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

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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

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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

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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.

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

Bybit Learn

Blockchain

INOFi is an NFT platform that utilizes blockchain technology to allow its users to own fractional NFTs. Learn more about how it works in this article.

continues to remain strong, thanks to their evolving utility. Non-fungible tokens are digital representations of specific items. Because each NFT is unique, it can be traded, bought and sold. While NFTs have largely been used for digital artwork, music and collectibles, they can also be used to trade traditional financial assets. A new project is now linking decentralized finance (

) with the NFT marketplace. Known as INOFi, it’s revolutionizing transparency, democratization and NFT transactions in the DeFi space.

While there are numerous NFT platforms in use today, INOFi stands apart as an ecosystem designed to elevate the traditional investment experience. Specifically, by offering fractional shares of NFTs, it supports traditional assets like real estate, stocks and bonds. It also offers a user-friendly interface and innovative features that aid in simplified transactions and support profitable investments. Finally, INOFi keeps its users connected with the latest news stories regarding traditional financial assets, market events and other topics that could have an impact on their investment decisions. 

INOFi is a Korean company that’s headed by CEO Si-Bum Nam.

are CFO Sean Yook, COO Jamie Lee, blockchain developers Jay Lee and Jeremy Noh and several others. The developers are committed to continually improving this next-generation NFT platform so that anyone can create and manage NFTs. 

The developers behind INOFi have specifically designed their platform with three objectives in mind. First, they want to develop a token around a strategic business model that specifically uses decentralized finance. Second, they intend for the platform to simplify the process of creating and selling NFTs. And third, they’ve focused on developing an easy-to-use interface that’s functional for everyone — regardless of their level of technical expertise. 

INOFi allows you to create valuable NFT issuance with blockchain technology, regardless of your technical background. New NFTs can be minted for traditional financial assets or for other types as well. The platform supports fractional NFTs, which can then be auctioned and offered on the

. INOFi’s DeFi staking model also provides investors with the opportunity to

INOFi supports users who want to profit from the creation and sale of

. It offers a simplified, step-by-step process with a user-friendly interface. After buying an NFT, a user can create an offering. This step allows the NFT to be bought and sold in fractional shares. The platform also supports NFT offerings, auctions and management.

On INOFi, users can purchase either an entire NFT or small portions of an NFT, referred to as

, which are more affordable for smaller investors and traders to access. This fractionalizing capability promotes greater adoption and usage of NFTs. 

Because of the NFT market’s scalability, a variety of chains are not yet supported by the NFT platform. However,

— will definitely be provided on the INOFi platform for a start. This will allow users to trade their NFTs on INOFi, even if they were issued on other mainnets. 

While INOFi is designed so that even users without technical expertise can benefit from NFTs, it offers a robust selection of features. In doing so, it’s a complete resource for those who want to reap the rewards of buying and selling NFTs conveniently. 

INOFi is a complete resource for investors who want to trade traditional financial assets while also taking advantage of the security and transparency of blockchain transactions. Users can browse through

to identify potentially lucrative opportunities. Through the

feature, users can also list their fractional NFTs for sale. 

With INOFi, investors have easy access to numerous financial opportunities. The

system enables users to make their NFTs fractional with ease. Once the NFTs are fractionalized, they can be

Because INOFi also has a news feature, users can keep up with the latest financial news and events while taking advantage of the platform’s utility.

While FON tokens are necessary to buy and sell NFTs, they can also be used to generate passive income through INOFi’s

of USDT and ETH tokens. The reward rate earned through the DeFi staking model depends upon the protocol’s monetary policy, with the largest rewards offered for staking FON.

feature, you can buy and sell tickets (also referred to as editions). Users can buy these ticket NFTs with FON tokens. The collected funds are distributed to the NFT creators and INOFi administration.

) facilitates the issuance of NFTs for real estate, bonds and other traditional financial assets. NFTs can also be issued for music, art and entertainment. Once issued, the NFTs can then be fractionalized and offered up for auction. 

) builds on the first with the ability to trade NFTs on the platform and list them on your own STO exchange. This is a private exchange rather than an external one.

is the native token of the INOFi ecosystem. FON is a variable token, and is used to complete all transactions on the INOFi platform, including NFT transactions, staking and more. Tokens can be purchased on exchanges or earned through mining. 

The maximum token supply is 10 billion FON, and the circulating supply is just over 186 million. The token distribution includes 45% allocated to the treasury, 15% for rewards, 15% for marketing and development, 12% for sale, 10% for foundation and 3% for mining.

As of Jul 28, 2023, the price of FON is $0.65, which represents a 1.68% decrease over the past 24 hours. The 24-hour trading volume is $3.2 million, having decreased by 3.26% over the past 24 hours, and the current market cap is over $121 million. FON’s all-time high price of $1.12 occurred on Jul 25, 2023, and its all-time low price of $0.44 occurred on Dec 18, 2022. 

, the FON token price could reach $1.55 by the end of 2024, $1.41 in 2026 and $3.78 in 2028.

, FON’s value could go as high as $12.59 in 2030. 

on Bybit. Simply sign up for a Bybit account (if you don’t already have one), fund it with cryptocurrency and navigate to the

To celebrate this listing, Bybit is also holding

: one for new users and one for existing users.

New users can deposit and share a 30,000 USDT prize pool! Just complete the following steps from Jul 21, 2023, 10AM UTC through Aug 4, 2023, 10AM UTC:

The first 600 new users to complete both steps will receive 50 USDT each.

For existing users before Jul 21, 2023, 10AM UTC, you can deposit and share a 10,000 USDT prize pool! Simply deposit a minimum of 200 FON and you’ll be eligible for rewards. If you’d like a larger cut of the prize pool, simply deposit more FON tokens into your account.

The FON token serves utility functions on the INOFi platform — for example, completing fractional NFT transactions. It can also be staked, which enables users to continue generating income on a regular basis from their FON tokens. While staking rewards represent one way to make money off of your FON holdings, the existing platform system has incredible growth potential. Its functionality for fractionalizing NFTs is a game-changer for the crypto world, so it’s reasonable to expect INOFi’s user base to grow in the years to come. 

Holding FON tokens could generate a sizable yield as the token’s value increases. Through staking and a long-term

strategy, investors can optimize their returns. As always, it’s recommended to conduct your own due diligence and sufficient

before investing in any project, including INOFi. 

INOFi offers a user-friendly interface and innovative features that enhance investment activities. From the ability to create valuable NFT issuance to trading traditional financial assets and more, INOFi is a project that’s changing the landscape for crypto investors.

INOFi (FON): An Innovative Blockchain-Integrated NFT Platform

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards