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.

BTC has finally surpassed the $100K mark, leading to increased bullish positioning in derivatives markets. This reflects strong sentiment and a desire for upside exposure in perpetual swaps and futures. Short-term implied volatility has risen as traders seek options to capitalize on the rally.

Please check out the report’s highlights.

BTC's successful breach of the $100K barrier has led to a noticeable return of perpetual swap markets to all-time high open interest levels, although the response has been somewhat muted. Earlier in the week, perpetual swap markets shifted their focus to ETH after BTC's repeated failures to break through $100K. While funding rates for both derivatives remained high and positive, open interest in ETH contracts increased at the expense of BTC positions prior to the breakthrough. Additionally, ETH trade volumes have constituted a larger-than-usual market share.

BTC Calls See No Significant Influx Post-$100K

The sudden rise in spot prices has triggered a sharp increase in demand for short-tenor options, as traders seek exposure to the upward movement. BTC's term structure inversion has driven short-tenor implied volatility levels above realized volatility. Although implied volatility for BTC is lower than that of ETH, open interest data shows that the influx of call option open interest in BTC markets wasn’t as significant as for ETH. Nevertheless, BTC's volatility skew remains strongly bullish.

ETH's options market showed the most bullish positioning ahead of the overnight spot move, while the perpetual swap markets for both major cryptocurrencies reflected strong positive sentiment. Open interest is heavily weighted toward OTM calls, signaling a robust preference for upside exposure as realized volatility starts to catch up to implied volatility. This demand for upside exposure is evident for both tokens, particularly with ETH's remarkable increase in call option open interest over the past 24 hours.

Advanced

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Bybit X Block Scholes Crypto Derivatives Analytics Report (Dec 5, 2024): After BTC Turns $100K, Investors Are Still More Bullish on ETH

The cryptocurrency market is experiencing unprecedented growth, particularly in major assets like XRP, Cardano (ADA) and Stellar (XLM).

The cryptocurrency market is experiencing unprecedented growth, particularly in major assets like XRP, Cardano (ADA) and Stellar (XLM), whose tokens have seen substantial price increases (XRP up 444%, ADA 280% and XLM 512%). This surge is being driven largely by aggressive accumulation from whale investors, as well as cautious but optimistic sentiment in the crypto community. 

Meanwhile, interest in meme coins is declining as investors shift focus to more sustainable projects. The integration of AI in blockchain ecosystems and the emergence of hyperliquid token generation events (TGEs) are also reshaping market dynamics, indicating a transformative phase for cryptocurrencies.

Significant Growth in Major Cryptocurrencies

The report highlights impressive price increases for several major cryptocurrencies:

Despite these gains, general sentiment in the crypto community remains cautiously optimistic.

 activity is a key factor in current crypto market dynamics:

Since mid-October, there’s been considerable accumulation of Bitcoin by whale wallets, which have added a total of 91,856 BTC. This accumulation has played a substantial role in driving up BTC’s price.

In contrast, there’s been a decline in stablecoin holdings among these wallets, suggesting a strategic shift toward investing in cryptocurrencies, rather than choosing to hold stable assets.

The following several emerging trends are reshaping the cryptocurrency landscape.

Overall, our report underscores a transformative period in the cryptocurrency market, characterized by significant asset growth, strategic whale behavior and the integration of advanced technologies.

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Whales Accumulate Bitcoin as It Reached $100K; Emergence of AI Agent

Our monthly option volatility report delves into insights from options volatility to inspire your next crypto move.

Option volatility outlines a compelling narrative for Bitcoin as it approaches the $100K milestone. Leading up to the U.S. election on Nov 5, 2024, Bitcoin's implied volatility experienced a dramatic surge, with short-term implied volatility rising approximately 25 percentage points above post-election expirations. This spike indicated strong bullish positioning in the derivatives market as traders sought to capitalize on anticipated price movements driven by electoral outcomes.

In the immediate aftermath of the election, there was a sharp decline in short-term volatility, aligning with a rally in spot prices that, in turn, led to higher realized volatility. However, the decline in implied volatility didn’t reflect a long-term bearish sentiment — instead, it suggested a temporary easing of uncertainty regarding the election results. The term structure of implied volatility demonstrates a complex relationship: while short-term volatility dipped, longer-dated options remained stable above 50%.

The call/put skew indicates strong demand for bullish call options relative to bearish puts since the election, reflecting heightened upside exposure during BTC and ETH rallies. However, when BTC retraced to $91.3K, the skew shifted 6% toward puts, signaling bearish sentiment. This was inconsistent with futures markets, in which prices remained above spot levels, indicating ongoing bullishness. The skew toward OTM puts arose from increased demand for protective hedges, rather than from a lack of call interest. Ultimately, this suggests traders believe any sell-off would be temporary, supporting the idea that volatility is necessary in order for BTC to reach the $100K mark.

In contrast to Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH) has emerged as a more consistently bullish asset in recent weeks. While both BTC and ETH exhibited similar volatility patterns immediately following the election, Ether has shown notable resilience and increased momentum, particularly in the wake of Gary Gensler's resignation. This political shift has positively influenced ETH’s market dynamics, resulting in a stronger demand for ETH options.

Ether outperformed Bitcoin during critical market events, including both the election and ETF announcements in 2024. Following Gensler's resignation, ETH gained significant traction, with traders increasingly focusing on Ethereum as a more attractive investment. This shift is evident in the significant drops in the ratio of BTC-to-ETH spot price, indicating that traders are reallocating their preferences toward ETH.

The divergence in implied volatility between BTC and ETH options further underscores this trend, as the ratio of implied volatility for ETH options has surpassed that of BTC, reflecting a stronger demand for ETH optionality. Historically, ETH has exhibited higher volatility compared to Bitcoin. This recent uptick in ETH's implied volatility reestablishes the typical pattern of ETH commanding a premium in the options market.

Moreover, the skew in options pricing has shifted in favor of calls for both BTC and ETH, but ETH's skew has remained more robust. This suggests a stronger bullish sentiment for ETH, as traders are positioning more aggressively for its price appreciation compared to that of Bitcoin. As the market continues to evolve, Ethereum's increasing dominance and the bullish signals from its options market position it as a leading contender in the cryptocurrency landscape, making it likely to outperform Bitcoin in the near future.

Bybit X Block Scholes Option Volatility Report: November Option Volatility Report: Volatility on the Road to $100K

Thruster (THRUST) is a cutting-edge DEX on the Blast Layer 2 blockchain, offering both standard and concentrated liquidity AMM pools. 

 chains has plenty of solutions offering minuscule fees, excellent scalability and nearly instant transactions. Seemingly countless sidechains, rollups and other types of Layer 2 networks servicing the Ethereum blockchain have been launched in recent years. However, many, if not most, of these chains struggle to offer anything beyond low fees and fast transaction processing capacity. While these benefits are nothing short of remarkable — especially considering Ethereum's never-ending network congestion issues — the innovation in this area needs to move beyond another platform offering the same cost and speed advantages.

 (BLAST) Layer 2 blockchain in early 2024 was a refreshing change — finally, an Ethereum Layer 2 solution that provides something more than just cost and speed efficiencies. Blast is known as a unique Layer 2 chain that offers native yields for ETH and 

, a feature that has attracted significant capital and 

 (DeFi) actors to the platform. Leveraging Blast's unique capabilities and popularity in DeFi, the Thruster Finance 

 (DEX) was launched on Blast’s blockchain in March 2024.

Thruster offers both the tried-and-tested 

 (AMM) model and a more advanced AMM model derived from the 

 (UNI) v3–inspired concentrated liquidity provision. Despite offering sophisticated options for token swaps and liquidity provision, Thruster aims to be as beginner-friendly as possible for traders, 

 (LPs) and developers. It has also tightly integrated Blast's own loyalty programs — Blast Gold and Blast Points.

 (THRUST) is a DEX on the Blast Layer 2 chain that provides standard AMM and concentrated liquidity AMM services to power its token swap and liquidity provision operations

.Thruster was launched in March 2024, soon after the introduction of Blast's mainnet, and builds upon the Layer 2 blockchain's popularity in the DeFi community, its capital efficiency and its cost and speed advantages.

Debuting in February 2024, Blast became a major Layer 2 market disruptor by introducing native yield benefits for holders of Ether and stablecoins. Simply by bridging your ETH or stablecoin funds to Blast, you can earn competitive yields from these assets as an added benefit to the cost and speed efficiencies that Blast boasts as an 

 solution. The native yield functionality quickly attracted DeFi users to the platform, a development that Thruster Finance has successfully capitalized on since the early days of its operation.

Thruster Finance consists of three key parts: the token swap section, the Uniswap v2–inspired constant factor AMM and the concentrated liquidity AMM, which adopts the basic characteristics of Uniswap v3.

Thruster quickly became the largest DEX on Blast by offering user-friendly and highly flexible token swap and liquidity provision options for its AMM and concentrated liquidity AMM components. At the height of its dominance on the chain, in June 2024, Thruster boasted a 

 (TVL) of close to $600 million. Although the protocol is currently off these highs, it still ranks as the largest DEX on the Blast blockchain, with a current TVL of 

The Thruster Finance project’s seed-stage startup is based in California. It was founded in 2023 by a pseudonymous team that has reportedly contributed to several top-50 protocols. In April 2024, Thruster attracted media attention when it 

 from several well-known institutional and individual crypto investors, including Pantera Capital and OKX Ventures.

Thruster supports token swaps for ETH, Blast's native cryptocurrency; BLAST, the blockchain's own stablecoin; USDB; and a range of tokens within the Blast ecosystem. Like other AMM-based exchanges, users trade against liquidity pools funded by LPs earning fees from transactions in each respective pool.

The platform features an analytics section that provides up-to-date, transparent information on the current swap rates, fees involved, 

There's also a portfolio section that helps traders track their investments and operations across pools and provides information on users' balances, earnings, staking and liquidity pool commitments.

For LPs, the platform offers two varieties of swap pools: the standard constant factor AMM and the concentrated liquidity AMM. We'll discuss these two kinds of pools in the section below.

Thruster also offers income opportunities via staking. Users who stake the platform's native crypto, THRUST, are issued veTHRUST tokens, which entitle them to earn revenues from the protocol's operations and other protocol benefits.

Although Thruster Finance offers fairly sophisticated products, it aims to appeal to all kinds of DeFi users, from rank beginners to seasoned pros. To meet this goal, the platform offers two user interface modes: lite and pro.

The lite mode is suitable for newbies and less experienced users. It features user-friendly token charts, critical token and pool information and social integrations. Meanwhile, pro mode is designed for experienced DeFi users and provides additional tools for order management, leverage use and asset discovery.

One variety of swap pools on Thruster is based on the constant factor AMM model. This is a standard AMM system, first introduced by Uniswap v1 and improved upon in Uniswap v2. In a constant factor AMM, a swap pool is based on a simple formula, 

 represent the quantities of two tokens in the pool and 

 is a constant that remains the same regardless of

. LPs provide liquidity at any price point for the swap pair, irrespective of how the swap rate moves.

The constant factor AMM model provides numerous advantages, including simplicity and relatively high predictability of yields for LPs.

Thruster, however, has made some modifications to the original constant factor AMM developed by Uniswap. First of all, the platform has implemented different fee tiers for swap pools. With Uniswap v2, all swaps are charged one fixed fee — 0.3% per transaction. However, using the same rate, without taking into account liquidity and activity levels for a particular pool, isn't the most flexible solution. This structure limits the flexibility of incentives for LPs — the primary recipients of revenues from swap fees. This is why Thruster has implemented a tiered fee system, as the differential fee model is designed to encourage more active and targeted liquidity provision and token trade.

Another unique feature of Thruster's constant factor AMM is the direct integration of Blast's reward systems, Blast Points and Blast Gold. In addition to transaction fee revenues, LPs may qualify for points under these loyalty programs.

Thruster also offers a more advanced variety of crypto trading and liquidity provision based on the concentrated liquidity AMM model. This is the AMM variation first introduced in Uniswap v3. 

In a concentrated liquidity AMM, LPs can provide liquidity within specific price ranges within a pool. The advantages of concentrated liquidity over the standard constant factor model are numerous, such as greater capital efficiency, potentially higher yields and reduced 

 rates. This type of AMM provides greater flexibility to LPs in terms of their capital allocation.

LPs contributing funds to Thruster's concentrated liquidity AMM pools are also rewarded with Blast Points and Blast Gold in addition to revenues from swap fees.

 is a blockchain explorer tool for the Blast ecosystem. In terms of functionality and design, it’s quite similar to Ethereum's 

. Blastscan lets you view detailed statistics on tokens and 

 addresses hosted on Blast’s Layer 2 platform. While Blastscan covers the entire blockchain's ecosystem and isn't specifically a part of Thruster Finance, it can be used by LPs to withdraw liquidity from Thruster's swap pools.

LPs can add liquidity only via the Thruster user interface, but they can use either the interface or Blastscan when removing previously added liquidity. The latter method isn't as user-friendly as the former option, but it might suit more technically minded users accustomed to the active use of Blastscan.

One distinct feature of Thruster is the abundance of additional incentives for users on top of the standard income from transaction fees. Rewards offered on Thruster include Blast Gold, Blast Points and Thruster Credits. Notably, these rewards aren't restricted to LPs, as other platform participants, such as token traders and referrers, can also expect to receive some of these reward types.

Blast Points are rewards that qualify you for BLAST token airdrops. The Blast project distributes these points to eligible individual wallets and smart contract addresses that hold balances of either of three assets — ETH, 

 stablecoin. Thruster Finance has integrated the distribution of these points to specific liquidity pools. The points are allocated to eligible LPs contributing to these pools.

Blast Gold represents rewards paid out by the Blast Layer 2 project to 

 (DApps) that actively contribute to the development of the blockchain's ecosystem. Essentially, Blast Gold is a bonus reward (on top of Blast Points) that Blast distributes to select DApps on its network. Thruster Finance is one of the recipients of Blast Gold. A recipient DApp project can internalize its Blast Gold rewards, or share them with their own user community.

Thruster has decided to share its Blast Gold rewards with its two main user community groups: LPs and token swappers. For the latter group, swaps involving ETH or USDB are eligible for Blast Gold rewards.

On top of the rewards provided by Blast, Thruster has designed its own loyalty program, Thruster Credits. These credits are awarded to LPs, token swappers, active participants in social media campaigns run by Thruster and those referring new users to the platform. Thruster Credits qualify you for the ongoing THRUST token airdrop, designed to distribute 7% of the token's supply to various groups of eligible users.

THRUST is Thruster Finance’s native cryptocurrency. Launched on Oct 9, 2024, it's an 

 asset issued on the Blast chain. When you stake THRUST on Thruster Finance, you’re issued Vote Escrowed Thrust (veTHRUST), an asset that qualifies you for a range of benefits, including a share of revenues from protocol fees, additional bonuses for liquidity provision, rewards from participation in on-chain voting and the 

 on key features and the future direction of the protocol.

THRUST is a supply-capped asset, with a total and maximum supply of 500 million. As noted earlier, 7% (or 35 million) of the token's supply is slated for distribution via an airdrop to several eligible user groups. These include eligible LPs, token traders and recipients of Thruster's reward program points, including Thruster Credits. The airdrop started on the day of THRUST's token generation event (TGE) in early October 2024, and is scheduled to last 90 days, until Jan 9, 2025.

The THRUST token's overall supply allocation shares are per the chart below:

You can buy the THRUST token on Bybit's Spot market as a 

. You can also take advantage of Bybit's 

 campaign to earn a share of the total 2 million THRUST prize pool. To qualify for a 200 THRUST reward, new users need to either deposit at least 500 THRUST, or deposit at least 100 USDT and trade 100 USDT worth of THRUST via their first Spot trade. Meanwhile, existing Bybit account holders can also earn a reward of up to 1,000 THRUST by trading at least 500 USDT worth of THRUST on the Spot market. The campaign runs through Dec 10, 2024, 8:59PM UTC.

Automated market makers (AMMs) have experienced rapid growth ever since the introduction of the concept by Uniswap in 2018. The concentrated liquidity model, again championed by the Uniswap DEX, has added further options and versatility for LPs. However, inflexible fee structures and poor user interfaces have dogged the broader adoption of both liquidity provision and token swaps on AMMs for years. 

Thruster Finance is a timely addition to the AMM DEX landscape, with advantages like a beginner-friendly interface, different fee tiers based on the specifics of each pool, and an array of additional rewards — Blast Gold and Blast Points, as well as app-specific credits.

Thruster offers a comprehensive suite of options for DeFi veterans, as well as for those new to AMM-based liquidity provision or token trade. All that Thruster needs now is wider recognition and adoption by the DeFi user community — never an easy job in a competitive field where the likes of Uniswap, 

thruster finance.png

Thruster (THRUST): An Advanced AMM for the Blast Ecosystem

DeFi

GameFi

web3

Earn-and-play, collect NFTs and stake $ILV. Here, we take a look at the Illuvium game, how it works, and what you can do with its assets. Earn-and-play, collect NFTs and stake $ILV. Here, we take a look at the Illuvium game, how it works, and what you can do with its assets.

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Blockchain games have evolved by leaps and bounds over the last few years, going from games for simple non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles like CryptoKitties to fully fleshed-out play-to-earn games, where players can farm crypto and NFTs that can be traded on the market. 

Illuvium is the latest blockchain gaming sensation to take the crypto world by storm. It’s an open-world sci-fi role-playing game (RPG), monster collector and auto battler built on Ethereum, scheduled to be released on Mac and PC in 2022. 

The game features a play-to-earn structure. Players can earn in-game crypto token rewards by participating in competitions and quests. It uses the blockchain to guarantee the collectibility of in-game items and create a working digital economy. In this guide, we’re going to take a look at what Illuvium is, how it works, and what you can do with its assets.

Illuvium is a role-playing game (RPG) that allows players to create 3D characters for real-time, character-focused gameplay in an open-world setting. Players can traverse the alien world of Illuvium and participate in quests to uncover the mysteries of the planet, hunt and capture native creatures called Illuvials, earn in-game rewards, and stake their assets in a decentralized, zero-fee framework.

In Illuvium, players can interact with items and Illuvials. These in-game assets — including skins, items, emotes and collectibles—exist as 

 that are stored in player wallets. In simplest terms, NFTs are cryptographically unique digital assets that are written using smart contracts, making it easy to trace individual ownership. NFTs which players acquire from playing Illuvium can be traded in-game, or on Illuvium’s decentralized exchange, IlluvDEX, and third-party platforms like OpenSea. 

The Illuvium platform’s native ERC20 token, ILV, is available on crypto exchanges. Players don’t need to hold tokens to play Illuvium. In fact, the game is free to play in 

 regions. The main functions of ILV tokens are governance, liquidity mining and vault distributions. The game is completely decentralized and features a governance structure that revolves around the ecosystem’s native coin. 

Play-to-earn games such as Illuvium are commonly referred to as 

, which is a portmanteau of “Game” and “Finance.” They represent an entirely new class of blockchain games that reward players who complete quests or participate in tournaments with something tangible, albeit digital, for putting in the time and effort to play. 

Illuvium isn’t the first play-to-earn blockchain game to enter the market. In 

, players can collect, trade and battle pets, and create kingdoms for them to live in. 

, scheduled to debut in spring 2022, takes its inspiration from popular multiplayer builder games like Minecraft. 

What sets Illuvium apart from these blockchain gaming titles is its 3D open world with a massive explorable landscape, high production value NFTs and carefully crafted storytelling, which gradually reveals parts of the plot as players progress. It’s specifically designed to appeal to video game aficionados and players who enjoy big-budget AAA-rated game titles. In comparison, Axie Infinity is a quirky 2D game that’s more akin to Pokémon, and My Neighbor Alice is a 2D farm builder that shares a lot of similarities with Animal Crossing. 

If Illuvium manages to make good on its promises and deliver, it could potentially become the first successful AAA-rated game ever built on the blockchain — ushering in a new era of synergy that merges online gaming with cryptocurrencies. 

Naturally, Illuvium has generated a lot of buzz among gamers by offering crypto enthusiasts the first-ever AAA-rated blockchain gaming experience on the Ethereum blockchain. Since there are currently no immersive open-world RPG games with quality 3D special effects in the crypto universe, it’s a significant step up from simple NFT-collectible games like CryptoKitties. 

Within the in-game world, players take on the role of a member of a transport ship from an intergalactic space fleet, investigating a distress beacon from a mysterious ruined planet that’s almost completely covered by a vast crystal ocean. An extreme weather event on the surface of the planet creates a burst of radiation that disables the ship’s engines, causing it to crash-land on the planet’s surface.

Your character is the only survivor of the wreckage. As you explore the land around you, you discover majestic creatures with godlike elemental powers. Fortunately, your race has already mastered similar energies, so you’re able to capture and control these creatures, called Illuvials, and store them in slivers of crystal called “shards.”

To uncover the mysteries of this strange planet, characters take on the role of a hunter and travel across the land to capture Illuvials and unlock obelisks that grant access to new, more challenging regions on the planet. 

More than 100 Illuvials populate the planet, each with unique stats and abilities. Some are easy to find, while others are incredibly rare. These deity-like creatures are divided into a variety of classes (Fighter, Rogue, Guardian, Psion and Empath), and have elemental affinities (water, air, fire, earth and nature) that dictate their abilities. 

The successful capture of an Illuvial results in the minting of a new NFT that’s stored in the player’s wallet. The creatures can synergize and form symbiotic relationships with one another, based on common classes or affinities. Different synergies create different bonuses. Players can fuse multiple captured Illuvials to make them evolve into more powerful forms. This is achieved with a burning mechanism which destroys their source NFTs, and mints a new one that represents a more powerful beast. 

Illuvium is also an auto-battler game. Hunters are encouraged to use their upgraded Illuvials to build the ultimate fighting team and battle other characters’ Illuvials in player-versus-environment (PvE) and player-versus-player (PvP) battle arenas. Players earn rewards and maintain a winning streak to acquire the rank of best hunter on the planet. Training your team through combat will make them level up and grow stronger as they develop their powers. 

Players can also earn in-game rewards in the form of ILV tokens by completing quests or participating in competitions. In-game assets and ILV tokens can be traded on IlluviDEX, the in-game marketplace. 

The game is still in development and some of the details above are subject to change. 

Illuvium released a cinematic gameplay trailer in October 2021. A full trailer release is slated for November 2021. Watch the first gameplay trailer below to get a taste of what the world of Illuvium will look like from a player perspective: 

Illuvium is expected to launch its public beta in Q1 2022. The developers haven’t yet released an exact date, but according to the 

, the first Illuvium title will be released on PC and mobile in 2022. A second title is tentatively scheduled for 2023.

, which is an advanced real-time 3D creation tool.

Battles in the game occur in a simulation coded in C++ that’s hooked up to Unreal Engine to create stunning visual elements and ensure game instances are executed in a matter of milliseconds. The game also features a cinematic mode (showcased in the gameplay trailer) that allows players with less powerful machines to render matches in high quality. 

Every region within the game world features assets created by professional digital artists. The game uses proprietary technology to seamlessly render these assets, achieving a cinematic feel with a fast graphics load time. 

, its back end is hosted on infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Core back end services are built using a serverless model with 

 to enable cost-effective, unlimited scalability.

All of the above sounds like what you’d expect from a standard modern game — which begs the question: Why is Illuvium opting for 

, the primary goal of the project is to create a fully decentralized and autonomous game. DeFi projects have experienced tremendous growth over the past year, and the developers are hoping to leverage this growth to bootstrap a platform that can hit the ground running. 

There are currently no AAA-rated games offering an immersive open-world experience with cinematic quality 3D graphics on the blockchain. Illuvium is poised to capture that market by merging cryptocurrency and gaming in a way that’s alluring for hardcore gamers, crypto enthusiasts and the general public.

NFTs on Illuvium represent verifiably unique entities which exist inside the game. One of the biggest selling points of Illuvium is that its NFT transactions are instant — and require zero gas fees. Illuvium is integrated with

, which gives it Layer 2 scaling capabilities. That means it can support fast transactions, and requires no gas fees. 

Digital media in the crypto space have long struggled with slow transaction speeds and high gas fees, pushing the Ethereum network’s transaction throughput to its limit. Immutable X is a project that’s specifically seeking to increase transaction throughput in blockchain gaming systems. 

 (or zk-rollups) to enable players to securely maintain the self-custody of NFTs while scaling the network to over 9,000 

. Immutable X is considered one of the best solutions for scaling Ethereum, and the technology it uses has even been endorsed by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in his 

Immutable X is essential for making the exploration of the Illuvium world efficient and free of distractions, such as constant gas fees and transactional delays. This scalability gives players the freedom to explore, collect, battle and earn. There’s already a collection of cosmetic and promotional NFTs that have been 

 token that exists on the Ethereum blockchain. Its function as an in-game reward is pretty self-explanatory, and it’s not required for gameplay, so we’ll focus on its other uses in this section. ILV tokens have two core functions: 

All in-game purchases in Illuvium require Ether (ETH), not Illuvium token (ILV). ETH will function as the primary currency for Illuvium for the foreseeable future. 

Illuvium has an additional token called sILV, which stands for Synthetic ILV. As the name implies, it’s a synthetic version of ILV that’s used as in-game currency; however, it can’t be used for player-to-player transactions, such as buying or selling Illuvials. Anyone can earn sILV by staking ILV in the protocol. The value of sILV is pegged to the value of ILV. 

 to increase community engagement and decentralize the DAO. ILV holders have the option to stake and lock up their tokens in a smart contract to access the liquidity mining program. Through yield farming or liquidity mining, a person lends their crypto to a protocol to help keep its funding pools liquid. In exchange, the lenders earn lucrative incentives. 3 million ILV have been set aside for yield farming rewards. 

Illuvium’s liquidity mining program creates a more liquid and transparent market for trading ILV. It has two core staking pools and flash pools, where users can stake their tokens to earn additional earn rewards. Let’s break that down:

Users who stake in the core pools have the option to lock their tokens for a period of up to one year to increase their token weight. The higher your token weight, the higher your ILV token distributions. You essentially compound your rewards if you opt to lock up your tokens for a year. 

The rewards for users who choose to lock up their coins are escrowed for the duration of the lockup period. Staking users who don’t want to wait can choose to instantly claim their rewards in sILV, which again is pegged to the price of ILV and only functions inside the game. 

Even though ILV only hit the market in March 2021, it’s already available on numerous top cryptocurrency exchanges with good trade volume. Illuvium’s price managed to reach an all-time high of $2,868.95 in May 2021, and in November 2021 its 

 reached an astonishing $838 million. There’s a lot of demand for the token in anticipation of the official launch of Illuvium in Q1 2022. 

Illuvium is the most ambitious blockchain game announced to date, and the first to offer an AAA-rated gaming experience on the blockchain. As a fully decentralized protocol, it represents a new age in gaming where players can earn distributions and vote on issues related to the game itself. There’s a lot of hype around the project, and for good reason. It’s definitely worth keeping an eye on this ambitious project. 

Keen to find out more play-to-earn crypto games and more? Here’s our esssential guide to 

Illuvium Game: Collect NFTs, Earn ILV and Stake Tokens

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards