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

TomTom Coin is a cryptocurrency token created by Tom N Toms, the popular South Korean coffee company. Find out more about this crypto project here.

Interested in staying up to date on all the latest cryptocurrency news? TomTom Coin is an up-and-coming crypto project that promises to bring blockchain technology to the food industry. In this article, we’ll look at how TomTom works, and take a closer look at this exciting crypto project to see whether or not it’s a good idea to buy it.

To understand the purpose of TomTom Coin, let’s first learn about the company backing the TomTom token. Tom N Toms Coffee, a

 founded in 2001, is a popular coffee shop 

 that serves coffee, tea, smoothies, pretzels and other baked goods.

TomTom Coin was created as part of a move to increase international recognition of the Tom N Toms brand. The company, already the third most popular coffee shop in South Korea, has hopes to expand further. In order to position itself as an exciting, modern company, Tom N Toms made the decision to invest heavily in the technological side of store operations and their business.

, Tom N Toms created an app that can be used to find store locations and place orders. To further streamline the order process, TomTom Coin was also created. Also known as TOMS, this cryptocurrency allows customers to buy food and collect rewards without needing to connect credit cards and bank accounts to the app. 

TomTom Coin is also used as a form of marketing for the company. Since it’s become a publicly traded cryptocurrency, more and more people outside of South Korea have become aware of Tom N Toms..

TomTom Coin aims to combine blockchain technology with food and marketing. Unlike some other crypto companies, Tom N Toms’ main goal is practical instead of theoretical. The TomTom token itself is fairly straightforward, but it has a lot of real-world applications missing from other blockchain products. At first, TomTom Coin was just a way for customers to order food and beverages more conveniently.

Over time, the company has evolved the purpose of TomTom Coin to include many other aspects. After 

, Tom N Toms Coffee started exploring more innovative ways to incorporate crypto into their company. They hope that TomTom Coin can help to increase transparency and create more secure data storage for customers. There are also plans to create unique advertising campaigns that use TomTom Coin as an incentive to order from Tom N Toms Coffee.

Tom N Toms Coffee hasn’t shared a lot of details about how its blockchain works, beyond the fact that it's an 

 token built on Ethereum. As a proprietary cryptocurrency ecosystem, they haven’t divulged information such as token generation or inflation prevention. However, they have shared some information on how the TomTom Coin ecosystem works.

This blockchain protocol consists of two halves, one online and one offline. Through the offline ecosystem, TomTom Coin can be used to pay for food and beverages. Even in locations without WiFi, the offline mechanics allow customers to seamlessly use the company’s app to make purchases. Meanwhile, the online half of the ecosystem handles the marketing activities and investment side of the coin. Through the online TOMS ecosystem, customers can participate in marketing campaigns and web3 programs as well as purchase artists' art pieces.

TomTom Coin is part of an entire ecosystem chain that contains multiple features. Holders of this crypto can use it for all sorts of applications inspired by other major blockchains.

Tom N Toms Coffee uses its blockchain to mint a variety of NFTs. Via the NFT marketplace, customers can browse NFTs and purchase them. You can also place NFTs you own back on the marketplace to resell them to others. This creates a robust marketplace economy where users can invest in all sorts of exciting NFTs.

The TOMS NFT program converts a variety of Tom N Toms' brand assets into NFTs. The ecosystem has different grades of NFTs that come with different levels of rarity. Some NFTs are released as fine art, and are rare and valuable. Others are characters, digital identities and other more common NFTs built for the metaverse that typically only have personal value for individual users.

Gallery TOMs are a type of NFT found within the company’s NFT marketplace. These are limited-quantity NFTs that have certain conditions associated with owning and purchasing them. Some Gallery TOMs generate rewards for users who own them for certain periods of time. The intention is to treat Gallery TOMs as artworks that are purchased for their quality and collectibility.

As part of their move to take TomTom Coin into the web3 era, Tom N Toms has also launched a metaverse component, implementing games within their ecosystem. Within the TomTom metaverse, users can create characters and explore imaginary environments. Tom N Toms has already released various AR/VR content, such as camera filters, built for the metaverse. In this virtual world, people can play games, interact with other Tom N Toms customers and take part in various events.

MyTOM offers a convenient interface for people who enjoy shopping at Tom N Toms. It allows customers to add TomTom Coin to their accounts and place orders. Ultimately, it functions as both an online ordering app and a wallet for TOMS tokens.

The online Tom N Toms platform provides an alternative to those who don't have the MyTOM app, allowing you to order food and beverages from the store. People can place an order for pickup and, in certain locations, schedule a delivery as well. The online platform also sells a variety of Tom N Toms products including gift cards, instant coffee and merchandise.

The MyTOM app helps users keep track of their rewards. Customers can receive various perks associated with parameters such as how long they hold TOMS tokens, or how often they purchase at the shop. The reward and benefit program mostly provides discounted purchases, coupons and the occasional free menu item.

Most crypto payment systems are hampered by the fact that they require an internet connection to function. The TomTom Coin ecosystem offers an offline payment system that solves this problem. TomTom contracts can be accepted directly by the store, so if you're in a location with poor service, you can still purchase food and beverages with ease.

Since first releasing TOMS tokens, the TomTom ecosystem has undergone a lot of changes. The company's road map began with a TomTom contracts system to let their customers pay with TOMS. They then moved on to releasing the TomTom metaverse, creating content, launching an NFT collection and listing TOMS on several cryptocurrency exchanges.

For 2023, the TomTom road map mostly consists of expanding branding applications and generating profits. Tom N Toms plans on finding new ways to use the company’s trademarks in order to promote the brand via their web3 system. In addition, there are plans to expand their crypto to new markets and to develop more NFTs.

Tom N Toms uses TOMS tokens for everything from buying coffee to distributing rewards. It has a total supply of 5 billion TOMS tokens and a fully diluted valuation of $9.6 million.

TOMS tokens are distributed in the following manner:

As of Jul 31, 2023, the current price of the TOMS tokens is $0.00192970. This is a 97.47% decline from the coin's ATH price of $0.076065. However, it's still significantly higher than the price it was selling for in May 2023. 

Most crypto analyst sites predict that TOMS’ price will experience positive growth in the following years. For example, PricePrediction 

 the price of TOMS could reach $0.003 at the end of 2023, $0.006 in 2025, $0.012 in 2027 and $0.039 in 2030. 

Although the token’s price recently experienced declines, it could increase in the long run if Tom N Toms is able to capitalize on this project and expand their brand. The coin may have the potential to reach $0.039 by around 2030, but it's unlikely to reach its ATH again anytime soon.

Tom N Toms has released TOMS on several major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Bybit. If you’re looking to trade TOMS tokens, you can get started by first 

 and funding it with cryptocurrency before navigating to the 

. However, keep in mind that this token is only available to trade on Bybit in the South Korea and India regions right now. 

TOMS is certainly an exciting project. Few other food companies are so enthusiastically getting involved in the crypto space, so the Tom N Toms ecosystem is certainly unique — and when the coins were first released, this novelty was enough to send prices skyrocketing. 

The TomTom Coin is more than just a cryptocurrency token; it's a symbol of the brand's commitment to embracing digital transformation and staying ahead of the curve. By integrating blockchain technology into their business model, Tom N Toms has demonstrated a forward-thinking approach that aligns with the evolving needs and preferences of their customers.

Moreover, the introduction of the TomTom Coin has added a new dimension to the customer experience at Tom N Toms. It has made transactions more seamless and efficient, while also offering customers the opportunity to engage with the brand in a more interactive and rewarding way.

This token is certainly something to look out for, and an investment in TOMS might help to diversify your portfolio, but definitely 

 before putting a significant portion of your funds into the project.

Tom N Toms has created an innovative crypto ecosystem that allows people to use blockchain technology at their local coffee shop. This groundbreaking initiative, embodied in the TomTom Coin, has not only revolutionized the way customers interact with the brand, but it has also set a precedent for other businesses to follow. The creation of the TomTom Coin is a testament to Tom N Toms' innovative spirit and its dedication to providing exceptional service to its customers. It's a bold step toward the future of retail and a shining example of how businesses can leverage technology to enhance their operations and customer engagement. As we move forward, it will be interesting to see how this initiative evolves and continues to shape the landscape of the coffee industry and beyond.

TomTom Coin (TOMS): Bringing Blockchain Technology to Coffee

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards