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

Bybit Learn

Bybit VIP

Learn about all of the VIP-only benefits you can enjoy on Bybit Finance, such as competitive interest rates and instant OTC settlement up to $10M.

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The Bybit VIP Program offers a unique opportunity to stand out within the community while enjoying an array of exclusive benefits. Perks like trading fee discounts, Bybit Card cashback boosts, instant OTC settlements, competitive interest rates and priority customer support elevate your trading on Bybit. These advantages not only enhance your service experience on the platform, but also maximize your profitability and provide greater flexibility.

In this article, you ‘ll learn about the Bybit VIP Program and all of the VIP-only benefits you can enjoy on Bybit Finance.

 is an exclusive program that rewards the crypto market's most esteemed traders with an enhanced service experience and VIP-only benefits. These perks help you increase your profitability and add flexibility to your strategies. As an avid trader, you can 

 by maintaining high trading volume, account equity level or borrowing activity. Learn more in 

What VIP Benefits Can Traders Enjoy With Bybit?

By being a member of this exclusive club, you can take advantage of a range of Bybit VIP-only benefits, including the following:

In the following sections, we'll take a closer look at the most important VIP benefits you’ll enjoy with Bybit Finance products.

 is a specialized financial solution that empowers users with the ability to manage, plan and invest digital assets. With this service, you can access professional investment strategies and a variety of portfolios to help you achieve your investment goals with zero fees.

As a VIP trader, you can enjoy multiple exclusive benefits with Bybit Wealth Management. To start with, new members of the VIP program can earn a 10% APR for Bitcoin (BTC) and a 20% APR for Tether (USDT) for three days as part of a limited offer. Meanwhile, all VIP traders (including new and existing members) can access VIP-only pools to generate yield with early redemptions and higher APRs than for standard users. Currently, the following exclusive offers are available for Wealth Management:

 to take advantage of VIP-only benefits for this Bybit Finance product.

You can also enjoy VIP-only benefits for 

. Linked to the underlying crypto assets that Bybit offers, Structured Products help you boost your potential returns in both bullish and bearish markets (subject to market conditions). Currently, you can access four different Structured Products on the platform:

As a VIP trader, you can realize the following benefits with Bybit Structured Products:

 is a Mastercard debit card that allows you to access, manage and spend your crypto conveniently, easily and securely.

Accepted by over 90 million Mastercard merchants worldwide, the Bybit Card features EMV

 3-D Secure to protect your funds, 24/7 multilingual customer support and an exciting loyalty rewards program. 

The Bybit Card also offers a 2% monthly cashback rate, which you can boost up to 10% as a member of the Bybit VIP Program. In addition to a higher cashback rate, VIP card holders also accrue more points per dollar spent (up to 50 points), with increased monthly points (up to 300,000 points) and cashback limits (up to 600 USDT).

Moreover, if you’re a VIP trader, the subscription costs of some popular trading tools and lifestyle apps — such as TradingView, ChatGPT, Netflix, Spotify and Amazon Prime — are covered. These Bybit Card rebates are subject to stated monthly limits, and are distributed in Reward Points.

 offers you an alternative way to trade digital assets. It conducts transactions directly between two counterparties outside of Bybit's ecosystem, as opposed to trades that take place on the exchange's platform. Counterparties negotiate prices, and the service provides 24/7 trading with competitive rates and zero transaction fees.

VIP traders can enjoy instant settlements of up to $10 million for their OTC trades on Bybit. 

 to take advantage of these exclusive benefits.

As a VIP trader, you gain priority access to Bybit's live chat customer support, ensuring your questions are answered promptly and efficiently. In addition, you can take advantage of higher daily withdrawal limits of up to $200,000 in fiat currency or 12 million USDT in crypto, and API trading limits of up to 120 trades per second. With higher limits, you can execute your strategies and manage your funds with greater flexibility and enhanced convenience.

, fulfill the program's criteria in any of the following platform activities:

If you have active VIP status at another crypto exchange, or your total MT5 trading volume fulfills Bybit's criteria, you can also get a VIP+2 upgrade. In addition to making you a VIP trader, this upgrade will also instantly elevate your VIP status by two levels.

Alternatively, you can become a Bybit VIP trader through a 20-day trial, which you can access by funding your account with $50,000. Doing so will issue a VIP Trial Card, granting you all the exclusive benefits of the program for 20 days. The VIP trial offer is only available if you haven't used a trial within the past two months.

How do I access my VIP status and benefits?

We update your VIP level every day at 6AM UTC based on your activity on Bybit's platform. Your new VIP status will be reflected in your account once you fulfill the program's minimum criteria, allowing you to enjoy the exclusive perks and benefits. To check your current VIP level, hover over your profile icon or 

Conclusion: Become a Bybit VIP Trader Today

The Bybit VIP Program rewards the very best traders in the crypto market with exclusive perks. These VIP-only benefits on Bybit Finance — ranging from discounted trading fees and high withdrawal limits to competitive interest rates and priority customer support access — enhance the overall service experience for members. As a VIP trader, you can take advantage of these perks to increase your profitability and add flexibility to your strategies.

Become a Bybit VIP trader to unlock exclusive benefits and perks and maximize your earnings. 

VIP-Only Benefits on Bybit Finance: Higher APRs and Instant OTC Settlement

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards