Unichain, Uniswap’s L2 network, now handles over 76% of Uniswap v4 volume, driven by UNI incentives and its new Rollup-Boost feature. 

The S&P 500 jumped 3.26% as US-China tariff easing lifted market sentiment. Investors now await CPI and retail data for signs of inflation trends under the new trade regime. Gold fell near $3,208 as easing US-China trade tensions reduced safe-haven demand. With CPI data ahead, further downside is likely. Technicals suggest bearish momentum, with key support at $3,202. The Coindesk Indices, which tracks the broader crypto market, fell 1.97%, with Bitcoin and Ether down 2.53% and 0.95%, in the past 24 hours. Trade these markets and more with up to 500x leverage on Bybit MT5 using this 

Today's top performer is RUNE, which surged by 4.4% following the completion of Halborn's security audit for Rujira Network's omnichain DeFi layer on THORChain.

THORChain (RUNE), created in 2018, is a decentralized protocol enabling native asset swaps across blockchains without wrapping. Built on Cosmos SDK and Tendermint, it uses Proof-of-Stake and Byzantine Fault Tolerance for secure cross-chain transactions. Halborn has 

 a smart contract security audit for Rujira Network, which is building an omnichain DeFi app layer on THORChain. Rujira enables seamless access to DeFi apps using native assets across connected chains.

Check out the latest prices, charts, and data of 

Unichain, Uniswap’s L2 network, now handles over 76% of Uniswap v4 volume, driven by UNI incentives and its new Rollup-Boost feature. This upgrade enhances MEV handling, cuts failed transaction gas costs, and sets the stage for Flashblocks—an upcoming 200ms block time system. Despite v4’s growth, Uniswap v3 still leads in total volume. The aim of Unichain is to solve Ethereum mainnet and L2 liquidity fragmentation while improving speed and decentralization.

Yesterday, BTC spot ETFs saw total outflows of $64.2 million, with $32.9 million from GBTC and $31.3 million from all other ETFs combined.

Multipli’s Season 1 has ended with 359.2M ORBs distributed (50% of supply). 

, allocating 30% of ORBs. Users can continue earning by keeping funds on mainnet or testnet—no action required. New users can join via testnet (free) or deposit stablecoins on BSC/Ethereum.

Beginner

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Unichain leads Uniswap v4 activity with rollup-boost upgrade and upcoming flashblocks feature

Ethereum surged 29% this week, breaking a 10-week downtrend and catching short sellers off guard with $400M liquidated. 

The S&P 500 extended its rally with a nine-day winning streak, its longest since 2004, as optimism over potential trade deals and upcoming Fed and earnings updates lifted sentiment. Gold rose to $3,245 on trade uncertainty and Fed rate cut hopes. CoinDesk Indices, which tracks the broader crypto market, fell 1.50% in the past 24 hours, while Bitcoin and Ether dropped 0.10% and 0.51%, respectively. Trade these markets and more with up to 500x leverage on Bybit MT5 using this 

Today's top performer is AI16Z, which surged 7.0% after Bonsai's smart media protocol integrated with Eliza to empower agent-driven social content creation.

elizaOS (AI16Z), launched in October 2024, formerly ai16z, is a Solana-based DApp that uses a DAO and an AI agent, "Marc AIndreessen," to manage community-driven investments in tech and crypto projects. 

, lets developers create agent-driven social media scripts and templates using ElizaOS plugins. The Bonsai Client, its first implementation, enables easy deployment of these smart media agents on platforms like Lens. Builders can explore these tools and compete for prizes in the Lens Spring Hackathon.

Ethereum surged 29% this week, breaking a 10-week downtrend and catching short sellers off guard with $400M liquidated. Despite muted ETF flows and neutral derivatives sentiment, ETH’s dominance remains unshaken—boasting $64B in TVL, dwarfing Solana, BNB Chain, and Tron combined. With fresh momentum from the recent pectra upgrades and Trump distancing from rival altcoins, all eyes are now on a potential push toward $2,700. 

BTC spot ETFs saw $920.9M in net inflows this week, driven by $1.09B into non-GBTC funds despite $171.5M outflows from GBTC. Since inception, total net inflows stand at $41.1B.

 are now live and claimable as a small bonus for users farming the upcoming Aster (AST) airdrop. By depositing BNB to mint asBNB, users can start earning points toward both the main airdrop and future ecosystem rewards. Optional perp trading can boost points further, but simply holding asBNB is enough to qualify.

Ethereum outperforms with a 20% rally as fresh capital flows in and undervaluation signals flash

Our monthly report delves into insights from options volatility to inspire your next crypto move.

: April 2025 saw BTC's implied volatility surge above 75% due to tariff chaos, but it collapsed to 35% within a week, indicating a surprising short-term drop in volatility expectations despite ongoing macro uncertainty.

: BTC's return above $100K was met with muted enthusiasm in the derivatives market, suggesting that 

traders no longer view this level as a significant psychological barrier, and the rally isn’t likely to be sustained.

: ETH significantly outperformed BTC with a 23% rally, leading to increased demand for short-dated calls and a positive shift in the options market, highlighting renewed bullish sentiment.

: Historical trends suggest a potential summer lull in volatility in store for BTC, raising questions about whether this pattern will repeat in 2025 amidst ongoing macroeconomic challenges.

Bitcoin’s volatility plunges in late April

April 2025 witnessed significant volatility in the cryptocurrency market, particularly influenced by US trade policies. As President Trump announced steep reciprocal tariffs, the crypto landscape experienced sharp fluctuations. Bitcoin (BTC) initially demonstrated resilience, despite widespread sell-offs in equities and the US dollar, only to succumb to a decline from $88K to $75K by early April. This period was characterized by a dramatic rise in implied volatility that peaked above 75% as traders sought protection through short-dated puts. However, as the tariffs faced moderation, implied volatility plummeted to 35% by mid-April, marking the lowest level since early March.

Interestingly, while short-tenor volatility collapsed, 

the back end of BTC's term structure remained elevated, signaling that market participants expect heightened volatility in the mid-term

. Amidst this backdrop, realized volatility fell below the five-year seasonal average, paralleling similar trends in previous years and suggesting a 

. The historical pattern contrasts that BTC often experiences a rebound in volatility heading into May, raising questions about whether this trend will persist.

Subdued derivative response suggests Bitcoin rally might not endure

The market's reaction to BTC's resurgence above the $100K threshold was notably subdued compared to previous instances. While BTC rallied 20% following the initial tariff sell-off, the derivatives market displayed a muted response. The 25-delta put/call skew, a measure of market sentiment, indicated only a slight bias toward out-of-the-money calls, contrasting sharply with sentiment previously when BTC first breached the $100K mark in December 2024. This lack of exuberance suggests that traders no longer view $100K as a significant inflection point, raising concerns about the sustainability of the rally. 

Meanwhile, funding rates and implied volatility — though still bullish — didn’t reach the extremes observed in earlier months, indicating more cautious market sentiment. The relationship between BTC's spot price and implied volatility suggests that although traders are optimistic, they’re waiting for BTC to approach previous all-time highs before adjusting their volatility expectations.

Ethereum's option data points to further rally

In stark contrast to BTC, Ethereum (ETH) displayed remarkable resilience and outperformed major cryptocurrencies, gaining 23% overnight following favorable trade news. This rally catalyzed a surge in demand for short-dated calls, pushing front-end volatility expectations significantly higher. The response from the derivatives market was robust, inverting the term structure and indicating renewed bullish sentiment toward ETH, even as it’s trading well below its all-time high.

The ETH options market exhibited a shift from neutral to slightly negative skew, to a 10% bias favoring out-of-the-money calls, reflecting the market's confidence in ETH's potential to regain lost ground. Despite overall macroeconomic uncertainty, the demand for ETH options suggests that traders are optimistic about Ether’s future price movements.

In conclusion, April 2025 highlighted the complex interplay between macroeconomic factors and cryptocurrency market dynamics. While BTC faced challenges in eliciting strong responses from derivatives markets upon recrossing the $100K threshold, ETH's performance indicated a divergence in market sentiment. As traders navigate the evolving landscape, the potential for seasonal volatility patterns and the influence of macroeconomic developments will remain critical factors in shaping future market expectations.

Advanced

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Bybit X Block Scholes options volatility report (April 2025): Data suggests Bitcoin rally might not endure, but Ether sees further upside

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

After mostly trading sideways at the end of April 2025, a US-UK trade deal sparked a crypto rally. BTC surged past $100K for the first time since February, but it’s ETH's performance that captured the derivatives market's attention. 

A 23% increase in ETH's spot price led to an inverted term structure and a spike in front-end volatility. The put/call skew for ETH shifted from a bearish bias to a nearly 10% skew toward OTM calls. Other sentiment indicators, such as perp funding rates and futures yield, also supported the rally. In contrast, while BTC's funding rates and skew have increased, its implied volatility remains low at 40%, over 30 points below ETH's 7-day implied volatility.

Please check out the report’s highlights.

ETH’s record performance since 2021 was propelled by positive term structure

ETH has significantly outperformed BTC and the top 10 cryptocurrencies, marking its largest single-day gain since May 2021. The options market has reflected this enthusiasm, with implied volatility for short tenors rising sharply and inverting ETH’s term structure, thus contrasting with BTC's muted, positively sloped structure. The 7-day tenor for ETH is now trading at a 33-point premium over that for BTC. 

While puts dominate BTC's open interest, ETH is seeing the opposite trend. On May 8, 2025, options volumes surged over $120M, more than double the typical monthly volume, with $60M more in calls than puts. ETH now boasts a positive futures curve and funding rates, as well as a strong skew toward OTM calls.

ETH sees exceptionally bullish put/call skew

ETH's substantial outperformance in the current crypto rally has led to bullish sentiment in its derivatives markets. Funding rates have surged, futures yields are strongly positive and the put/call skew has shifted significantly toward OTM calls, now close to 10%. This starkly contrasts with early April, when the skew was 20% toward OTM puts. Although ETH has underperformed (relative to BTC and other "ETH killers"), it has rebounded in this rally, with the ETH/BTC ratio rising after spending most of the year declining.

Open interest for Bitcoin options increased, with implied volatility remaining suppressed

The announcement of the new US administration's first trade deal, nearly 30 days into Trump's 90-day tariff pause, jolted crypto markets, pushing BTC back up above $100K. Surprisingly, implied volatility has remained suppressed, failing to invert BTC's term structure, with front-end volatility trading at around an 18-month low of 35-40%. On May 8, 2025, options volumes surged, with call volume reaching $189M, reversing last week's trend of higher put volumes. Meanwhile, open interest rose steadily to exceed $300M, the highest level this month, but remains significantly larger for puts than for calls despite the price increase.

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Bybit X Block Scholes crypto derivatives analytics report (May 9, 2025): Ether’s put/call skew turns remarkably more bullish than Bitcoin’s

Altcoins

Crypto

Storj is an open-source enterprise-grade decentralized cloud storage platform that offers multi-layered encryption for maximum security.

Storj_crypto_workflow.png

Storj_decentralized_storage.png

In today’s data-driven world, it’s important to keep your personal and work-related files close by for quick access. Traditional data storage options — i.e., hard drives — tend to be bulky and expensive, especially compared to online options. In response to an increasing need for convenient file storage, many mainstream cloud storage providers have stepped in to offer both free and paid storage services. 

 $371.4 billion in 2020, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) taking the lead at a 31% market share. 

However, as cloud storage is created to ease the sharing of data, its infrastructure makes it susceptible to data breach and hacking. Additionally, since central cloud providers hold complete control over the stored data, there have been increasing concerns over the intrusion into consumer privacy. 

A decentralized cloud platform called Storj has recently gained popularity for its ability to provide secure data storage without involving big corporations, cloud storage providers and other third parties. This article will help you understand how Storj works.

Storj is an open-source, enterprise-grade decentralized cloud storage platform that’s 

–compatible with end-to-end encryption.

 The company behind the Storj platform is Storj Labs Inc., founded in 2014 by Shawn Wilkinson, James Prestwich, Jim Lowry, John Quinn and Tome Boshevski. Storj is split into two parts, with the supply side referred to as Storj and the demand side called Storj DCS.

Storj is powered by a decentralized network of 16,000 anonymous storage nodes in over 100 countries, eliminating the need to trust cloud storage service providers with the task of protecting private data. Anyone can join to operate a node to help store bits of encrypted data in their node and be rewarded in STORJ tokens.

Storj DCS allows customers to upload their data for free, with a monthly storage charge of $4.00 per terabyte (TB), which can be paid in either fiat currency or STORJ tokens. Storj DCS automatically encrypts each file before separating the data and scattering them into the network of various individual hosts. As a result, the system enhances privacy as each node only gets a random fragment of the entire file, with decryption keys divided among each node and the host. 

This decentralized file distribution also helps improve download speed, since data can be downloaded in parallel. Additionally, the system eliminates the risk of storing data in a few isolated storage units that may be susceptible to a planned and coordinated attack, resulting in mass data loss. 

In February 2023, Storj DCS was upgraded with 

 compatibility, enabling users to interact with 

How Can Storj Help With Data Storage and Sharing?

Storj’s decentralized file distribution provides several solutions for companies and individuals dealing with data. 

The Storj network gives users convenient and secure access to backups at a low cost. Videos can be downloaded and shared securely at fast speeds all across the world, with costs reduced by around 80%. 

In addition, the cost of storing data on a blockchain is lowered substantially with the aid of Storj, thereby facilitating DApp development and the advancement of 

. Lastly, as AI technology continues to grow, demand for data storage will increase as well. Storj can address this need by accommodating the storage requirements of increasingly complex AI models. 

Three main components contribute to the functioning of the Storj network:

Through this process, files are compressed, encrypted, and then shredded or split into 80+ bits and pieces.

The pieces of the original files are subsequently scattered and stored across the network. If a user wants to decrypt and retrieve their files, they must provide the same private key used during the initial compression and encryption process.

If a segment is small enough, it will most likely be stored within a Satellite rather than on a storage node.

Storj offers the concept of redundancy to account for 

 going offline and potentially losing a piece of data. In this case, redundancy means that 

 are applied to the encrypted data segments, which assists in recovering deleted or corrupted data at minuscule disk space.

The most important thing to know about Storj is that it employs a fundamentally different method for storing your data than most other cloud storage services. Instead of uploading copies of your files to a handful of servers, Storj uses a fully decentralized file storage architecture. Following are some of the features of Storj that make it a viable storage platform.

Storj provides end-to-end encryption for all stored data, meaning clients possess control of their encryption keys. Additionally, 

 are used for data access, giving users complete control over their data management.

As mentioned, when a user uploads a file, Storj splits it into overlapping “pieces” and places each one on separate storage nodes across various countries. When a user wants to download or move their files, Storj only has to access 29 pieces of each file in order to reconstruct the whole file. Thus, it becomes virtually impossible to lose files that you’ve uploaded to Storj.

Storj’s decentralized storage system is designed to make your data more secure, thanks to its zero-trust architecture that splits up files and stores them in different computers, so there’s no single point of failure. Additionally, all file pieces are encrypted on Storj’s servers and can’t be cracked without your 

When users want to access their files, the platform automatically downloads pieces of the files from the servers closest to their location. With over 16,000 servers (or storage nodes) spread across a global network, Storj can reach the pieces quickly, speeding up downloads. This high-speed access is particularly valuable for file sharing — users who need to share large files with a globally-distributed team.

, used primarily for payment within the Storj network. Users pay in STORJ for storage space and bandwidth. The tokens are then rewarded to Storj node operators for contributing to the network, and also used for transactions between Satellite operators. 

STORJ has a market cap of $55.29 million, with a total supply of 

. The total supply of STORJ consists of circulating tokens, and tokens in 

When the Storj network switched from the 

, its 2017 token sale created an initial circulating supply of 75.1 million. 

Storj had a circulating supply of 124 million in 2018, distributed as follows:

Its total supply in 2018 included the 124 million circulating supply, 245 million STORJ tokens in timelocked reserves and 56 million in non-timelocked reserves. 

By the end of Q2 2023, 20.5 million STORJ were in non-timelocked reserves, 91.9 million in timelocked reserves and 312.6 million in circulation.

You can buy STORJ as a USDT Perpetual contract on Bybit (

 to create an account and fund it with USDT. To open a position, click on the 

denominates the order in OCEAN tokens, while

denominates it in USDT). In addition, you can increase or decrease the margin mode of the position depending upon your risk appetite.

After aggregating STORJ price predictions from a range of analysts, the consensus reached is that STORJ will see a bullish trend in the years ahead.

 will close out at $0.83 by the end of 2025 and reach a maximum of $5.15 by 2030. Meanwhile, Digital Coin Price 

 $1.43 in 2025 and increase to $4.16 in 2030.

That said, all investments are subject to market risks, particularly in the volatile crypto space. Investors are advised to monitor the price and performance of STORJ carefully before investing.

Unlike traditional cloud storage services, which store data in huge data centers, Storj operates on a decentralized cloud storage network of over 16,000 independent nodes all across the globe. One of Storj’s main attractions is that users can buy, sell and control their data independently, reclaiming a service currently provided only by corporate giants like Microsoft, Google and Amazon.

While there may be a plethora of decentralized cloud storage platforms, like 

, Storj stands out with its focus on privacy. Its multi-layered encryption process ensures truly secure storage for privacy-oriented users, eliminating concerns that a corporate entity might view their information and target them for ads. This important use case draws potential users to Storj and its cryptocurrency.

Additionally, its high speed and low cost due to decentralized distribution of files make it a great video storage solution. File-storing and file-sharing are cost-effective, allowing for global expansion of video cloud streaming and potentially transforming the video production and streaming industries.

Due to its unique network design and valuable features, Storj has secured itself a place in the world of data storage and cryptocurrency. With more users joining the decentralized revolution, it won’t be long before Storj becomes the go-to platform for storing and transferring data securely, and claims its place as the ultimate decentralized file storage solution.

Storj (STORJ): Decentralized Cloud Storage for Secure and Private Data

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