003 which shortly grew to $0.00003 in May 2021, marking a 3,300% price increase within a week. This was followed by its biggest increase of all time in October 2021 when the price reached $0.000088.

By January 2022, the price had gone back down to $0.00003. The price has slowly decreased since and is trading around mid-2021 levels at $0.00001.

As of October 10 of this year, the price of SHIB is around $0.000011. With a supply of around 549 trillion SHIB, the 

 is near $5.9 billion, while the fully diluted market capitalization is around $6.4 billion. This market cap places SHIB at number 14 in the crypto market cap ranks.

Currently, Shiba Inu has launched its native DEX — 

along with the new tokens that are present in the Shiba Inu blockchain, such as the BONE, LEASH, and TREAT tokens. It also has an 

with many social advantages such as joining their exclusive club, direct communication with team members, etc.

The launch of the ShibaSwap DEX, the aforementioned tokens, and its burn mechanism are likely to make Shiba Inu look like a much more serious project, as the field of DeFi seeks utilization. Additionally, Shiba Inu is working on its 

which the SHIB ecosystem will eventually migrate to once it has been completed.

Shiba Inu has developed another project named Shiba Inu Rescue. This project involves rescuing actual Shiba Inu dogs that are lost or in need of rescuing. Using AmazonSmile 

, people can help out by donating to this project.

The best part about the project is that it does not require any direct donations at all. Whenever you use AmazonSmile to order a product, you can type Shiba Inu Rescue along with the organization name, and a percentage of the money you spend on buying the product goes to Shiba Inu Rescue. 

Such a project establishes a positive and trustworthy environment within the Shiba Inu community. Projects like these are one of the reasons why some people no longer look at Shiba Inu as a joke cryptocurrency, but as something much more serious in the long run.

As mentioned, SHIB gets its name from its similarity to Dogecoin. However, it is not like every other doge-based 

. SHIB is actually one of the first cryptocurrencies planning to “kill” Dogecoin. Hence, some people refer to Shiba Inu as a Dogecoin Killer. 

When you think about what SHIB and Dogecoin bring to the crypto market, the former might have the upper hand as it offers more services for its users. Since Dogecoin has the support of 

like Elon Musk and is more popular than SHIB, it is difficult to forecast whether it can actually become bigger than Dogecoin. Ultimately, only time will tell.

Shiba Inu has promised additional upgrades in the network as well as the addition of new features. One of these features will be their very own L2 on Ethereum along with a 

called Doggy DAO to involve the community in deciding the future of SHIB.

exclusively on Shibarium. If it happens, users will finally be able to buy and sell 

with their SHIB tokens through the exchange. Moreover, Shiba Inu has launched the Shiba Artist Incubator, by which they plan to recruit ten artists to create works that may then be minted as official Shiba NFTs. 

In terms of the price of Shiba Inu, some experts believe that it may increase at a steady rate in the long run due to active upgrades while others think it is just a meme coin and will always remain as that. Also, keep in mind that Shiba Inu is heavily influenced by Ethereum since it is built within the Ethereum network. This will likely be the case for the upcoming L2 Shibarium as well, while Ethereum continues to upgrade its blockchain on 

To conclude, SHIB has slowly started to shift from a “joke” coin into a serious cryptocurrency. With ShibaSwap’s plans for updates and NFTs, the network is very likely to enter the watchlists of many investors. It still has a long way to go before becoming a serious competitor to Dogecoin, but it is definitely on the right track to do so.

So, with the newfound knowledge in crypto, why not sign up for Bybit?

A Beginner’s Guide: What Is Shiba Inu (SHIB) Coin?

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