Jan 6, 2025: Our weekly Institutional Insights explores the latest market developments — market performance, industry news, exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows, trending topics, upcoming events and token unlocks — to help you supercharge your crypto trading.

Weekly Highlight — Markets Snap Five-Day Loss Streak 

Investors are now seizing the opportunity to buy the dip in U.S. stocks after a five-day decline that erased over $1 trillion in market value. Wall Street has broken its longest losing streak since April, with the Nasdaq-100 rebounding 1.7% and the S&P 500 rising 1.3% on Friday, January 3. These gains slightly offset the week's sell-off, which had continued into the new year following a tough December.

Despite concerns about slowing earnings growth among tech giants like the Magnificent Seven, traders remain optimistic, especially regarding AI leader NVIDIA Corporation. The market believes that, as long as retail investors keep investing in AI, the associated stock market boom is expected to persist. 

Stocks reached their session highs in the afternoon after Mike Johnson was reelected as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, indicating potential support for a business-friendly agenda. Meanwhile, bond yields rose, with the 10-year hitting 4.6% following comments from Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin about maintaining restrictive rates. U.S. manufacturing showed modest growth, with new orders at their highest since early last year, while investors assessed economic strength against the possibility of slower interest-rate cuts.

Weekly Crypto Highlight — AI Agent Spring Coming

Many investors are eagerly anticipating an Alt Season, a period when altcoins typically surge in value. However, current market dynamics suggest we may not see a widespread altcoin rally. The sheer number of tokens, combined with limited liquidity, has led to what's known as altcoin dispersion, making it crucial to select the right sectors and tokens.

, which are thriving even as the broader market declines. This nascent sector is experiencing rapid advancements, and its associated tokens face less pressure from venture capital unlocks. Many of its top protocols lack centralized exchange listings, indicating more buyers may enter the market.

Those investors who missed previous opportunities, such as the DeFi summer of 2020 and the Alt Layer 1 trade, now have another chance. Instead of targeting individual AI agents, the best risk/reward strategy lies in investing in infrastructure plays, which serve as the foundational tools for the sector.

The leading AI agent player is Virtuals Protocol, a platform for launching tokenized AI agents on the Base network. By purchasing tokens like Luna by Virtuals (LUNA) and VaderAI (VADER), users gain governance rights over specific agents, which allows them to both influence development and share in profits. 

Recently, daily protocol fee revenues dropped significantly in mid-December 2024 as activity slowed for the holidays. However, speculation around agent-associated tokens surged as the new year approached. Currently, Virtuals Protocol generates over $1 million in daily fees, though this is 50% less than figures for early December. Despite these challenges, the VIRTUAL token has more than doubled in value, reaching a market capitalization of $4.6 billion.

Other highlighted opportunities include Zerebro, which is pivoting to a full-stack framework for AI agents; ARC, with its Rust-based framework; and 

 (GRIFFAIN), a natural language on-chain search tool. These projects are well-positioned for future growth in the evolving landscape of AI technology.

 as we delve into leading AI agent tokens and the past week’s market movements. 

Advanced

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Weekly Institutional Insights: Market Snaps Five-Day Loss Streak; AI Agent Spring Coming

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.

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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 Learn

Altcoins

Pepe 2.0 is a new meme coin crypto project designed to offer a second opportunity for potential investors who missed the initial wave of profits from PEPE.

Introducing Pepe 2.0, the latest sensation in the meme coin market, designed for discerning crypto enthusiasts in search of promising new ventures. Recently unveiled and already making waves on social media platforms as well as Crypto Twitter, this innovative project offers a unique opportunity for those who may have missed the initial wave of 

 profits, providing a second chance to partake in potential earnings. Curious about what Pepe 2.0 entails? Stay tuned as we delve into the intricacies of this exciting project and guide you on where to secure your stake.

Building upon the heritage of the initial Pepe coin, PEPE2 emerges as a fresh meme coin iteration. It 

 the iconic Pepe the Frog meme, now reimagined in a distinctive orange shade, setting apart the new from the old.

This innovative project has been well-received among crypto enthusiasts, particularly on Crypto Twitter, and has been recognized as one of the most widely embraced meme coin clones. Moreover, it’s achieved impressive trading volumes, reaching nearly $36 million in a single day. 

Despite its recent launch, Pepe 2.0 has already demonstrated potential for high returns, 

 an initial $900 PEPE2 purchase into over $176,000 in less than 24 hours. 

Pepe is a distinctive meme coin project, crafted to pay tribute to the iconic and provocative cartoon character, Pepe the Frog. A creation of artist Matt Furie, the character has been a significant cultural symbol for nearly two decades.

PEPE was launched in April 2023 and its price quickly spiked from $0.000000070787 on Apr 18, 2023, to its ATH of $0.00000431 on May 5, 2023, exploding over 6,000% in growth. 

Pepe 2.0 aims to recreate Pepe coin’s success in achieving a $1 billion market cap. Interestingly, Pepe 2.0 was brought to life by 

. Thus, for some traders who missed the initial Pepe coin wave, Pepe 2.0 presents an opportunity for vindication or a second shot at success. 

Significantly, the creators of PEPE2 have relinquished control over the token's contract. This action places the project squarely under community stewardship, thereby substantially mitigating the potential for a 

Pepe 2.0 operates as a meme coin in the cryptocurrency market, featuring Pepe the Frog. 

Pepe 2.0 is gearing up to launch an exceptional NFT collection, set to captivate with its breathtaking artwork and exclusive digital assets. Each meticulously designed NFT promises a unique and enriching digital ownership journey. Users were previously able to mint a Pepe 2.0 NFT by heading to the 

Unlike the original Pepe coin project, Pepe 2.0 charges a 1% tax on all transactions. According to the official website, the tax collected will be used to contribute to various developments for the project, such as community, liquidity pool support and marketing efforts.

PEPE2 serves as the inherent token of the Pepe 2.0 meme coin initiative. The total issuance of PEPE2 tokens is capped at 420,690,000,000,000, mirroring the original PEPE's supply. This specific limit was selected with a touch of humor, just like the original Pepe project, incorporating "420," a number often associated with cannabis culture in meme parlance, and "69," a number with sexual connotations among memers.

Pepe 2.0 and the original Pepe share a common foundation as meme coin projects, both featuring the iconic Pepe the Frog character. However, they present distinct characteristics that set them apart.

Both projects are centered around the Pepe the Frog meme, a popular internet symbol.

They share the same total supply cap of 420,690,000,000,000 tokens, a humorous nod to meme culture. Both projects’ creators have renounced ownership over the tokens’ contracts, making way for community stewardship and minimizing the chances of a rug pull.

 was also temporarily suspended right after it gained popularity following its token launch.

PEPE2 is a fresh iteration of the original Pepe coin, featuring the same meme but in a unique orange hue. Pepe prides itself on having no taxes, but Pepe 2.0 charges a 1% tax. The creation of Pepe 2.0 was driven by wallet addresses that were blacklisted by the creator of the original Pepe coin, offering a chance at redemption for these traders. 

The Pepe project is known to have previously blacklisted accounts before it renounced ownership over its token’s contract. According to Twitter user 

, one blacklisted wallet address currently has $8 million worth of PEPE tokens in it. When this news broke, many crypto enthusiasts questioned the level of decentralization in the Pepe project. 

In contrast, the creators of Pepe 2.0 have renounced ownership from the outset, eliminating the possibility of a blacklist function. This move has been interpreted as a commitment to true decentralization, enhancing the project's appeal to the larger crypto community.

PEPE2 was launched on Jul 3, 2023 at $0.000000036125. Due to its popularity, its price quickly rose to its all-time high of $0.000000219418 on Jul 7, 2023. PEPE2 is currently priced at $0.000000090883 (as of Jul 10, 2023). It has a market capitalization of more than $36 million and a 24-hour trading volume of approximately $17 million. The circulating supply of PEPE2 is 420,690,000,000,000.

, PEPE2 price is expected to reach $0.000000195 by the end of 2023. This would then increase to $0.000000324 by 2025, $0.000000487 by 2028 and $0.000000928 by the end of 2030. Of course, this is just a prediction, and you should still 

Looking to trade PEPE2 tokens? Bybit now offers the PEPE2/USDT Spot trading pair! In order to get started, you’ll need to first 

, fund it with cryptocurrency and navigate to the 

To celebrate this listing, Bybit is also holding a 

 from Jul 6, 2023, 3:00AM UTC through Jul 20, 2023, 11:59 UTC. Eligible users can earn a share of the 450,000,000,000 PEPE2 prize pool. 

If you’re a new user, you can win 300,000,000 PEPE2 tokens out of the 300,000,000,000 PEPE2 prize pool. Simply follow the steps below to qualify:

If you’re an existing user before Jul 6, 2023, 3:00AM UTC, you’ll still be able to earn 150,000,000 PEPE2 tokens out of the remaining 150,000,000,000 PEPE2 prize pool. All you have to do is accumulate a deposit volume of at least 1,100,000,000 PEPE2 in your Bybit account during the event period.

Kindly note that all rewards are distributed on a first come, first served basis.

Pepe 2.0 has shown promising signs as a meme coin investment, gaining significant traction in the crypto community as demonstrated by its substantial trading volumes and growing popularity on Crypto Twitter. The project's decision to renounce ownership over the token's contract from the start, thereby eliminating the possibility of a blacklist function, is a positive move toward decentralization and investor security.

However, it's important to note that while Pepe 2.0 has demonstrated potential for high returns, it also carries risks, as with any investment. The crypto market is highly volatile, and meme coins in particular can be subject to dramatic price fluctuations.

Therefore, while Pepe 2.0 presents an engaging opportunity, it's crucial to conduct 

 and to consider your own risk tolerance before investing. Remember that investing in cryptocurrencies should be based on informed decisions — and, as always, it's essential to only invest what you can afford to lose.

In conclusion, Pepe 2.0 emerges as an intriguing player in the crypto meme coin arena. Building on the legacy of the original Pepe, it offers a fresh opportunity for potential investors, particularly those who missed the initial wave of profits. With its coin’s unique orange hue, a decidedly community-centric approach and the absence of a blacklist function, Pepe 2.0 demonstrates how committed it is to decentralization and investor security. Pepe 2.0, with its blend of humor, innovation and community spirit, certainly adds a vibrant touch to the dynamic world of cryptocurrency.

Pepe 2.0 (PEPE2): A Second Chance at the PEPE Meme Revolution

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards