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

DeFi

GameFi

Mines of Dalarnia (DAR) is the latest addition to the play-to-earn crypto game pile. In this guide, find out more about in-game NFTs, mechanics, tokens and more. Mines of Dalarnia (DAR) is the latest addition to the play-to-earn crypto game pile. In this guide, find out more about in-game NFTs, mechanics, tokens and more.

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2021 has seen the release of an incredible variety of crypto games using a “play-to-earn” model which rewards players for their time and effort. These games, which are commonly termed 

, have experienced an explosion in popularity recently because of their attractive business model. The recently released Mines of Dalarnia is the latest addition to the play-to-earn crypto game pile.

In this guide, we’ll explain what exactly Mines of Dalarnia is, how the game works, DAR tokens, and the game’s full release date. 

What Is the Mines of Dalarnia Game About?

Mines of Dalarnia is a free-to-play 2D action adventure game that runs on the Chromia blockchain. Gameplay involves guiding a character through procedurally generated levels to collect rare relics and artifacts you can use to upgrade your gear and uncover the secrets of Dalarnia. By blending dungeon crawling, exploration, crafting and combat, Mines of Dalarnia delivers a fresh take on the 2D sandbox genre — but on the blockchain. 

As the name implies, mining is a huge component of the gameplay experience. Players mine for resources in different terrains, uncover secrets, and collect materials for upgrading their mining equipment and character attributes. 

, features a variety of regions for players to explore that are sorted into four core types: Ice, Darkness, Lava, and Terra. In addition to mining for minerals and resources, players also have to fight monsters to obtain rare and valuable items and advance through the game. 

Mines of Dalarnia is the first 2D game with procedurally generated levels to be developed on the blockchain. Like many 

 projects, a big part of the appeal is its play-to-earn model, which allows players to obtain a share of the dividends collected from game development. Other crypto games that use a similar play-to-earn structure that have been released or are under development include 

tentatively scheduled for release in 2021, uses a similar template, with players actually earning tokens by getting physically active with the assistance of a novel “move-to-earn” platform.

 has the crypto gaming community optimistic for the game’s future. It reportedly has over 100,000 users interacting with the testnet, and so far, over 4 million transactions have been confirmed on the chain. Mines of Dalarnia is proving to be a fun game for both casual users and hardcore gamers. 

Mines of Dalarnia is a browser-based game, which means anyone can access the game right from their browser, with no download necessary. 

The world of Dalarnia has a wide range of minerals and resources hidden underground, waiting to be discovered by brave miners. The types of resources hidden under a particular region differ, depending on the type of terrain.

All mines contain enemies that players have to fight. The enemies grow stronger as you progress in the game and go deeper into the world of Dalarnia. Enemy types vary, depending on the region, so players must learn to adapt to enemies with specific attacks and properties.

In addition to mining, players have the option to become landowners by buying parcels of blockchain real estate. The developers plan to hold regular land sales for parcels in different terrains. Players who become landowners are responsible for growing the economy and can earn a variety of rewards, including rental fees from miners, mineral airdrops, token giveaways, and more. 

Mines of Dalarnia has its own native token, DAR, which is the default currency of the world of Dalarnia. The token was launched in November 2021 as part of the Binance Smart Chain, and is available on various cryptocurrency exchanges.

The total supply of DAR is capped at 800,000,000 DAR. As of December 2021, 123.2 million DAR (15.4% of maximum token supply) was already in circulation. Another 24 million DAR (3% of the maximum supply) has been set aside for Launchpool rewards. 

As the native token of the Mines of Dalarnia, DAR has the following functions.

In-Game Currency and Play-to-Earn Rewards

DAR is the default in-game currency. It can be used to buy assets on the in-game marketplace and to pay for transaction fees.

Resources in the game range from basic to exotic, depending on the region from which they’re acquired. Basic minerals can be used to perform simple equipment upgrades. More exotic resources and rare relics and artifacts can be used to perform advanced equipment and plot upgrades. 

To play the game, players must first purchase the starter pack, which includes oxygen supplies and a basic pickaxe. Different terrains require various types of equipment to keep players alive, so players must use resources to upgrade their equipment and develop mining strategies if they want to advance in the game. New items can also be crafted using minerals collected through the mining process. 

Since Mines of Dalarnia is a play-to-earn game, players can also win tokens in multiple ways: completing in-game quests, inviting friends to play, or winning competitions to acquire DAR tokens. Additionally, landowners can earn a fee by renting their properties out to miners to explore.

All items, relics and artifacts found in the game are represented by 

 (NFTs) and can be traded on open markets. Players have the option to trade or sell items they don’t need on the in-game marketplace. Those who don’t have the patience to find specific resources can use the marketplace to buy or rent items they require to progress in the game. 

Examples of Mining Ape NFTs minted by Mines of Dalarnia. Image source:

In October 2021, the developers of Mines of Dalarnia issued a collection of 10,000 ape buddies as part of the so-called Mining Apes Collection to drum up hype for the game and capitalize on the growing popularity of 

Each mining ape is unique: they have different skin tones, accessories, clothing, hats, tools, and more. The apes are represented by NFTs which were minted on Ethereum at 0.06 ETH per token. The ape NFTs are tradable on 

 and any other ERC721-compatible NFT marketplaces. 

Players who purchase Mining Apes gain the following privileges: 

Mines of Dalarnia is a decentralized game, which basically means that it’s collectively owned by DAR token holders, who have the power to vote for things like miner policies, land economy and other aspects of the game.

DAR tokens can be staked in order to generate returns and speed up the game’s progression. There’s a unique tool set available at every level which players can obtain by either earning experience points organically or by staking DAR tokens. 

Dalarnia landowners can also stake DAR in the regions that host their land parcels. Staking in this way reduces the diminishing rate of resources for all land in that region, proportionate to the amount of DAR in the staking pool. 

Mines of Dalarnia had an alpha release in Q3 2021, which was open to all on the 

 and planetary storyline won’t be released until Q1 2022. Once the mainnet is released, the developers plan to hold a player tournament and add additional gameplay to the planetary storyline. They also plan to add social features like in-game chat. A mobile release for Mines of Dalarnia is scheduled for Q3 2022. 

 in November 2021. The program is meant to expand and enrich the Dalarnia gaming universe. Grants will be available for developers who build mods and utilities for the game, and also developers who want to build standalone games that can interact with Mines of Dalarnia. 

Mines of Dalarnia is built on top of the Chromia network, and any other supported game built on the network can share assets across different game universes. As the number of gaming titles in the ecosystem grows, developers can form complex synergies between several games. The developmental team behind Mines of Dalarnia hopes the grant program will accelerate this growth and create a gaming metaverse that is immersive, robust and resilient. 

As a play-to-earn action adventure game, Mines of Dalarnia has gained traction as it continues to expand in the blockchain GameFi space. The game’s developers envision the game as a “first stop” for metaverse gaming by providing new users with a casual but streamlined gameplay experience. To learn more about GameFi projects like Mines of Dalarnia, check out our 

Mines of Dalarnia (DAR): A Play-to-Earn Action Adventure Game

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards