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

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Altcoins

AOFverse is a gaming metaverse that combines multiple engaging characters in a variety of game styles. Learn more about how it works in this article.

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In the past few months, the Army of Fortune Metaverse has made waves in the 

 gaming industry. Also called AOFverse, this project combines easy mobile games with 

 strategies. It's already proven to be so popular that it's managed to gain 

. Can you really make money through AOFverse? Explore this guide to learn how the system works and to discover its investment potential.

 is a gaming metaverse that combines multiple engaging characters in a variety of game styles. Players in the AOFverse can fight battles, collect treasures and earn digital coins that can easily be exchanged for fiat currency.

. This team of creators is dedicated to creating fun and enjoyable mobile gaming. Founded in 2017 by AAA mobile game publishers, Z3 Bros Studio is on a mission to help traditional gamers transfer to the web3 universe.

When they decided to create a metaverse, Z3 Bros Studio raised funding from a variety of sources. They’ve generated over $2 million through private token sales, and have also received funding through 

. Its hope is to create a new version of mobile gaming that relies on web3 technology and addresses many issues of modern gaming. Through 

, AOFverse plans to give players genuine ownership over their own in-game assets. The company also aims to design a system that rewards players for their hours of gameplay by providing them with crypto rewards that can be exchanged for fiat currency. Long-term plans aim to turn AOFverse into a sustainable ecosystem that can add more new games as gaming trends change.

 blockchain as the basis for its system. This blockchain connects all the software that runs each downloadable mobile app, so users get a cohesive experience, no matter which AOFverse product they try. By using this blockchain technology, AOFverse has been able to explore multiple web3 gaming mechanics.

In addition to its core gameplay, the AOFverse also contains several trademark characters, such as Blick the Gobbler and Frog Pikeman. By incorporating these characters into TikTok and other social media, AOFverse hopes to showcase game features and increase awareness of its brand. Users can interact with these characters on social media and in games, so they also play a crucial role in boosting player engagement.

The AOFverse prides itself on creating a dynamic community. Its decentralized system lets users vote on game decisions and propose changes to the AOFverse ecosystem. In order to further encourage players to take part in the community, the game gives every player ownership over their own digital identity. Having a stake in the game empowers users and motivates them to get involved.

AOFverse hopes to gain valuable insights from its players with a rewards system that incentivizes feedback and engagement. The 

) and Army of Fortune Gem (AFG) tokens in exchange for beta testing services and new member referrals.

The AOFverse ecosystem hopes to function as its own form of social media. Game features such as live chat and team events help players build connections. People can collaborate to succeed, compete to be the best and find like-minded individuals with whom to socialize.

Unlike many other metaverses, AOFverse prioritizes mobile access. Users can reach the platform through their phone, and games through a mobile app. Since mobile gaming is currently the largest gaming platform, this provides AOFverse with a huge pool of potential customers.

Much of AOFverse’s design is based on the idea of attracting more users. The games are free-to-play, so everyone can try them, even if they don't have money, and the platform uses balancing mechanisms to ensure gameplay fairness. Both newcomers and long-term gamers can have fun within the AOFverse, and rewards are carefully calibrated to maintain value.

The AOFverse ecosystem provides users with access to all sorts of games and fun events. Following are some of the main game features available to AOFverse players.

Available on Android and iOS, this is the first PvP game from the AOFverse. The core gameplay revolves around players building their own armies and then sending them to fight other players' armies in structured matches. You pay an entry fee in Army of Fortune Coin to compete, and the winner earns AFC alongside other in-game assets.

 are rare and exclusive items that users can obtain through 

 or in-game Crystal Forge treasure chests. All AOFverse NFTs are interoperable. You can insert your NFTs into any of the AOFverse games, and they have a crucial role in gameplay. Holding an NFT gives you in-game perks that allow you to be more competitive at AOFverse games.

The clan system is a way of adding interpersonal interactions to the gaming experience. Players can network with each other and create teams, and clans who work together can progress faster and receive more in-game items. However, to earn extra AFG tokens and other perks, players first need to obtain an NFT from one of the Crystal Forge treasure chests. Holding this NFT allows you to start your own clan, and to access special clan activities.

 that provides valuable insights into the different stages of its system. In 2023, AOFverse onboarded players, released a cryptocurrency and launched its first game, 

For early 2024, its road map will focus on releasing the NFT marketplace, launching betas for its new game, 

, and adding new features such as a Crystal Forge. Once AOFverse completes these tasks, the AOFverse team plans to release a software developer kit (SDK) and allow more compatibility with third-party games in the hope of creating more content and, ultimately, leading to the creation of a complex mobile metaverse.

The Army of Fortune Gem (AFG) token is a 

 that helps to manage the AOFverse ecosystem. In addition to its being a voting tool for the DAO, AFG is also used for rewarding gamers after they complete certain levels, and as a vehicle for upgrading items in AOFverse games. AFG’s 

 will reduce supply over time. These tokens are distributed according to the following plan:

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

To celebrate this listing, Bybit is holding an 

 where you can earn a share of the 70,000 USDT prize pool! The first 2,000 new users who complete the following two steps between Jan 30, 2024, 8AM UTC and Feb 19, 2024, 8:59AM UTC will receive 30 USDT each:

If you’re already a Bybit user (prior to Jan 30, 2024, 8AM UTC), no worries — because you can still earn 5 USDT! Simply accumulate a deposit volume of at least 100 USDT worth of AFG, or deposit 100 USDT and buy at least 100 USDT worth of AFG using your Bybit account. Please note that rewards will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis to the first 2,000 users.

As AFG slowly becomes available to the public, it's already generating a lot of positive press. CoinMarketCap is reporting 

 report that the token looks promising. Combined with the game's high number of daily active users, AOFverse crypto looks like it's poised to take off.

However, keep in mind that any new crypto release comes with inherent volatility. Even though prices are likely to skyrocket in minutes, there will also be times when AFG’s price drops. Furthermore, the token’s value is heavily tied to AOFverse's ability to produce more games and attract more players. Like every other crypto release, investors need to exercise some caution. Be sure to invest only money you can afford to lose, 

So far, AOFverse has done an excellent job of capitalizing on play-to-earn web3 gaming trends. Its latest token release and its upcoming game launches give the project even more opportunities to boost player engagement and expand the user base. Though only time will tell whether it reaches its goal of becoming the top web3 mobile gaming company, AOFverse might well be an exciting opportunity for investors.

AOFverse (AFG): Unleashing New Dimensions in Mobile Gaming

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards