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

GameFi

Explainers

Altcoins

BlockGames is a cross-game player network with cross-chain capabilities. Learn more about how this platform works in this article.

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 framework to make games more accessible and rewarding. However, many players are still wary of unfamiliar gaming systems. BlockGames is a crypto project that hopes to solve this issue by designing a convenient user interface that works for people, no matter what level of gaming skills they have. Read on to learn more about the BlockGames system and its plan to make web3 gaming easier.

 is a cross-game player network with cross-chain capabilities. It provides players with a Universal Player Profile they can use to access a variety of different web3 gaming products on the BlockGames website and app.

, a U.K. businessman who formerly worked at Nike. Baltramiejūnas previously created and ran a real estate company for online rentals, but in 2022 his focus turned to the blockchain ecosystem. He partnered with mobile game studio 

 to create a new system that would offer the perfect blend of convenience and innovation.

The BlockGames company is inspired by the growing interest in 

 gaming and free-to-play games. It hopes to create a gaming framework that appeals to both users and game developers. Though the company is still in the early stages of designing its system, it's proud to be the first cross-game, cross-chain player network.

BlockGames aims to tackle two common problems in the modern web3 gaming industry. First of all, it aspires to introduce web3 games to traditional players. By putting a variety of web3 games behind a simple interface and a unified player account, BlockGames plans to make it easier for players to explore different games.

Its other main goal is to improve marketing for game developers. BlockGames noticed that there were a lot of great games that were struggling simply because they couldn't attract enough players. The BlockGames ecosystem will create a collection of enthusiastic players that any developer can access, with the hope of making marketing a lot easier for game developers.

 to provide cross-chain capabilities. Through the BlockGames network, users can enjoy gaming experiences on multiple chains. This is possible thanks to a mechanism called soulbound tokens (

). SBTs are Ethereum tokens that are non-transferable, non-fungible and linked to a specific person. They essentially function as 

, but since they’re non-transferable, they cannot be bought or sold.

BlockGames issues each player a BlockGames ID that's made up of SBTs. The Universal Player Profile can hold player data, records and achievements. Each ID allows its holder to connect to the games within the BlockGames universe, and the SBTs keep track of things such as player wallets and attributes so players have full and irrevocable control over their gaming identities.

The BlockGames cross-game player network offers a lot of rewarding gaming experiences. Here are some features people can expect when they try the BlockGames app.

 are premium NFTs minted from the BlockGames treasury. Users who hold them receive early access to the BlockGames Player Network, and they also offer enhanced airdrop eligibility. During weekly rounds of point scoring, DICE holders get more points for the airdrop in the future. Staking DICE offers another way for owners to earn more rewards.

The BlockGames Player Network is the heart of the ecosystem. By creating a BlockGames ID, users obtain an individualized account that accesses a variety of games. You can use this account to get instant rewards, earn social points and try out games. This network isn't fully launched yet, but select people can invite friends and try it out.

The BlockGames Airdrop is a program to help generate interest in the network. Anyone can sign up for the airdrop and start receiving instant rewards. You earn more points if, for example, you invite friends and comment on social media. The 

 offers particularly significant rewards for social points that people can get by interacting with other posts on X (formerly Twitter) and the BlockGames forum. You can also receive pace points for the airdrop by participating in weekly rounds of gaming on the app.

The Lucky Rolls campaign is linked to both the BlockGames Airdrop and the DICE NFT launch. DICE owners get Lucky Rolls that provide more early access to BLOCK purchases. Lucky Rolls social points are also available through giveaways and contests on the Discord server.

In the past two years, BlockGames has managed to create and launch an early access testnet on which users can sign up for a BlockGames ID and play games on a mobile BlockGames app. There are 

 in the BlockGames system, which has also successfully collaborated with app developers such as TokyoBeast. With its pace points and social points, the airdrop system has helped BlockGames rapidly gain over 600,000 followers on X.

BlockGames is currently focused on promoting its new BLOCK crypto token. In addition to running several airdrop programs, it also hopes to host a community presale and a token generation event. There are plans to move the BlockGames app from alpha to beta version at some point, but BlockGames hasn't provided much information on when this will happen.

As the native utility token of BlockGames, BLOCK performs many services. It's used to reward developers who create games, and to incentivize players to improve their gaming skills. It's also the governance token for the BlockGames Player Network. BLOCK has a 

, to be distributed according to the following plan:

While the BlockGames project sounds interesting in theory, its lack of information has some crypto investors concerned. The BlockGames ecosystem has spent almost all of its time promoting its token, yet it hasn’t released a white paper or even explained how its infrastructure works. In addition to these red flags that could indicate a 

, there have also been some user complaints about the BlockGames app. Many reviews of the early access app mention that users have 

, and there aren't many games available. Therefore, investors looking into BLOCK 

However, even if the BlockGames product isn't able to refine its technology and distinguish itself from its competitors, its crypto token could still prove popular. The ecosystem does have a lot of followers on X, Discord and other types of social media, which could lead to a lot of interest in the token. Especially in the first few days after the token launch, BLOCK might be a nice choice for investors who have money to spare and like high-risk, high-reward tokens.

Ultimately, whether or not BLOCK is likely to have long-term success will depend upon BlockGames' ability to attract more game developers and refine its user interface. Though they’re still works in progress, BlockGames and BLOCK are backed by some intriguing ideas on how to handle player accounts and crypto games. If the ecosystem can further improve its ideas, it has the potential to become a valuable part of the web3 gaming landscape.

BlockGames (BLOCK): Powering the World's Best Player Network

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards