Solv Protocol serves as an on-chain Bitcoin reserve, offering BTC holders the opportunity to earn yield on their assets through SolvBTC and more.

 currently boasts a market capitalization of $1.96 trillion, solidifying its position as the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency. Yet, much of this BTC remains idle in investors' wallets, held for long-term gains. But what if there were a way to generate yield while 

ing Bitcoin? Enter Solv Protocol — a platform designed to maximize Bitcoin's utility by enabling users to earn staking and 

 (DeFi) yields on their BTC holdings. Let's dive in!

 serves as an on-chain Bitcoin reserve, offering BTC holders the opportunity to earn yield on their assets through 

 (WBTC) for SolvBTC, which can then be utilized in 

 (LSTs) across multiple chains. By integrating with BTC liquidity solutions, Solv Protocol bridges the gap between Bitcoin and DeFi. The platform currently boasts $2.7 billion in 

 (TVL), with nearly 26,000 BTC staked and over 590,000 users.

 is Solv's universal Bitcoin reserve token. Designed to unlock the full potential of over $1 trillion in BTC assets, SolvBTC ensures price stability with a direct 1:1 peg with Bitcoin. 

Users can mint the SolvBTC token by depositing either native Bitcoin or WBTC. Doing so provides them with an asset they can utilize to earn additional yield on their Bitcoin holdings via 

Through Solv DeFi vaults, you can utilize your Bitcoin in DeFi applications to generate yield and 

. Solv Protocol has integrated DeFi protocols from across 12 blockchains, enabling users to execute SolvBTC strategies ranging from lending and liquidity provision to staking and restaking.

SolvBTC LSTs establish the standard for all liquid staking tokens within Solv’s ecosystem. By staking SolvBTC in the form of an LST, you can earn staking rewards on your assets while maintaining liquidity. Since there’s no need to lock up your Bitcoin, you can generate additional yield on SolvBTC LSTs by depositing them to DeFi protocols. These liquid staking tokens can be unstaked at any time to access SolvBTC deposits and cash out staking rewards, and can be transferred seamlessly across multiple blockchains. Examples of SolvBTC LSTs include SolvBTC.BBN, SolvBTC.CORE, SolvBTC.ENA and SolvBTC.JUP.

How Does Solv's Staking Abstraction Layer (SAL) Work?

SAL is the core infrastructure underpinning Solv's ecosystem. As a unified interface for Bitcoin holders, it abstracts BTC staking's complexities across several blockchains. SAL provides users with a range of multichain yield-generating strategies, which they can execute while holding SolvBTC (a liquid representation of their BTC holdings). SAL integrates with different DeFi platforms and ecosystems, simplifying the process for holders who wish to diversify their yield strategies while keeping exposure to Bitcoin.

How Solv Protocol Enables Users to Earn Yield on Their Bitcoin Holdings

Solv enables users to participate in DeFi by providing a seamless entry point into staking for Bitcoin holders. This is in great contrast with BTC residing on the Bitcoin mainnet, which lacks native yield-generation properties. As mentioned above, with Solv Protocol users can swap their BTC for SolvBTC to earn staking rewards via SolvBTC LSTs and generate yield via DeFi protocols.

In addition to offering new opportunities for Bitcoin holders to maximize their earnings, Solv's platform also simplifies the BTC staking process and makes it accessible to more users. In addition, Solv is integrated with multiple blockchains — including Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Merlin Chain, Arbitrum, Botanix, Linea, Scroll and Core — unifying liquidity across these chains and enabling users to access cross-chain yield opportunities with minimal effort through SolvBTC.

Solv Protocol maintains a transparent Proof-of-Reserve (PoR) system to ensure SolvBTC's 1:1 peg with BTC. These on-chain reserves can be publicly verified by anyone, with Solv featuring completed security audits from Quantstamp, CertiK, SlowMist, Salus and Secbit.

Solv's ecosystem consists of the following key players.

Solv Protocol offers an innovative solution for BTC holders seeking to maximize their assets’ utility beyond long-term investment. By bridging the gap between Bitcoin and DeFi, Solv empowers users to maintain liquidity while they earn rewards through staking and via LSTs. 

With its seamless multichain integrations and transparent 

 (PoR) system, Solv Protocol simplifies BTC yield generation, making it accessible to a broader audience and unlocking Bitcoin's full potential.

You can also earn rewards with Solv Protocol on 

 through Jan 20, 2025, 10AM UTC. Simply stake Solana (SOL) tokens as Bybit Staked SOL (bbSOL), and you can win a share of 1.3 million native Solv Protocol (SOLV) tokens. Don't miss this exciting opportunity to maximize your holdings — 

Intermediate

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Solv Protocol: Earn Diverse Yields Through Bitcoin Staking

Ethena Labs unveiled its 2025 roadmap on January 3, highlighting a Telegram app for payments and savings using its sUSDe stablecoin, aiming to offer a "neobank experience." 

Daily Top Performer — Injective Protocol (INJ)

The S&P 500 gained 1.26% Friday, led by tech stock rallies. Coindesk Indices, an index measuring broader cryptocurrency market performance was down by 0.24%, with Bitcoin and Ether dropping by 0.22% and 0.35%, respectively in the past 24 hours.

Today's top performer is INJ, which surged 6.9% following the approval of Injective's $INJ 3.0 proposal to drastically reduce token supply.

Injective Protocol (INJ), launched in 2018, is a Cosmos-based DEX with cross-chain trading, using an order book model for efficiency. INJ tokens power governance, staking, and trading fees. Injective's governance proposal for $INJ 3.0 

 with 99.99% approval, initiating a new phase to significantly reduce token supply and make $INJ highly deflationary.

Check Out the Latest Prices, Charts, and Data of 

, highlighting a Telegram app for payments and savings using its sUSDe stablecoin, aiming to offer a "neobank experience." The app allows users to manage sUSDe for savings and payments, including Apple Pay integration. Ethena’s goal is to rival Tether by evolving into Ethena Network, a platform for on-chain financial innovation. Key projects include Ethereal, a perpetual and spot exchange, and Derive, an on-chain protocol for options. The roadmap also emphasizes dollars as the backbone of DeFi and the expansion of stablecoin-based products using sUSDe.

Between December 30, 2024, and January 3, 2025, BTC Spot ETF flows showed significant fluctuations. GBTC saw total outflows of $167.2M, while non-GBTC investments experienced inflows of $423.2M, resulting in a net inflow of $256.0M for the period. Notable activity included a large non-GBTC inflow of $908.1M on January 3, 2025, despite earlier outflows on December 30 and January 2. Cumulatively, GBTC has recorded outflows of $21.5B, while non-GBTC investments have attracted $57.4B, yielding a net inflow of $35.9B to date.

" and is currently offering a waitlist. Users can claim their Human role on Discord by joining the server and adding their Human ID. Additionally, daily RWT claims are redeemable for H tokens at TGE. The farming process is free, so don't miss out!

Beginner

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Ethena Labs Reveals 2025 Roadmap with Telegram Payments, sUSDe Integration, and DeFi Innovations

Find out more about AI Rig Complex (ARC), an advanced AI agent framework built in the Rust programming language.

Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t going away anytime soon, and crypto protocols have started embracing it more and more. 

AI Rig Complex (ARC) is an advanced AI agent framework built in the Rust programming language. It goes beyond the capabilities of traditional AI systems, enabling applications to comprehend and react to human desires and contexts naturally. 

Through its modular and scalable architecture, ARC is redefining the way developers approach AI in a blockchain environment. Whether it’s integrating large language models (LLMs) for intuitive interaction or leveraging Rig Framework's innovative design, AI Rig Complex stands at the intersection of AI and decentralization.

This article explores the foundational elements of ARC, its technological framework and its future potential in the AI and 

 frameworks are rapidly evolving platforms that can improve the way humans interact with technology, particularly with regard to crypto and the broader 

 realm. These frameworks enable applications to perform tasks autonomously, moving beyond simple automation to workflows driven by natural language processing and decision-making processes.

The adoption of agents in real-world applications has surged this year, with developers increasingly integrating them into workflows. For instance, the percentage of LLM-app developers using agents on 

 jumped from 7% to 43%, highlighting their growing utility. Enterprises are focusing on automation and simplification, particularly within customer service, IT, marketing and software development workflows.

Large companies, such as Microsoft AutoGen, Phidata and LangGraph, are also advancing open-source frameworks, demonstrating broader potential beyond crypto. As the market matures, differentiation will be critical. Key characteristics, such as modularity, extensibility and integrations, are becoming essential, while advanced features like 

 (RAG) allow agents to incorporate new information seamlessly into conversations.

 represents a cutting-edge evolution in AI frameworks that’s designed to transcend the limitations of traditional chatbots. While many AI systems excel at executing basic tasks, ARC focuses on creating applications that understand and adapt to human desires and contexts in a far more intuitive manner. Its goal is to make software interactions seamless, contextual and human-like, paving the way for more meaningful engagements between users and AI systems.

At the heart of ARC is Playgrounds, a powerful platform that serves as the foundation for building and experimenting with AI applications. Playgrounds combines a unified interface for multiple LLMs with advanced AI workflow abstractions, enabling developers to implement sophisticated setups like RAG and multi-agent frameworks.

Powered by Rust, ARC offers unmatched performance, safety and scalability. Features ranging from type-safe LLM interactions and flexible embedding support to seamless vector store integration allow developers to build efficient and production-ready AI systems. ARC’s modular design encourages customization and extension, while 

 architecture optimizes resource utilization.

By unifying advanced AI tools and workflows under a consistent API, ARC eliminates vendor lock-in and accelerates development, positioning itself as a leading framework for next-generation AI applications.

The core team is founded by a team with diverse expertise in AI and blockchain. 

 focuses on the technical architecture of AI frameworks, while 

 brings deep experience in software engineering and product development. Meanwhile, 

 contributes strategic insights into scaling AI solutions, and 

 specializes in building robust developer tools. 

Together, this dynamic team is redefining AI frameworks by prioritizing modularity, performance and real-world applications

AI Rig Complex primarily relies on advanced 

 to improve software interaction. These models interpret human language and intent, enabling applications to provide a more natural and interactive experience. Unlike traditional software, ARC leverages LLMs to dynamically adapt to user inputs, offering intelligent and context-aware responses that feel less robotic and more conversational.

At the heart of ARC is Rig Framework, a Rust-based library tailored for high-performance AI development. Rig offers a unified API across various LLM providers, such as 

, making it easy for developers to integrate advanced models. Its pre-built abstractions support streamlined development of workflows, including RAG and multi-agent systems.

Rig Complex’s architecture is modular, enabling scalability and seamless integration with a range of AI models and vector stores. This design ensures flexibility for developers to build applications that incorporate features like semantic search, embeddings and advanced AI-driven workflows. 

AI Rig Complex encourages developers to think beyond basic functionality and to focus on meaning and context. By prioritizing intuitive design and leveraging Rust's memory safety, Rig reduces runtime errors while ensuring that applications are efficient, reliable and ready for production. 

The ARC token is designed for broad community ownership and utility. With 90% of the supply circulating from day one, ARC ensures fair distribution. A 5.5% allocation is reserved for the prize pool, rewarding participants of ARC experiments, while 4.5% is allocated to the team for ongoing development, locked in escrow and vested over a year to align with long-term goals.

, trading 15.11% below its all-time high of $0.4259 but boasting a staggering 1,086.14% increase from its all-time low of $0.03048. The token's 24-hour trading volume is $90.87M, reflecting a 55.40% increase. Its market cap of $362.42M ranks it at #258, with a 

 (FDV) of $362.42M. Over the past week, ARC has outperformed the global market and similar tokens, rising by 87% (as of Jan 3, 2025).

AI Rig Complex is setting the stage for next-generation AI agent frameworks with its advanced platform, modular architecture and seamless integration of LLMs. Its tokenomics ensure fair distribution and long-term development alignment, while recent price performance highlights strong market confidence.

Despite being so new, the AI agent sector in crypto is set for significant growth as enterprises adopt more intelligent workflows. ARC's focus on scalability, interoperability and developer-friendly tools positions it as a top contender in this market. 

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AI Rig Complex (ARC): AI Agent Framework in Rust

Phala Network is a cloud computing platform that runs AI models and programs inside a secure module called a trusted execution environment (TEE). Learn more now!

 became the predominant narrative in the crypto market in 2024, a trend that’s likely to continue in 2025. New and emerging projects — such as 

 — have shown glimpses of what’s possible when these two emerging technologies collide. 

As AI technology spreads, the privacy of the model that’s training data sets becomes an important issue. Phala Network offers a solution to this pressing concern.

 is a cloud computing platform that runs AI models and programs inside a secure module called a trusted execution environment (TEE). TEEs are isolated environments that guarantee the code and data loaded inside are protected from external observation or tampering. This method allows Phala to execute sensitive information like AI model training and inference without compromising the privacy of the data or the integrity of the process. 

Through this innovation, Phala has managed to carve out a niche as the go-to AI coprocessor on web3. In 2024, it hit several notable performance metrics, as detailed below:

To understand Phala’s strong growth in the AI sector, let’s delve deeper into its hybrid architecture and discover what sets it apart from its competitors. 

What Is a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)?

Phala uses a TEE-blockchain architecture that combines the strengths of TEEs and blockchain technology to create a secure, scalable and efficient system.

TEE refers to a segregated area of hardware that’s protected from the rest of the system using encryption. Data in the TEE can’t be read or tampered with by any code outside that environment; only trusted applications within the environment can access and modify the data. This architecture has been used by governments, enterprises and other cloud service providers to enable secure handling of confidential information on traditional Web 2.0 mediums. With Phala’s integration of TEE to blockchain, web3 DApps have also gained access to the same level of security. 

Within this hybrid architecture, once the TEE handles secure, 

 computations, the blockchain is used to verify their integrity and make sure the computations have been executed as intended. This hybrid approach allows Phala to combine the trust of blockchains with the privacy of TEEs, thereby addressing the limitations of both systems. 

Since this approach is similar to that of 

 (ZKPs), comparisons between the two are inevitable. While TEE proofs and ZKPs share the same goal of ensuring computational integrity and verifiability, they differ in their construction and operation. The computational cost of generating a TEE proof is significantly lower than for a ZKP. In addition, the sizes of ZKPs are also larger than those of TEE proofs, which increases the cost of on-chain verification. Therefore, TEE-based verification methods are often faster and cheaper than ZK-based methods.

Benefits of a Trusted Execution Environment–Blockchain Hybrid

: TEEs ensure that sensitive data such as AI inference remains protected from unauthorized access.

: Blockchain is used to authenticate and verify the correctness of computations performed within TEEs, ensuring that results are trustworthy. 

: Compared to ZKPs, TEEs are faster and cheaper, making them ideal for large-scale computations like those required for artificial intelligence.

: By offloading computations off-chain, the hybrid architecture reduces the load on the blockchain and improves the scalability of the underlying chain.

Phala uses a 3-tier model to provide security, privacy and transparency. The image below depicts the inner workings of the network: 

 is the top layer that manages the network. It blacklists untrusted hardware and verifies the integrity of the 

 generates and manages cryptographic keys, ensuring that computations are secure and data is protected. 

 ensures that all hardwares, such as GPU and CPU and software (TEE) are secure and trustworthy. 

 provides a secure environment for the DApps to run on. 

 is used to ensure the authenticity of TEE transactions stored on the blockchain. 

On Phala 1.0, TEEs were CPU-centric in providing security and privacy. However, most AI models depend upon GPUs for the bulk of their computational requirements. To meet this new and emerging demand, the Phala team decided to upgrade the network to Phala 2.0, which brings in GPU TEE support. This enables higher processing power and efficiency to handle demanding AI workloads. With this upgrade, Phala is also integrating NVIDIA 

 technology, which allows sensitive GPU-based computations to remain isolated and protected, even if the host machine is compromised. 

Another major recent release from Phala Network is 

, a computer solution that empowers developers to offload sensitive workloads into a secure environment. The Dstack SDK streamlines the deployment process, enabling seamless program integration with Phala Network's Confidential Virtual Machine (CVM). It provides developers with an experience comparable to Web 2.0 cloud services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), but with enhanced security. 

In December 2024, Phala announced a new collaboration with ai16Z to build Eliza’s TEE framework. 

 has emerged as the leading open-source AI agent framework on Solana. Through this partnership, Phala is furthering its role as a privacy-preserving AI framework. By utilizing Phala Network’s TEE, Eliza’s various capabilities will gain cryptographic verifiability and enhanced privacy across different platforms like Telegram, X (formerly Twitter) and Discord. Additionally, Phala’s modularity and custom plug-ins will offer Eliza improved scalability and developer-friendly integrations. 

PHA is the native token of the Phala Network. It serves multiple purposes on the network, such as the following: 

The token was launched through an Initial Parachain Offering. It has a total supply of 1 billion and a 

 (FDV) of $373 million. Initial token distribution was as follows:

The intersection of AI and cryptocurrencies is a new and emerging trend in web3. As with 

 blockchains and DeFi, emerging sectors in the blockchain space often experience intense hype cycles, attracting significant attention and capital. Such growth will eventually demand the development of robust infrastructure to support scalability and innovation. For instance, during the DeFi summer of 2020, projects like 

Similarly, Phala aims to position itself as a foundational infrastructure provider in the AI sector, becoming a key player in the ecosystem through its innovative use of TEE-blockchain hybrid architecture that allows it to provide fast, cheap and secure AI computation.

Bybit users can now trade PHA by heading to the 

phala network.png

Phala: Powering Decentralized AI Computing

Bybit Learn

Crypto Insights

blockscholes

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.

Bybit X Block Scholes Crypto Derivatives Analytics Report (Jan. 2, 2025)

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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

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

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

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