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.

December's end-of-year options expiration brought an unexpected drop as realized volatility fell to the lowest levels of the month. Perpetual swap open interest remained stable, indicating these markets weren't heavily used for hedging against expired options, likely contributing to the muted volatility. 

While most expired open interest in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) hasn't been reinvested, the balance of calls and puts remains consistent. Notably, ETH options are pricing in higher implied volatility as compared to BTC, particularly for shorter expirations, leading to a flat term structure for ETH, while BTC is offering cheaper options exposure.

In the perpetual markets, low volatility and minimal spot movements have led funding rates for nearly all tokens to mirror broader market sentiment throughout the holiday season. On the options side, BTC's term structure is noticeably lower and steeper than ETH's, with realized volatility now dipping below implied volatility levels, highlighting an intriguing shift in market dynamics.

Please check out the report’s highlights.

Open Interest Solid Amid Year-End Options Expiration

Although open interest for both BTC and ETH perpetual swaps hasn’t returned to early December 2024 highs, it remained robust throughout the significant end-of-year options expiration event. This suggests that these markets weren’t heavily utilized to 

 of the expiring options contracts, likely contributing to the lack of volatility observed during this period. Instead, trading volumes have dipped noticeably during the winter holiday season, coinciding with a collapse in realized volatility back to December 2024’s lowest levels.

BTC Option Curve Remains Steep During Call-Put Parity

The expiration of December's end-of-year options didn’t trigger the anticipated surge in volatility; instead, realized volatility has plummeted to the lower end of its recent range. The implied volatility term structure remains steep compared to both its recent behavior and ETH's, with longer-dated implied volatility around 57%, and 1-week at-the-money options trading about five points lower. Much of the expired open interest hasn’t yet been rolled into new positions, maintaining a neutral balance between puts and calls. Consequently, BTC's options market positioning is relatively neutral, lacking the leverage it had at the start of December 2024.

Huge ETH Option Expiring Doesn’t Cause Volatility

A late December spike in realized volatility didn’t carry into the new year, with ETH’s spot price currently exhibiting volatility below that of short-tenor implied volatility. Interestingly, the implied volatility term structure has undergone a steepening and re-flattening over the past week, contrasting with BTC’s slightly steeper profile. This suggests that ETH’s options market is anticipating higher short-term volatility in spot price movements. 

Despite the significant expiration of options open interest at the end of December 2024, which didn’t lead to a rollover into later expirations, call options continue to dominate the market and have increased at the start of 2025.

Advanced

block-scholes-x-bybit-report.jpeg

Bybit X Block Scholes Crypto Derivatives Analytics Report (Jan 2, 2025): BTC Options Continue to See Call-Put Parity, With Lower Short-Term Volatility Expected

Dive into FLock, a decentralized platform that revolutionizes the way AI models are developed, trained and deployed.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to transform countless industries, but its development often raises questions about privacy, control and inclusivity. 

 is a unique decentralized platform that democratizes AI training, fine-tuning and inferencing. With its blockchain-powered infrastructure, FLock ensures transparency, security and community-driven decision-making, paving the way for AI models that align with established societal values. 

In this article, we’ll explore how FLock decentralizes AI training, its key features and its potential impact on developers, communities and users.

 platform that revolutionizes the way AI models are developed, trained and deployed. By leveraging blockchain technology and a novel approach called 

, FLock addresses critical issues in AI development, such as centralized control, lack of transparency and privacy concerns.

At its core, FLock’s mission is to democratize AI by enabling communities to participate directly in the creation and refinement of AI models. Through federated learning, FLock trains AI models across multiple decentralized devices or servers. This method ensures that data remains local, eliminating the need for raw data exchange while still enabling robust model training. By decentralizing the training process, FLock not only protects individual privacy, but also fosters a more inclusive ecosystem in which diverse contributors can collaborate.

What sets FLock apart is its integration of 

. This ensures that all contributions — whether data, compute power or feedback — are transparently recorded and fairly rewarded. Blockchain tech’s immutable ledger enhances trust among participants and safeguards the process against manipulation. Additionally, the platform’s on-chain incentive mechanisms encourage participation from a wide range of contributors, ensuring that rewards are distributed equitably.

Ultimately, FLock empowers communities to develop bespoke AI models tailored to their specific needs. By decentralizing the process and prioritizing transparency and collaboration, FLock breaks the monopoly of large corporations, creating an AI ecosystem that aligns with public ethics and societal values.

, an Oxford alumnus with a robust background in AI and blockchain technology. Sun, who serves as FLock's CEO, has an impressive career trajectory, having worked as the Director of AI for the Royal Bank of Canada and as an AI Research Fellow at Imperial College London. His vision for FLock stems from a deep understanding of both the technical and ethical challenges of AI development.

The founding team also includes other Oxford alumni, boasting over a decade of combined experience in AI research and the cryptocurrency industry. This team brings a collective blend of academic excellence and practical expertise that positions FLock to lead the decentralized AI movement.

FLock has successfully raised $11 million in funding across two rounds, reflecting strong investor confidence in its vision. In May 2024, FLock secured a $6 million seed round co-led by Lightspeed Faction and Tagus Capital, with additional backing from Digital Currency Group (DCG), Volt Capital, OKX Ventures and Inception Capital.

Later, in December 2024, FLock announced a $3 million successful funding round led by DCG and joined by prominent names like Animoca Brands, Fenbushi Capital, GnosisVC and GSR. These investments are being channelled into enhancing the platform’s testnet and federated learning client, accelerating FLock’s mission of enabling secure, collaborative AI development.

With this funding and over 1,500 nodes contributing from platforms like Numerai and Kaggle, FLock is rapidly scaling its impact on decentralized AI training.

FLock AI revolutionizes AI development through its decentralized training framework. This approach allows participants to contribute to AI model training without ever sharing their personal data. Instead, models are trained locally across devices using federated learning, which ensures that data remains with its owners while still enhancing the accuracy of the model overall. 

FLock’s reward system is designed to incentivize active participation. Contributors who provide data, computational power and/or feedback are compensated with FLOCK tokens, ensuring a fair distribution of rewards. 

FLock empowers its community through a robust governance framework. Decisions regarding AI model development, deployment and ethical considerations are driven by the community, ensuring alignment with established societal values. Through blockchain-based voting mechanisms, contributors can influence the direction of AI projects, fostering transparency and public accountability. 

FLock’s modular architecture allows contributors to participate in specific aspects of AI model development. Whether providing raw data or computational power or even refining algorithms, the platform enables a collaborative and scalable development process. 

At the core of FLock’s philosophy is its commitment to privacy and security. By leveraging blockchain technology, the platform ensures that no single entity controls the AI development process. Data remains local and protected by cryptographic measures, while the immutability of blockchain guarantees transparency in every transaction and model update. 

 begins with a blockchain and an AI layer.

The blockchain layer underpins FLock’s incentivization and security mechanisms.

The AI layer facilitates model training, refinement and deployment, leveraging both centralized and federated approaches.

Let’s have a look at the supply and demand for the FLOCK token.

FLock adopts a 1:2 ratio model between team/investors (33.3%) and community (66.7%), prioritizing community-driven growth and ecosystem expansion. The majority of tokens are allocated to incentivize user participation and long-term ecosystem success.

FLock aims to improve the future of AI development by decentralizing the training process and ensuring transparency, privacy and inclusivity. By leveraging blockchain and federated learning, FLock empowers communities to contribute to AI creation without compromising on privacy. Its innovative reward system and community-driven governance foster a fair and collaborative ecosystem. 

With significant backing and a growing network of contributors, FLock is positioning itself as a leader in decentralized AI, offering a more ethical and secure alternative to traditional AI development models. As it continues to scale, FLock is set to transform the way AI models are built and deployed.

 — and earn a share of a 10 million FLOCK prize pool. For more details, visit 

Intermediate

flock.png

FLock AI: Decentralized AI Training

In this tutorial, we’ll explore how you can complete a series of tasks in Network3 for Bybit Web3 Airdrop Arcade.

Task 1: Register for a Network3 Account and Connect Your Bybit Wallet 

: Navigate to the campaign page and click on the 

task. Click on the task, and Galxe will ask to redirect you to the Network3 register page.

: Register for a Network3 account using your email address. You may indicate a 

Task 2: Download the Network3 App and Run a Node for One Hour

 and choose your operating system to download the Network3 app.

 or powerbutton, depending upon which operating system you’re using. For ease of reference, we’ve used macOS and iOS as examples below.

: Keep running the node until the timer reaches 

Beginner

network3 tutorial.png

How to Complete Network3 Tasks for Bybit Web3 Airdrop Arcade

Bybit launched the Bybit Merch Creative Challenge for university students worldwide, offering a $50,000 USDT prize pool.

The S&P 500 dropped 0.22% on Thursday, its fifth straight decline, with investors eyeing Friday’s economic updates. Coindesk Indices, an index measuring broader cryptocurrency market performance was up by 2.03%, with Bitcoin and Ether rising by 2.79% and 2.70%, respectively in the past 24 hours.

Today's top performer is XRP, which surged 1.9% following a rise in price driven by increased open interest and positive market sentiment.

Ripple (XRP), launched in August 2012, is a blockchain technology company focused on improving international payments with its cryptocurrency, XRP. XRP price surged due to increased open interest, a major XRP transfer, and market sentiment linked to Trump's inauguration. Bullish momentum is supported by high short liquidations, with key resistance levels to watch for further price movement.

Check Out the Latest Prices, Charts, and Data of 

 for university students worldwide, offering a $50,000 USDT prize pool. Participants can design exclusive Bybit merchandise, with submissions open until Jan. 15, 2025. Winners will be announced on Feb. 1, 2025, across four prize categories.

Yesterday, Bitcoin Spot ETFs recorded a total inflow of $84.8M, driven by $107.9M from non-GBTC funds, partially offset by a $23.1M outflow from GBTC.

, offering an airdrop for participants who complete tasks like swapping and bridging using the Mango wallet. Points earned through tasks determine airdrop rewards. Join via the Mango wallet and follow steps on the testnet dashboard.

2.png

Bybit Launches $50,000 Merch Design Challenge for University Students Worldwide

Bybit Learn

Altcoins

Toshi is the newest of the popular pet-themed meme coins. It functions on the Base blockchain, and has already generated a buzz on major social media platforms.

, have become household names seemingly overnight. These popular tokens themed around cute animals are well-known for having rapidly fluctuating prices. Such significant volatility has resulted in huge gains for many investors, with stories quickly spreading through social media platforms and other outlets, generating a buzz and raising interest from other crypto investors. 

These established tokens are now joined by a relatively new meme coin, Toshi, that’s already getting a considerable amount of attention from crypto traders. Toshi stands apart from other 

 with its fun cat theme and its use of the newly launched 

, is a meme coin project named after Armstrong’s own cat — who, in turn, is named after 

, the pseudonymous name used by the creator of Bitcoin. 

Currently, TOSHI is the largest of the crypto tokens on the Base network. This meme coin has already garnered incredible attention from investors, evident through the volume of social media posts and the coin's trading activity. In fact, in a 24-hour period on Aug 4, the trading volume for TOSHI on SushiSwap exceeded $10 million. While the excitement surrounding this crypto coin presents investors with a potentially great opportunity for gains, losses could be significant as well. With this in mind, investors should observe their own risk appetite before making trades.

Base is a new Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain built on the Coinbase crypto exchange. Toshi runs on this fast, efficient blockchain.

Coinbase developed Base with OP Stack, an open-source 

 blockchain. The testnet launch was in February 2023, and the mainnet launch date was Aug 9, 2023. Because it’s built on Ethereum Layer 2, the Base network offers enhanced stability, security and scalability for the projects it supports, and it’s 

Base provides the many benefits of the Ethereum virtual machine (

) with very low transaction fees. Decentralized apps (

) on the Base network benefit from easy access to the products, assets and distribution offered by Coinbase.

Toshi is a meme coin, and these coins lack practical use that drives long-term growth. As with other meme coins, Toshi's utility is rooted in the potential financial benefits of price volatility and in the generally fun experience associated with it. However, Toshi stands out from other top meme coins, like 

 and others, in its use of renounced contract ownership (see below) and secured liquidity.

Making TOSHI coin trades is a fast process that can be completed in a few easy steps. On Toshi, click on the 

 tab and follow the prompts to connect a 

 wallet. Then, select your trading pair to complete the trade. You can also execute a trade with your preferred trading pair on Base. You simply need to add your MetaMask wallet to the Base network using 

A critical aspect of Toshi is its renounced contract ownership. When a 

 is renounced, the creator loses control of it. As a result, the contract becomes both transparent and 

. Investors benefit from Toshi’s renounced contract ownership due to an elevated sense of security, since contract creators aren’t able to alter or manipulate the contracts. The possibility of losses related to breaches and hacking is diminished, and this adds a layer of protection for investors’ benefit. In addition, renounced contract ownership enables all involved parties to view contract terms and conditions.

Toshi’s liquidity is both secured and locked, which protects investors’ safety. This means that a supply of TOSHI tokens is locked in a smart contract, allowing investors to complete crypto transactions on decentralized exchanges (

) without centralized market makers. Crypto tokens can be traded in a 

NFToshis is the NFT collection of the Toshi project. It features 3,000 NFTs, inspired by Toshi the Cat, that have unique attributes with varying rarities, such as different styles of head/mouth/tail/eyes, head accessories and backgrounds.

If you’re interested in minting your very own NFToshi, visit the 

The total supply of TOSHI is 420.69 billion tokens. As of Sep 5, 2023, the token price is $0.00000928. This price reflects a decrease of 18.6% over the last 24 hours. The 24-hour trading volume for TOSHI is $186,952. Meme coin prices — such as those for Dogecoin, Baby Doge Coin and others — are widely recognized for extreme price volatility, so each investor must consider their own risk appetite before committing to an investment in any meme coins. 

However, it’s worth noting that PricePrediction 

 TOSHI’s price reaching $0.000041 in 2023, $0.00009733 in 2025 and $0.00064849 in 2030. Actual prices, however, are influenced by numerous factors, which makes it difficult to accurately predict the future price of meme coins. Hence, always practice 

Like other meme coins, TOSHI coins lack practical applications compared to more established tokens like ETH, and the token’s price is based purely on market sentiment and trading activity. The ability to turn a profit trading meme coins like TOSHI is rooted in volatility and trade volume. While TOSHI is a relatively new token available on decentralized exchanges, the buzz on social media outlets like X and others is considerable, which supports the likelihood of continued and even increased trading activity. 

While gains are possible with short-term holds of the TOSHI token due to its price volatility, the long-term trend for TOSHI is upward as well. This may make it feasible to benefit from gains from longer holds of TOSHI tokens. There’s always a risk of loss when trading any crypto tokens, including meme coins. However, the possibility for large gains is also present. With these factors in mind, investors should consider researching the market carefully and only investing the assets that they can afford to lose.

TOSHI is quickly gaining to rival the status of the top meme coins, making it a cryptocurrency to consider. You can conveniently get full details about the Toshi project on its website, and keep up with current and upcoming events on the latest and established tokens on major social media platforms. Many investors are already reaping profits from TOSHI, so this is an opportune time to take a closer look at the Toshi crypto project.

Toshi (TOSHI): A New Cat Meme Coin on the Base Blockchain

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards