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.

Without the positive crypto news from U.S. president-elect Trump's late November 2024 administration picks, spot prices have remained primarily stable through the second week of the year. The lull in realized volatility has ended, aligning with options-price implied volatility. BTC's term structure is flat, while ETH's is inverted, showing a strong bullish skew for OTM calls at longer tenors. However, macroeconomic factors are dominating sentiment across risk-on assets, leaving bullish positioning focused on the long term.

Trade volumes in perpetual contracts have returned to pre-Christmas levels, but funding rates are still reacting to spot movements, awaiting a clear crypto-specific catalyst. Among options, realized volatility has increased, closing the gap with implied volatility. While skew remains bullish for longer tenors, it has tilted toward OTM puts during a recent spot sell-off.

Please check out the report’s highlights.

Throughout the week, perpetual swap funding rates have fluctuated with spot prices but have not consistently gone negative. This indicates strong demand for long positions in the contract despite the downturn, or at least a lack of interest in short positions, due to liquidations or other factors. Major cryptocurrencies BTC and ETH are generally guiding market trends, with CRV and ATOM standing out for their consistently bullish and bearish rates over the past week. While CRV hasn’t shown clear outperformance in spot trading, ATOM has been more significantly affected, trading 30% below its monthly high.

BTC's realized volatility has rebounded strongly this week, closing the gap with higher implied volatility from options, unlike the near-20 point deficit during the illiquid winter break. Demand for short-tenor options has risen to cover exposure to short-term spot movements, resulting in a flat-term structure of volatility, with short-tenor skews reacting to price fluctuations. In contrast, longer-dated optionality remains skewed toward OTM calls, maintaining implied volatility in the high 50s. Meanwhile, open interest in calls and puts is balanced, likely due to investors hedging long positions with puts while leveraging calls to capitalize on upward price movements since the election.

Both BTC and ETH have seen their volatility smiles shift toward OTM puts at short tenors following Wednesday’s bullish CPI release. While BTC's spot price is just below $100K, volatility smiles now show higher implied volatility for OTM calls than puts, indicating bullish sentiment. However, within the past week shorter-tenor volatility smiles had shown a bearish tilt. These changes reflect traders' sensitivity to spot movements, which are influenced by macroeconomic news.

Advanced

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Bybit X Block Scholes Crypto Derivatives Analytics Report (Jan 15, 2025): ETH Shows More Bullish Sentiment Amid Rebound

Explore 11 top AI agent crypto coins for 2025, like VIRTUAL, AI16Z, and GRIFFAIN. Discover their growth, innovative tech, and high-return potential!

The final months between the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 have been exceptionally good for the crypto market. As of mid-January 2025, the market's two leading assets, 

 (ETH), have posted three-month growth rates of around 85% and 28%, respectively. However, these numbers pale in comparison to the boom in one specialized niche of the cryptocurrency world — the category of AI agents. Many leading assets in this category have achieved three-month growth rates in triple and even quadruple percentage numbers. The category's current star performer, Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL), has appreciated in price by over 4,000% during this period.

To say that AI agent tokens are now all the rage in the market amounts to a gross understatement. These assets are growing at unprecedented rates, and unlike meme coins, which are also known for recent meteoric rises, AI agent cryptocurrencies are propped up by some of the most innovative technologies invented by humanity —artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

In this article, we’ll look at the 11 best AI agent cryptocurrencies that should be on the 2025 watchlist of any crypto investor who has an appetite for risk and investment in innovative assets.

 are smart programs, based on AI and ML technologies, capable of autonomously executing sophisticated actions that generally require human oversight or reasoning abilities. On blockchain platforms, AI agents independently perform automated trading on 

 (DeFi) protocols, monitoring of markets and news, posting on social media networks, participating in games, executing governance procedures on 

AI agents are a more sophisticated form of bots, which were earlier autonomous programs. While bots are capable of executing some predefined actions based on certain triggers, AI agents can carry out more advanced actions, including learning from their own behaviors and adjusting their performance based on them.

 world, AI agents have found use cases in a wide variety of crypto-based applications. Within the web3 industry, AI agents are typically tokenized on blockchain in the form of 

 (NFTs) or, in some cases, fungible cryptocurrencies. In turn, cryptocurrencies are also used to monetize the revenue-generating activities of AI agents. For instance, a DeFi AI agent might accumulate the revenues from its trading activities in the cryptocurrency used to power its functionality.

As such, AI agent cryptocurrencies are typically issued for the direct purpose of enabling agents' operations. In some cases, these cryptocurrencies might also represent utility or governance tokens on AI agent–related platforms.

The AI agent category is one of the highest-growing niches (if not the highest-growing niche) in the crypto market. In our review, we’ve included 11 crypto tokens from this category that investors interested in AI technology and potentially making a profit in a high-growth/high-risk investment environment are advised to keep an eye on. Below, we report prices, market caps and other relevant statistics for these assets, valid as of the day of writing (Jan 16, 2025). Please note that this category is highly volatile, and the numbers can therefore change rapidly.

The first AI agent crypto we start with is also the one that’s currently making the biggest splash in the sea of AI-based web3. 

 (VIRTUAL) is a decentralized protocol on the 

 Layer 2 chain. It lets anyone create and deploy autonomous AI agents for a variety of use cases. The protocol's AI agents are characters that interact with other users, trade on DeFi platforms, participate in social media discussions, monitor markets and perform countless different activities.

Using the protocol, you can create co-owned agents with revenue-generation capabilities. Besides the platform’s native token, VIRTUAL, the protocol supports the issuance of other AI agent cryptos that power the tokenization and monetization of specific agents and activities. Demand for its AI agents continues to rise, with approximately 14,600 agents cumulatively launched since Nov 2, 2024.

The VIRTUAL token is experiencing a massive surge, having appreciated by more than 4,000% over the past three months. This is one of the best performances across the entire crypto market and within the high-growth AI agent niche. The token's current price is $3.70, and its market cap stands at $3.66 billion, making it one of only three AI agent cryptocurrencies to sport a market cap of over $1 billion.

 (AI16Z) is a DeFi platform that uses a powerful AI agent, “Marc AIndreessen”, to make investment decisions and allocate users' funds as a full-fledged investment manager. The 

 (SOL)–based protocol can take the credit for being the world's first truly AI agent-managed venture capital (VC) outfit. Of course, ai16z and “Marc AIndreessen” are tongue-in-cheek references to a16z, also known as Andreessen Horowitz, and its co-founder, Marc Andreessen. Besides the resemblance in names, however, the ai16z protocol has no connection to the investment world's giant or its famous co-founder.

The platform adopts a community-driven governance and decision-making model. Holders of the AI16Z token, collaborating as a DAO, propose potential projects and assets for “AI Marc's” consideration. The AI agent has the final say on how to invest the community's funds and manage the investments.

Launched in late October 2024, the AI16Z token has been on the market for less than three months. In this short time frame, this AI agent cryptocurrency has grown in value by more than 2,200%, rising to the third position by market cap in the AI agent category. Clearly, investors feel enthusiastic about AI agent–based crypto investment management.

Currently, AI16Z is trading at $1.50 and has a market cap of $1.65 billion.

 (AIXBT) is an AI agent–based crypto market intelligence and monitoring solution. It’s one of the solutions and tokens leveraging Virtuals Protocol to power their operations to support specific use cases. AIXBT focuses on tracking external sources to deliver the best possible market insights and intelligence. As such, it tracks and analyzes the opinions of hundreds of key opinion leaders (KOLs) in the crypto trading and investment sphere to guide users to the best possible opportunities.

As of the time of writing, AIXBT is trading at $0.882 with a market cap of $756 million.

 (GRIFFAIN) is another AI agent platform built on the Solana blockchain, specifically focusing on automating DeFi operations. Using Griffain's AI agents, cryptocurrency users and traders can automate tasks like 

Two primary types of agents are available via the platform — personal agents and special agents. The former are used for common 

 operations — such as wallet management and data analysis — while the latter are utilized for more sophisticated activities, e.g., NFT flipping or token sniping.

The platform’s native token, GRIFFAIN, is trading at $0.5682, with a market cap of $566 million.

 (ZEREBRO) is an AI-powered automated content creation engine. As a smart computer program, Zerebro can listen to and analyze content and narratives across various web3 and social network environments. It then automatically creates and disseminates creative content generated based on the analyses. The content generation engine focuses on art, music and memes. In particular, its content generation AI models are fine-tuned to create thought-provoking content with the potential for virality.

The ZEREBRO token’s current price is $0.322, and its market cap stands at $326 million.

 (ARC) is a framework developed in the Rust programming language to help integrate AI services and agents into web3 platforms. It provides tools to easily create highly modular, scalable AI applications capable of listening and adapting to user interactions and context. The platform offers developers a set of libraries based on Rust to create high-performance AI systems that can be embedded into various apps and environments.

The platform’s native cryptocurrency, ARC, is currently trading at $0.48 and has a market cap of $481 million.

 (PHA) is a decentralized platform that offers a highly secure environment in which to run AI models. The platform provides a trusted execution environment (TEE), in which AI algorithms can be executed, that’s protected with encryption to ensure the highest degree of security. After AI computations are processed on the TEE 

 environment for further validation. Phala’s technology combines the security of trusted execution with high scalability, and represents a fusion of blockchain and cloud processing.

The platform’s native token, PHA, currently trades at $0.3565, with a market cap of $276 million.

 (SWARMS) is a web3 app that offers businesses AI agents to automate diverse tasks and procedures. Many of the AI models and solutions offered by Swarms are based on large language models (LLMs), a type of generative AI technology that’s become highly popular after the introduction of ChatGPT. Swarms also offers solutions whereby multiple AI agents collaborate to complete complex tasks, with each agent specializing in one specific job function.

The SWARMS token is trading at $0.207 and has a market cap of $208 million.

Ava AI (AVA) is an AI agent that acts as your personal assistant to automate a variety of work tasks and streamline your general workflow. Ava is the first AI agent launched via 

, a platform that lets you create highly customizable virtual assistants with unique traits. Using Holoworld AI’s agent creation tool, you can choose specific configurations for your agent, such as its personality, looks, skills, voice and even wearables.

The Ava AI–bound cryptocurrency, AVA, is currently trading at $0.2675, with a market cap of $276 million.

 (ALCH) lets users create and deploy AI agents and applications without coding by using natural language prompts. Alchemist AI’s platform leverages LLM algorithms to analyze users’ input and identify key requirements, features and functionalities for the desired applications. It then automatically generates production-ready code for the front-end and back-end components of the system. The application generated via Alchemist's AI models even undergoes testing for further fine-tuning and adjustments. Finally, the application is integrated with external services and platforms using a set of APIs.

Alchemist's ALCH token is trading at $0.1579, with a market cap of $134 million.

 (FARTCOIN), rather than a classic AI agent cryptocurrency, since this crypto was largely inspired by an AI chatbot called 

. The Truth Terminal bot was created in 2024 by New Zealander Andy Ayrey to promote a meme-based quasi-religion online. It has invited copious discussions on the use and dangers of AI bots and associated technology.

In response to the Truth Terminal experiment, an anonymous developer launched Fartcoin on Solana in October 2024. Fartcoin aims to promote humor, community engagement and a lighthearted approach to cryptocurrency by leveraging good old meme culture.

Despite its humorous nature, the FARTCOIN token has been embraced by the market in the most serious way. Between its launch date in late October 2024 and Jan 16, 2025, the token's price increased by more than 4,900% and currently stands at $1.25, with a market cap of slightly over $1 billion.

The AI agent coins we've discussed in detail above are currently enjoying unprecedented attention from investors. Many of these assets may continue to deliver excellent returns in the future as well. At the same time, it’s advisable to keep in mind the volatile nature of this niche, as outstanding returns come with the risk of sudden declines and negative growth rates. Thus, before investing in any of these cryptos, be sure to 

 on each project’s specifics, background and future plans. 

Regardless of your immediate investment goals, these AI agent cryptocurrencies are worth keeping an eye on as 2025 progresses.

Intermediate

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11 Best AI Agent Crypto Coins to Watch in 2025

Lava is a decentralized infrastructure protocol that coordinates blockchain data access across multiple networks. Learn more about how it works here.

 (DApps) demand uninterrupted access to blockchain data, reliable infrastructure has become critical. Lava offers a solution through a decentralized protocol that coordinates remote procedure call (RPC) providers and data services, already serving over 1 million daily users and processing over 99 billion RPC calls across more than 40 chains.

This article explores Lava's mission to enable AI agents and users to access blockchain applications 24/7 without downtime. We'll cover Lava's history, core features and road map, and look at how its native LAVA token powers this growing decentralized infrastructure.

 is a decentralized infrastructure protocol that coordinates blockchain data access across multiple networks, providing high-performance RPC services with 99.999% uptime through a marketplace of incentivized providers.

Lava was developed by a team led by Yair Cleper, Gil Binder, Omer Mishael and Ethan Luc. The project emerged while the founders were building a multichain 

 marketplace, as they found accessing blockchain data to be fragmented and unreliable. Running individual 

 proved resource-intensive, while existing providers offered limited chain support.

The project evolved from its initial design as a Cosmos SDK appchain for RPC coordination into a comprehensive blockchain infrastructure solution. Contributors to Lava secured significant backing, with 

 raising $15M from investors like HashKey Capital, Tribe Capital and Jump Capital. The Lava Foundation raised over $11M from leading founders across the 

Today, Lava has over 1 million daily users across more than 40 blockchain networks, generating more than $3.5M in revenue. The protocol is focused on the booming AI industry, with its team emphasizing that 

Lava aims to enable AI agents and users to access blockchain applications 24/7 across every network. The protocol addresses this through three core objectives:

Via these objectives, Lava endeavors to establish a foundation for on-chain agentic finance, whereby AI agents and human users can seamlessly interact with blockchain applications without disruption.

Lava operates as a permissionless marketplace for blockchain data providers, connecting AI agents and applications with reliable infrastructure through the following three key steps:

This architecture enables efficient, decentralized data access through a Cosmos SDK–based blockchain and a 

 network. The protocol automatically matches users with providers based on stake, performance metrics and geolocation to ensure high availability without relying on centralized infrastructure.

Lava Network offers a comprehensive suite of tools to enable seamless blockchain data access and infrastructure management. The following are its key features.

 products across multiple chains, including Cosmos Hub, 

. It offers streamlined project management, instant blockchain data access and a unified dashboard for tracking multichain usage. Built on Lava's open-source Server Kit, the Gateway provides free RPC access to major networks, with SDK integration, specialized DeFi APIs and geolocation-optimized routing for enterprise users.

Lava's JavaScript/TypeScript SDK provides developers with a robust tool kit for blockchain integration, offering browser-compatible implementation with multichain peer-to-peer access. It simplifies DApp development through built-in provider management, while enabling direct integration with Lava's decentralized network.

Want to see how many users and chains are actively using Lava? The 

 provides real-time insights into network usage, displaying key metrics like request volumes, response times and global activity distribution. Users can watch transactions flow across different chains through the live request feed and monitor network performance in real time.

Want to dive deep into Lava's technical performance? The 

 provides comprehensive network analytics, tracking QoS scores, provider activity, relay volumes and cache efficiency across all supported chains. This data helps users verify network health, monitor provider performance and understand Lava's infrastructure utilization in detail.

 offers a comprehensive view of the network's real-time status via its clean, intuitive interface. From the latest block height to network performance metrics, users can monitor the heartbeat of Lava's operations and search for any transaction, address or validator using the search bar.

Beyond network statistics, the explorer provides deep insights into LAVA's market performance and tokenomics. Users can track the live price chart and trading volume while visualizing token distribution through detailed supply breakdowns and staking metrics.

Lava Network has achieved the following significant milestones in its development journey:

Looking ahead, Lava's road map focuses on enhancing its infrastructure and user experience:

LAVA is the native token of the Lava Network, with a fixed maximum supply of 1 billion tokens. The token distribution is structured as follows:

The token's utility spans multiple crucial functions within the network, including network operations and gas fees, staking for validators and providers, governance participation, subscription payments and provider incentivization.

 mechanism that adapts to network growth and provider participation. Already, approximately 1.5% of the total supply (15 million LAVA) has been burned as of January 2025. The burn rate adjusts monthly, based on network activity and Provider Drops allocation efficiency, with unused provider incentives potentially being burned based on consumer demand.

Network contributors can earn rewards directly in the native tokens of supported blockchains. Over $1 million in native tokens — such as AXL, NEAR and USDC — is being distributed to LAVA stakers and data providers who help secure and optimize the protocol. These staking opportunities can be tracked at 

, thus providing transparent insight into available rewards.

The combination of strategic token distribution, dynamic burn mechanism and multi-token revenue sharing creates a sustainable economic model that aligns incentives across the network while maintaining 

Looking to trade Lava tokens? Bybit now offers the LAVA/USDT Spot trading pair. To get started, you’ll need to first create a Bybit account, fund it with cryptocurrency and navigate to the 

To celebrate this listing, Bybit is holding 

 where you can earn a share of the 1,860,000 LAVA prize pool. 

While Lava shows strong fundamentals in the blockchain infrastructure space, investors must carefully consider its strengths and risk factors before making investment decisions.

Lava shows promising potential with its proven revenue model and strategic position in blockchain infrastructure. However, potential investors are advised to 

 before investing, particularly given the emerging nature of the decentralized infrastructure market.

Lava Network represents a crucial evolution in blockchain infrastructure, addressing the fundamental need for reliable, decentralized access to blockchain data. With a proven revenue model and strong partnerships, Lava is building the foundation for 24/7 blockchain access in an AI-driven, multichain future.

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Lava (LAVA): Stoking the Flames of Multichain Connectivity

Prediction markets are decentralized platforms for betting on future events with blockchain-powered transparency, accessibility, and secure payouts.

As their name implies, crypto prediction markets allow you to make money by betting on future outcomes of various crypto events. In general, prediction markets are divided into two types: sports and non-sports (crypto falls into the category of non-sports-related prediction markets).

Unlike traditional prediction markets, crypto prediction markets leverage 

, so they’re decentralized, globally accessible and highly transparent, especially in terms of price discovery. While traditional prediction markets carry most of the volume in this niche, there’s a growing demand for crypto prediction markets as crypto’s market cap continues to grow rapidly.

Let's dig deeper into crypto prediction markets and learn how you can capitalize on them to make extra money.

Prediction markets are platforms that allow you to trade contracts based on the outcome of future events. They’re fueled by the probability of an event occurring. When a bet favors the participant, they’re rewarded for their correct prediction.

Prediction markets offer an exciting interplay of finance, human psychology and the theory of probability that can lead to lucrative gains.

These markets can be centralized or decentralized. The centralized ones (e.g., Betfair and PredictIt) are operated by a single entity, so you’re required to trust them with the payouts and fairness of the outcome. Their decentralized counterparts — crypto prediction markets — are powered by blockchain technology, which eliminates third parties, thereby ensuring transparency and fairness.

The key features of prediction markets are price probability, aggregated wisdom and incentives that are given to participants as motivation for placing bets on outcomes of events. Some of the events supported by prediction markets include outcomes in sports (game winners), politics (election results), finance (stock prices) and weather (temperatures).

Centralized vs. Decentralized Prediction Markets

Prediction markets are broadly divided into centralized or decentralized markets, each with unique benefits and challenges. The centralized types are governed by a single company that manages various aspects of the prediction process. However, decentralized prediction markets rely on 

The key advantages of centralized markets are ease of use, better liquidity and quick dispute resolution. However, these centralized platforms also face challenges, such as government censorship, intermediary fees that eat into the payouts and the possibility of a single point of failure — especially in the event of a hack or technical outage.

On the other hand, decentralized prediction markets, such as Augur and Polymarket, have certain distinct benefits, such as censorship resistance, immutability, global access and lack of intermediaries. However, they also face challenges in the form of regulatory compliance, complexity of use and illiquidity due to low participation.

Crypto prediction markets are decentralized platforms for the forecasting of outcomes. They enable their participants to use cryptocurrencies in order to bet on the outcomes of future events. These markets are similar to 

 markets, in which investors bet on the prices of assets based on the outcome of future events.

Central to crypto prediction markets is the use of blockchain technology, which ensures transparency, fairness and security. As such, they have three key components:

Crypto prediction markets employ a systematic interplay of market creation, trading, resolution and payouts. They’re banking on market sentiment to fuel the probability of an event taking place, which may favor or discredit the bet placed by a participant.

The first step in this process is creating a prediction market based on various parameters, which may include event description, possible outcomes (e.g., yes/no), expiration date and resolution source. Any user can create a prediction market based on a given event.

Once the market has been created, trading begins. Participants can buy and sell tokens representing the likelihood of an event occurring. For example, a token may initially trade at $0.50 for “Yes,” representing a 50% chance of the event occurring. If more people buy “Yes,” the token’s price can rise to $0.70, in this case representing a 70% probability that the event will take place.

After the trading is done, market resolution occurs based on the outcome. At this point, oracles issue the result on the blockchain. Smart contracts proceed to issue payouts based on the winning outcome. The tokens with the winning outcome can be redeemed for full value, while those that lost the prediction become worthless.

Crypto prediction markets are governed by different market mechanisms that dictate their payout structures. Two commonly used prediction market mechanisms in the crypto space are the fixed payout and the pari-mutuel payout.

The fixed payout mechanism ensures a predefined payout for the winning outcome. Participants trade outcome tokens, and the market price reflects the probability of the event as estimated by traders. Traders buy or sell tokens that represent specific outcomes (e.g., "Yes" or "No").

Each token is priced between 0 and 1 (or $0 and $1), where the price reflects the perceived probability of the outcome. For example, if "Yes" tokens trade at $0.70, the market implies a 70% chance of that outcome.

At the event's conclusion, tokens for the correct outcome are redeemed for a fixed amount (e.g., $1 per token), while tokens for the incorrect outcome become worthless.

The advantage of this mechanism is that the payment structure is simple and predictable. Another benefit is that there's continual price discovery, since prices adjust dynamically to reflect market sentiment.

However, the fixed payout mechanism requires high liquidity to reflect the accuracy of probabilities. It also relies heavily upon oracles, which necessitates a high level of trust and accuracy in order to resolve the outcomes.

In a pari-mutuel structure, payouts are determined by pooling all bets and redistributing the total amount to winners after the event. All bets for each possible outcome are pooled together.

After the event, the total pool (minus fees) is divided among those who predicted the correct outcome. Individual payouts are proportional to the amount wagered by each winner, as well as the pool size.

Some key advantages of this payout model are its dynamic payouts, efficient pricing and fair distribution of payouts. However, this structure isn’t beginner-friendly, due to its complexity and non-intuitive manner. Also, unlike the fixed payout, where rewards are predefined, the exact payout rewards are uncertain until after the event.

That said, the fixed payout mechanism is ideal for those looking for a simple and predictable way to enter prediction markets, while the pari-mutuel payout favors more advanced users, who appreciate dynamic odds and collective market intelligence.

The crypto space has seen an influx of crypto prediction markets as more people continue to venture into this niche. Some of the notable crypto prediction platforms are as follows.

Considered one of the largest prediction markets, 

 provides a user-friendly and robust environment for participants to bet on real-world events using 

. The platform offers a wide range of markets, including crypto, sports, politics, pop culture, business and Elon Musk's tweets. The platform is powered bythe 

 network, which ensures secure, fast and low-cost betting transactions. It also has an active community of users, thereby ensuring high liquidity on the platform. Its user interface is beginner-friendly and simple to use.

, Augur is one of the earliest decentralized crypto prediction markets in the space. Developed in 2014 by Forecast Foundation, and co-founded by Jack Peterson, Joey Krug and Jeremy Gardener, Augur has remained a top platform for wagering crypto-powered bets.

The native token for the Augur platform is REP, an 

 token used to power the platform’s betting ecosystem via staking it to participate in the platform's reporting process. Meanwhile, ETH or 

 prediction market designed to open the niche to everyone. It runs on three Ethereum-compatible blockchains: Polygon, 

. The quality of its markets is maintained by its native POLK token holders.

-based prediction market that offers its users a wide range of events to bet on. Since it's built on Solana, participants can enjoy secure, fast and low-cost transactions on a user-friendly platform. You need to connect a web3 wallet, such as 

, in order to use Hedgehog. It offers various types of prediction markets, such as, pooled markets, the Classic “Yes” or No” and parlays (in which you use parlay cards).

 (DEX) that launched BET (Bullish on Everything) crypto prediction markets in August 2024, ahead of the U.S. political elections in November 2024. The platform claims to be highly capital-efficient and is built on Solana. Its growing number of categories span crypto, culture and sports such as Formula 1

Since BET is built on top of the Drift protocol, market participants can also benefit from yield-generating activities as they place their bets. You can create “structured bets” on the platform by hedging against popular cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin.

To incentivize participation, BET has introduced a rewards system called FUEL. During promotional periods, users earn FUEL tokens for each trade, which can later be redeemed for prizes within the Drift and Solana ecosystems.

You can utilize over 30 cryptocurrencies supported by the platform, including USDC and SOL.

Crypto prediction markets represent a fascinating evolution in the way we gather, interpret and act on collective knowledge. By leveraging blockchain technology, these platforms offer unparalleled transparency, decentralization and accessibility, empowering users worldwide to forecast outcomes in a trustless environment. With mechanisms like fixed payout and pari-mutuel payout, participants can choose structures that align with their preferences, balancing predictability and market efficiency.

The rise of platforms like Augur, Polymarket and Drift BET highlights the diverse approaches within this space, catering to a wide range of users, from casual bettors to sophisticated traders. Innovations such as low-cost transactions, multi-token support and integrated yield generation further enhance the appeal of these markets, making them more inclusive and dynamic.

However, challenges remain, including regulatory scrutiny, user adoption and ensuring fair market mechanics. As the sector matures, collaboration between platforms, regulators and communities will be critical to its long-term success.

 and prediction markets are highly speculative in nature, it’s imperative to be aware of the associated risks and conduct proper research before participating in these markets.

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What Are Prediction Markets in Crypto?

Blockchain

Altcoins

Explainers

The only regulatory-compliant blockchain in China, Conflux (CFX) is a proof of work (PoW) and proof of stake (PoS) hybrid permissionless blockchain. 

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Conflux, which claims to be China’s only regulatory-compliant public blockchain, and is dubbed by some as the “Chinese Ethereum,” has recently moved beyond Ethereum to 

. Its hybrid consensus mechanism enables it to support 

 protocols recently popularized by Bitcoin. In light of these developments, Conflux has introduced an EVM-compatible Bitcoin 

 (L2) solution, marking a significant step toward seamless asset transfers between Conflux and Bitcoin. 

Read on to learn more about Conflux and its latest innovation that’s set to further solidify its position in the blockchain space.

. It was initially a proof of work (PoW) blockchain, and in 2022, Conflux completed an upgrade that added a proof of stake (PoS) component, known as the 

 upgrade. This advance allowed CFX token holders to earn rewards by staking their tokens to the PoS system. 

 improves the Conflux blockchain technology by protecting against security attacks and giving developers greater project flexibility. 

The Hydra upgrade also introduced the concept of 

 into the network, featuring two main spaces: Core Space and eSpace. Core Space represents the original Conflux network, while the fully EVM-compatible eSpace operates as a sub-chain running over Core Space. While eSpace lets you easily deploy Ethereum projects at a low cost, Core Space is optimal for launching brand-new projects and regulated public blockchain 

These Spaces aren’t separate blockchains. as they exist on a single distributed ledger, the Tree-Graph, and the

In January 2024, Conflux also unveiled an 

-compatible Bitcoin L2 solution as an additional Space. It facilitates seamless asset transfers between Conflux and Bitcoin, which can catalyze the development of 

 apps. This L2 solution comes equipped with built-in BTC staking, which allows users to contribute to the security of Conflux’s platform. The PoS consensus mechanism can also support Ordinals and inscription protocols, promoting a more diverse range of asset creation. 

Although both fiat-to-crypto trading and 

 (ICOs) are prohibited in China, crypto-to-crypto trading is permitted. Hence, Conflux can remain compliant with China’s regulations allowing new crypto projects to enter the local market. 

Conflux is a Layer 1 public blockchain technology that also offers some benefits of a private blockchain through its hybrid format. It stands apart from Bitcoin and Ethereum with its 

 system. This divergent structure allows the Conflux network to process multiple blocks simultaneously. Such parallel processing makes Conflux’s throughput dramatically higher than that of blockchains with a linear structure (such as 

Conflux’s Tree-Graph structure combines with a consensus mechanism known as Greedy Heaviest Adaptive SubTree (

) to manage the execution order of transactions with scalability in mind. Additionally, GHAST adds security with its ability to detect and prevent certain types of chain attacks. 

The GHAST consensus algorithm is maintained through a decentralized 

 structure, which allows for scaling as more nodes join the network. To participate as a node, you need to set up and run this node on your computer. 

There are three types of nodes on Conflux’s network, categorized according to the amount of data required for storage:

In addition to its Tree-Graph structure, there are several key aspects of the Conflux blockchain that make it stand out. For example, it supports Turing-complete 

 to help developers create new projects on the blockchain. Conflux is also 

 cross-chain solution supports the use of Bitcoin and Ethereum assets. It also allows users to add any new 

In addition, Conflux’s blockchain technology features a robust software development kit (

) to help developers create projects. It specifically supports the four mainstream programming languages; Python, Java, JavaScript and Golang. It also offers community-developed SDKs and Solidity SDKs. 

The network's DApp development tools include Truffle, Hardhat, ChainIDE and Studio.

Conflux users pay gas fees and cover storage expenses with CFX, the network’s native coin. CFX also supports the network's maintenance through staking and mining rewards. The 

 shows that miners earn 1 CFX per block, while PoS stakers earn CFX rewards in proportion to their stakes at an annual base interest rate of 0.04%, plus an APY of 12.9%. 

In addition to earning rewards, users who stake their CFX tokens for more than a quarter annually will have voting rights for the network’s governance. The longer you stake your tokens, the more voting rights you earn (up to one vote for a stake of over a year). While you can extend the stake’s locked duration, you can’t reduce it or withdraw tokens while they’re staked.

With the integration of the Bitcoin L2 solution, CFX is effectively converted into an ERC-20 token. This facilitates interaction with DApps in the BTC L2 space, as BTC is used in this new space as a gas token to pay for transaction fees.

CFX can be stored in three crypto wallets: Fluent, MetaMask and Ledger. 

 token, with a current inflation rate of 1.9%. At its genesis, 5 billion pre-mined CFX tokens were allocated to Conflux Network’s direct builders and ecosystem contributors. 

The genesis tokens are distributed as follows:

Conflux Network's token, CFX, has surged from $0.215 in late January 2024 to $0.31 in early March, boasting a 44.19% increase in just over a month. This price surge is likely due to the unveiling of the network’s BTC L2 space (which could further boost Conflux’s interoperability), coupled with the overall bull market led by Bitcoin’s rally resulting from 

CFX’s price of $0.328 (as of Mar 11, 2024) is 80.8% lower than its all-time high of $1.70 on Mar 27, 2021, and over 1,300% higher than its all-time low of $0.02 on Dec 30, 2022. 

Many experts anticipate favorable growth for the CFX token. According to DigitalCoinPrice, 

Conflux Network (CFX): The China-Endorsed Public Blockchain

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