The cryptocurrency market is witnessing an influx of speculative trading, particularly with meme coins like DOGE, PEPE and BONK experiencing extraordinary gains. 

November 2024 has marked a significant milestone for Bitcoin, with its price soaring to $94,105. This unprecedented growth has been driven by global events and heightened social media discussions, with predictions of six-figure valuations. Historically, peaks in social media chatter often precede market corrections, signaling traders to exercise caution. Currently, while whale accumulation remains strong — with wallets holding over 10 Bitcoin adding 53,006 more BTC in just one month — retail traders remain surprisingly cautious. This wary sentiment contrasts sharply with the bullish behavior usually seen during price surges, suggesting a potential correction.

The cryptocurrency market is witnessing an influx of speculative trading, particularly with meme coins like DOGE, PEPE and BONK experiencing extraordinary gains. Despite their volatility, these tokens reflect a broader appetite for high-risk investments. Notably, whale investors holding 1M–100M DOGE are accumulating, while smaller holders are selling, creating conditions for potential breakouts. However, if new capital stops flowing, these speculative assets could face significant downturns. Additionally, while discussions around Bitcoin reaching $100K are increasing, they haven’t reached the levels seen earlier this year, indicating that fear of missing out (FOMO) may not yet be fully realized.

Institutional Interest and Ethereum's Resurgence

Demand for Bitcoin ETFs has surged, with daily trading volumes hitting a record $8.21 billion, signaling increased institutional interest. This activity often coincides with market peaks, but could also indicate new investments flowing into the crypto space. Meanwhile, Ethereum has also gained momentum, breaking above $3,100 for the first time in over 14 weeks. Additionally, whale accumulation is on the rise, suggesting that as Bitcoin leads the market, profits may soon be redirected into Ethereum. In contrast, Solana's price movements remain highly sentiment-driven, with funding rates indicating potential entry points for investors. Overall, altcoins are experiencing growth, particularly following the U.S. elections, which have reignited optimism in the crypto market.

Advanced

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Bitcoin's Resurgence: Analyzing Market Dynamics and Speculative Trends in November 2024

Crypto market makers play a crucial role in providing liquidity by consistently placing buy and sell orders. Learn more about how they work here.

The cryptocurrency market is notorious for its high volatility and sometimes low liquidity, making it a challenging environment for traders and investors. Executing trades can be difficult, often resulting in significant price 

Market making is a strategic approach that provides the necessary liquidity to stabilize markets, ensuring smoother trades and reducing volatility. By creating buy and sell orders around the current market price, market makers help maintain a healthy trading ecosystem. This article examines the fundamentals of market making, its benefits for traders and exchanges and the way it enhances the overall efficiency of the cryptocurrency market.

A crypto market maker is an entity or individual who primarily provides liquidity in cryptocurrency markets by continuously placing buy and sell orders for digital assets. This activity ensures efficient trading and helps maintain stable prices.

Crypto market makers play a key role in keeping markets liquid by continuously placing buy and sell orders on exchanges. Here's a closer look at how they operate.

Key Characteristics of a Crypto Market Maker

Crypto market makers provide liquidity and stabilize prices in the cryptocurrency market. The following are the key traits that enable them to operate effectively.

Market makers continually place buy and sell orders, ensuring the availability of transactions for traders. This constant availability reduces wait times for trades and minimizes the price impact of large orders, making the market more efficient and accessible for everyone.

One of the fundamental roles of market makers is that of managing the bid-ask spread. By consistently quoting competitive prices, they narrow this spread, thereby enhancing trading efficiency and reducing costs for other market participants. This spread is also their primary source of profit.

Market makers leverage advanced algorithms and HFT strategies to analyze market conditions and optimize their order placements. This technology allows them to react swiftly to price changes and maintain a balanced inventory of assets, which helps to manage risk and maximize profitability.

Due to the inherent volatility of cryptocurrency markets, effective risk management is vital for market makers. They employ various techniques, such as hedging and real-time market analysis, to minimize exposure to sudden price swings. This ensures their operations remain stable even in the face of market fluctuations.

By providing continuous liquidity and facilitating smooth trading operations, market makers enhance overall market efficiency. Their presence attracts more traders, which increases transaction volumes, boosts exchange activity and contributes to a healthier trading environment.

Given the quickly evolving nature of the cryptocurrency landscape, market makers must be adaptable, continually refining their strategies in response to new technologies, regulatory changes and shifts in market dynamics. This ensures they remain competitive and relevant.

Crypto market makers play a critical role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem by providing liquidity and stabilizing prices. Despite the integral role they play, however, their operations come with both advantages and disadvantages. 

Additional Importance of a Crypto Market Maker

Crypto market makers play a vital role in maintaining the efficiency and stability of the cryptocurrency market. Their presence on crypto exchanges ensures trading environments operate smoothly. 

Newer and smaller cryptocurrencies often struggle with liquidity. Market makers provide a market for these assets, promoting their growth and creating a more diverse and dynamic crypto ecosystem.

Through continual quoting of prices, market makers aid in fair price discovery, ensuring that cryptocurrency prices reflect actual market demand rather than extreme fluctuations. This promotes a more trustworthy and transparent trading environment that allows traders to make data-backed decisions. 

Crypto market makers are essential players in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, providing liquidity, stabilizing prices and ensuring smooth trade execution. Their use of advanced algorithms and real-time order placements encourages a more efficient, accessible and fair market. However, risks such as market manipulation, potential capital loss and lack of regulation can be problematic. Overall, the role of market makers in supporting emerging assets and maintaining market stability makes them indispensable for a healthy and growing crypto environment.

Intermediate

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Crypto Market Maker: Boosting Trades With Strategic Liquidity

SEC Chair Gary Gensler announced he will resign on January 20, 2025, coinciding with President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.

The S&P 500 rose 0.53% as investors shifted toward cyclical stocks expected to benefit from a strengthening economy, while technology shares lagged. Coindesk Indices, an index measuring broader cryptocurrency market performance was up by 4.79%, with Bitcoin and Ether rising by  4.19% and 8.75%, respectively in the past 24 hours.

Today's top performer is XRP, which surged 24.3% following the partnership between Ripple and MCSocialVenture to boost financial resilience and access in emerging markets.

Ripple (XRP), launched in August 2012, is a blockchain technology company focused on improving international payments with its cryptocurrency, XRP. 

, focused on investing in emerging market entrepreneurs. The initiative will pilot financial resilience and humanitarian solutions built on the XRPL, aiming to advance equitable access to finance.

Check Out the Latest Prices, Charts, and Data of 

 he will resign on January 20, 2025, coinciding with President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration. Gensler, whose term runs until 2026, faced pressure from the crypto lobby due to the SEC’s strict regulatory actions against the industry, including high-profile cases against Coinbase and Binance. Gensler’s departure is seen as a victory for crypto advocates, who hope the next SEC chair will be more crypto-friendly. Trump has hinted at firing Gensler on his first day in office and is expected to appoint a chair with expertise in crypto, such as Mark Uyeda, Hester Peirce, or Chris Giancarlo.

Yesterday, BTC Spot ETF data revealed a net inflow of $396.7 million, driven by $404.5 million from non-GBTC sources, partially offset by a $7.8 million outflow from GBTC..

 for those who participated. To claim, visit 

 using code B0FKOP. Additionally, Morph Zoo Season 2 has launched on mainnet, allowing users to earn points by bridging ETH or executing transactions on Morph. The Bitget Wallet offers a 1.2x multiplier on points to maximize rewards.

Beginner

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SEC Chair Gary Gensler to Resign on Inauguration Day, Marking a Win for Crypto Lobby

Traders seem to expect BTC’s momentum could slow down a bit after the price hit over $97,000.

Positive sentiment has continued to fuel the cryptocurrency market as the expectation of further institutional adoption of 

 keeps growing. Options trading of BlackRock’s Spot Bitcoin ETF IBIT 

 with a bang, attracting almost $2 billion on the first day of trading. The hope of more spot ETF derivatives to change the market structure with additional institutional money onboarding crypto is high.

, we explored the possibility of the market being overleveraged, which could be painful if the current leverage unwinds. Data from CryptoQuant shows that the estimated leverage of the current BTC markets has reached another YTD high.

Derivatives data on Bybit shows that traders seem to expect that BTC’s momentum could slow down a bit after the price hit over $97,000, and are focusing more on downside protection.

Figure 1: Bitcoin estimated leverage ratio at 0.23. Source: CryptoQuant

BTC Options Open Interest Returns to Previous High While Perps Are Catching Up

Derivatives traders have been actively participating in BTC markets as 

 on Bybit has surged to over $3 billion, on par with the previous high on Nov 14, 2024. Although the options OI has increased, it still hasn’t surged above the previous high. At the time, BTC’s price had already jumped to over $97,000. If the OI doesn’t follow suit and break above the previous high in the coming days, this could be a sign that the market could become a bit exhausted — something for all market participants to be aware of.

Figure 2: Daily open interest for BTC options on Bybit. Source: Bybit

 have also seen increased open interest in recent days. Perpetuals have been among the most favorable products for day traders and short-term speculators. Rising open interest could indicate that more traders are looking for short-term profit, which could bring additional volatility to the market. 

Figure 3: Daily open interest for BTCUSDT Perpetuals on Bybit. Source: Bybit

Dec 27, 2024 remains the most popular expiration date for BTC Options on Bybit, with most of the open interest there. Within that expiration, $120,000 calls had the most OI, and $100,000 calls accumulated the second-largest OI. 

Figure 4: Open interest by strike for BTC Options with a Dec 27, 2024 expiration. Source: Bybit

Meanwhile, the market’s optimism that BTC will hit $100,000 by the end of the year seems to support the current price momentum. Shorter-dated options could show that traders are also looking for downside protection. The Bybit 

 page shows that BTC Options with a Nov 29, 2024 expiration have a strong 24-hour inflow to $90,000 puts. This could indicate that some traders are also anticipating some degree of price correction by the end of the month. 

Figure 5: 24-hour volume by strike for BTC Options with a Nov 29, 2024 expiration on Bybit. Source: Bybit

 for BTC Options on Bybit also indicates a possible downside protection in play among options traders. A smirk skew, or left skew, is a skew curve that’s steeper on one side (the left side) than the other. Traditionally, a smirk skew curve could mean that traders have been protecting their portfolios against a possible declining market. At the time of this writing (Nov 21, 2024), BTC Options contracts on Bybit with Nov 29, 2024 and Dec 27, 2024 expirations have both shown a smirk skew. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean traders are bearish on the price, and could just be part of the trading strategy. For example, traders could set up collars by buying out-of-the-money (OTM) puts and selling OTM calls simultaneously, so that they can profit in case BTC’s price drops, gain upside exposure and potentially offset the cost of buying the puts. 

Figure 6: Implied volatility of BTC Options with Nov 29, 2024 and Dec 27, 2024 expirations. Source: Bybit

The current BTC leverage trading may be complex, but tells a revealing narrative about market sentiment. The divergence between high leverage and increased hedging activities also reminds us that market dynamics are rarely straightforward, and adopting a 

 seems increasingly important in this diverse market.

: Investing in cryptocurrencies and their derivatives involves substantial risk of loss, and isn’t suitable for every investor. This article provides facts for educational purposes only, and does not represent any financial advice. Prior to making any investment decisions, please ensure you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent advice if necessary. Our customer support team is available to assist you with any inquiries.

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Learn From Smart Money: BTC’s Leverage Remains High as Traders Hedge Against Downside Risks

DeFi

Altcoins

Crypto

TrustSwap (SWAP) is a multi-chain platform that offers a set of products to automate the processes of creating, launching, distributing, managing and securely exchanging crypto assets. 

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 (DeFi) industry help automate many of the financial processes and transactions that typically require complex, multi-step execution, as well as the involvement of middlemen, which can raise costs. Examples of the processes eloquently automated via 

 include will executions, regular crypto payments, insurance claims, contract-based settlements, token launches and distributions, and more.

TrustSwap aims to remove the middlemen and arduous financial processes, lowering costs while simultaneously making those processes more streamlined and trustless.

TrustSwap (SWAP) is a multi-chain platform that offers a set of products to automate the processes of creating, launching, distributing, managing and securely exchanging crypto assets.

 The platform operates on four blockchains:

One of the first services offered by TrustSwap was a launchpad for new crypto projects. The platform then added more services, such as staking, an escrow-based secure exchange of funds between transacting parties, an NFT marketplace, and a management solution to mint and distribute crypto tokens.

TrustSwap is a relatively small DeFi services platform, with a 

 (TVL) standing at a modest $4 million for its main staking pool. However, despite its smaller scale, TrustSwap has managed to become an active player in the fast-growing niche of crypto start-up launchpads. TrustSwap Launchpad regularly features new projects and offers early access to their token distributions.

TrustSwap was launched in July 2020 by Canadian serial entrepreneur Jeff Kirdeikis, who is also the company’s current CEO. Over the last two years, TrustSwap has gradually grown, adding more services and acquiring existing DeFi solutions.

TrustSwap’s unique value is in its wide choice of products and features in the areas of crypto asset management and DeFi services. The platform’s key services include staking, launchpads, and a secure asset exchange solution, SmartSwap.

TrustSwap offers staking opportunities via its 

 (LTSP). It encourages users to stake SWAP, the platform’s native crypto token, for longer periods, as the staking APY grows in proportion to the staking period. Currently, the average staking period is nearly four years, and around two-thirds of the total funds have been staked for five years or more.

LTSP depositors earn a share of revenue from transaction fees on the protocol. The rewards are added to your staking account every 10 seconds, and you’re free to withdraw the accrued reward amounts at any time. However, you can only unstake at the end of a staking period. For now, the pool is available via Ethereum, with plans to introduce it on Polygon, Avalanche and BNB Chain.

Besides using TrustSwap’s Long-Term Staking Pool, stakers can deposit their funds into the platform’s Launchpad farming pools.

is probably the most prominent product of the platform. It gives you early access to promising crypto tokens before they’re fully launched on the market. The new crypto projects listed on TrustSwap launchpads reserve a portion of their token allocations for TrustSwap’s users.

Besides investing in the tokens of these start-ups, you also have the option of staking your SWAP tokens in Launchpad pools for yield. Just as with staking in the LTSP, staking SWAP in a Launchpad pool for a longer time will increase your Launchpad allocations.

In slightly more than two years of operation, the Launchpad has helped crypto start-ups raise over $30 million in funding.

 is a secure trustless service designed to help two transacting parties exchange crypto funds in a safe and mutually compliant fashion. It uses an escrow system to reserve crypto funds that are subject to a contractual relationship. Both transacting parties agree on the terms and conditions for the release of funds. When the contractual terms have been fully satisfied by both parties, the funds are automatically released.

By using the TrustSwap network’s secured payments, transacting parties can avoid scams and non-payment issues that are, sadly, common in the world of cryptocurrency.

Staking, Launchpad and SmartSwap are TrustSwap’s flagship products. Additionally, the platform offers several other services. These include:

TrustSwap Launchpad is a valuable platform for both crypto start-ups seeking funding, and investors willing to purchase new tokens. New projects have to go through a rigorous selection process to earn a spot on the Launchpad. TrustSwap uses a vetting panel, made up of blockchain and crypto industry experts, to evaluate each candidate project.

Part of the evaluation involves an assessment of the project’s tokenomics, such as vesting schedule, token allocation scheme and supply specifics. This rigorous selection process helps protect investors from scams and nonviable crypto projects.

As an investor, you also receive exclusive access to early token allocations. The projects listed on the Launchpad come from a number of different blockchains — mostly Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon and Avalanche.

You may access the TrustSwap Launchpad from its dashboard page to view the available projects and invest in them. However, you’ll need to have some ETH and SWAP crypto to pay for transaction and gas fees.

After you’ve selected a project you’re interested in, you’ll need to fill out an application form. There’s a 24-hour window during which you can supply all the details required in the application and submit it. The TrustSwap team will contact you within 72 hours of submitting your application to provide further details. Normally, you’ll need to pass 

(KYC) requirements to join as an investor.

Note that most projects listed on the Launchpad don’t accept U.S. citizens as investors. The key reason is the reluctance of many projects to deal with the often onerous reporting and compliance requirements 

SWAP is TrustSwap’s main crypto token. It exists in native formats on four blockchains — Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon and Avalanche. The BNB Chain version of SWAP is based on the 

, the default standard for fungible tokens on its blockchain. On the other three chains, SWAP is based on the 

 standard, the default standard for fungible tokens on Ethereum that has also been adopted by Polygon and Avalanche.

SWAP is a supply-capped token, with a maximum of 100 million tokens and a total supply of nearly 100 million. As SWAP is a deflationary token, 80% of the TrustSwap protocol’s revenue is allocated to stakers, while the remaining 20% is burned. 

SWAP’s current circulating supply is about 78.57 million (as of October 28, 2022). At the token’s current price of approximately $0.23, its market cap stands at $18.14 million.

SWAP holders stand to gain from its varied uses on the platform. As covered earlier, SWAP tokens are used for staking. TrustSwap’s main staking pool, the LTSP, accepts only SWAP tokens and pays out rewards in SWAP.

SWAP is also used in the Launchpad’s farming pools. Each farming pool belongs to a specific start-up project listed on the Launchpad. Some of these pools accept SWAP and pay out rewards in each project’s token. However, other pools might take deposits in the project’s token rather than in SWAP. Each pool has its own specific rules on the acceptance of SWAP tokens. For instance, out of the five most recent Launchpad pools, two were based on the SWAP token as a deposit asset.

SWAP is also used for transaction fee payments on the TrustSwap network. Most of the services on TrustSwap allow payment of transaction fees in Ether (ETH) or in SWAP. Using SWAP for payments gives you discounted rates, typically a 50% fee reduction compared to Ether payments. For example, sellers on the Swappable NFT marketplace are charged a “marketing fee” of 2% of the sale value when paying in Ether, but only 1% if paying in SWAP.

The SWAP token started trading in early July 2020 at a price of around $0.04. The token’s best performance on the market was in the first half of 2021. On April 16, 2021, SWAP recorded its highest-ever price of $5.00. The token’s all-time low of $0.03 was registered on July 9, 2020, its first day of trading. In the last few months, SWAP has been relatively stable, trading between $0.19 and $0.25.

The SWAP token is also expected to perform well from the perspectives of key cryptocurrency forecasting portals. 

 on the token, predicting an average of $0.82 by 2025 and a spike up to $5.04 by 2030.

While TrustSwap is a relatively small platform by the standards of the overall crypto industry, it has many innovative services. Its escrow service for secure asset exchanges, early access to pre-vetted crypto tokens, and utilities for comprehensive token and NFT management provide immensely practical and useful tools for DeFi operators and investors. The need for TrustSwap’s varied feature set will be there for as long as the DeFi industry itself exists.

TrustSwap: Smart Contract Services For DeFi

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards