Dec 9, 2024: 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.

 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 — U.S. Payroll Rebounds While Unemployment Increases 

In November, U.S. hiring showed a notable increase, with nonfarm payrolls rising by 227,000, following a revised gain of 36,000 in October, which was affected by storms and strikes. Despite the growth in payrolls, the unemployment rate rose to 4.2%, indicating a cooling labor market rather than a significant decline. Average payroll growth over the past three months was 173,000, a decrease from earlier in the year, suggesting a moderation in hiring.

The uptick in the unemployment rate can be attributed to an increase in long-term joblessness, which is the highest it’s been in nearly three years. This has led traders to speculate that the Federal Reserve may consider another interest rate cut at its upcoming meeting from Dec 17–18, 2024. The data, adjusted for disruptions like the Boeing strike and hurricanes, supports the Fed's assessment that although the labor market remains solid, it’s less of a driver for inflation.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has indicated that recent rate cuts aim to bolster the labor market, although some policymakers suggest a pause on further cuts may be needed, as the economy is showing resilience. The report highlights a mixed job landscape, as hiring has been strong in healthcare, hospitality and government, while retail has seen significant job losses.

The labor force participation rate fell to 62.5%, the lowest since May, and the number of people unemployed for over 27 weeks increased, reflecting longer job search times. Overall, while layoffs remain low, some major companies have announced head count reductions. Wage growth has stabilized, suggesting that demand for new hires is moderating.

Weekly Crypto Highlight — Retail Is Coming Back With Altcoins Surging, as Bitcoin Breaks $100K With Whales’ Accumulation

Token Sentiment Across Social Media. Sources: Bybit, Santiment

The cryptocurrency market is witnessing remarkable growth, particularly in major assets such as XRP, Cardano (ADA) and Stellar (XLM). XRP has surged by an impressive 444%, while ADA and XLM have seen increases of 280% and 512%, respectively. This surge is largely attributed to aggressive accumulation by whale investors and cautiously optimistic sentiment within the crypto community.

 activity plays a crucial role in shaping current market dynamics. Since mid-October 2024, whale wallets have accumulated a total of 91,856 BTC, significantly contributing to Bitcoin’s price increase. In contrast, there’s been a decline in 

 holdings among these wallets, indicating a strategic shift toward investing in more volatile cryptocurrencies rather than maintaining stable asset positions.

In addition to whale accumulation, the cryptocurrency landscape is evolving with several trends emerging. Interest in 

 is waning as investors pivot toward more sustainable projects with long-term potential. This shift reflects a growing desire for robust investments instead of speculative plays.

The integration of AI into blockchain ecosystems is another transformative trend. 

 are enhancing transaction processing efficiencies and supporting the development of virtual economies, creating new opportunities for innovation.

Moreover, hyperliquid token generation events (TGEs) are gaining traction. These innovative mechanisms improve liquidity and enhance the trading experience, addressing challenges that have historically plagued new tokens.

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Weekly Institutional Insights: Bitcoin Reaches $100K, Altcoins Surge, U.S. Payroll Increases

Bybit WSOT 2024 broke records with $100B in trading volume, over 77,000 traders and innovative events such as the DEX Wave. This recap dives into highlights, top performers and key stats.

The Bybit World Series of Trading (WSOT) is a premier global trading competition that continues to set new benchmarks in the crypto industry. WSOT 2024 saw record-breaking participation, with over 77,000 traders from 161 countries generating $100 billion in trading volume. 

This year’s event introduced features like the WSOT DEX Wave, tiered competition leagues and ROI reset options, making the competition more accessible and fair.

This article provides a detailed overview of WSOT 2024, including its highlights, innovative features and exceptional performances by individuals and squads. It also examines Bybit’s efforts to integrate traditional finance (TradFi) and 

 (DeFi) to push the boundaries of crypto trading.

 has become one of the world’s most prominent cryptocurrency trading competitions. Designed to celebrate trading excellence and foster a sense of community, WSOT attracts participants from across the globe who compete for prestige and significant rewards.

The 2024 edition of WSOT raised the stakes with a prize pool of up to 10,000,000 USDT, distributed across three competitive leagues tailored to traders’ capital size:

WSOT 2024 emphasized inclusivity with its structured tiers, enabling traders of all levels to participate. Coupled with advanced features such as ROI resets and strategic use of 

 (UTA), this year’s competition underscored Bybit’s commitment to innovation and fostering global engagement in crypto trading.

The Bybit WSOT has grown into the world’s largest crypto trading competition, showcasing exceptional trading talent and innovation since its 2020 inception. Each following year, WSOT has raised the bar with increasing participation, prize pools and charitable contributions.

Key highlights from past WSOT events include:

With each successive edition, WSOT has further cemented its place as a premier trading competition, combining inclusivity, high stakes and global community engagement.

WSOT 2024: Key Highlights and Records Broken

WSOT 2024 set new standards for crypto trading competitions, attracting worldwide participation and breaking multiple records. This year’s event highlighted the scale, inclusivity and competitive spirit of the global trading community.

WSOT 2024 redefined crypto trading competitions, merging innovation with inclusivity. The event’s record-breaking achievements, robust community engagement and impressive prize pools underscore Bybit’s commitment to elevating the trading experience.

With features like DEX integration and tiered competitions, WSOT continues to push boundaries, setting a benchmark for global crypto events.

WSOT DEX Wave: Expanding Into Decentralized Trading

Introduced at WSOT 2024, WSOT DEX Wave brought DeFi and web3 trading into the spotlight. This new segment allows participants to explore and engage with a variety of web3 projects, competing for the 1,000,000 MNT prize pool while navigating the growing 

Participants evaluated over 100 web3 projects, casting votes and contributing 120,000 voting points. The competition featured a fair weighting system, ensuring all projects received a balanced opportunity for recognition.

By engaging with real-use cases, traders not only demonstrated their skills but also gained deeper insights into emerging decentralized technologies.

DEX Wave introduced a new dynamic to WSOT, encouraging traders to bridge the gap between traditional trading and the decentralized market. By focusing on web3 projects, the event underlined the expanding role of decentralized platforms in the evolving crypto landscape.

With record-breaking participation and $100 billion in trading volume, Bybit WSOT 2024 set a new benchmark for crypto trading competitions. The event showcased Bybit’s commitment to innovation, fair competition and a seamless trading experience, solidifying its position as a leader in advancing the global cryptocurrency trading ecosystem.

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Bybit WSOT 2024 Recap: Record-Breaking Year

Phantom Wallet, with 7M monthly users, has integrated the Sui blockchain, marking its first support for a Move-based network and a significant step for Sui’s ecosystem. 

Daily Top Performer — Morpho Protocol (MORPHO)

The S&P 500 fell 0.19% as investors awaited the November jobs report, which may influence the Fed's anticipated rate cut. Coindesk Indices, an index measuring broader cryptocurrency market performance was up by 8.2%, with Bitcoin and Ether rising by 0.17% and 0.40%, respectively in the past 24 hours.

Today's top performer is MORPHO, which surged 54.0% following the launch of DeFi Saver's Automated Leverage Management for Morpho on Base.

Morpho Protocol (MORPHO), founded in 2021, is a decentralized Ethereum-based lending protocol that enhances crypto lending through a P2P order matching system. It allows customizable lending markets and features Morpho Vaults for various risk levels. Initially launched in 2022 with Morpho Optimizers for Aave and Compound, it later introduced Morpho Blue in 2024 for flexible lending markets. Morpho Labs continues to focus on developing Morpho while still supporting the original Morpho Optimizers. 

, enabling Automated Leverage Management. This includes Auto-Repays for unwinding and Auto-Boosts for leveraging up based on set threshold ratios. Users can configure their positions easily. The feature is available for several Morpho markets, such as cbETH/USDC, wstETH/USDC, and more, with additional markets to be added in the future.

Check Out the Latest Prices, Charts, and Data of 

Phantom Wallet, with 7M monthly users, has 

 the Sui blockchain, marking its first support for a Move-based network and a significant step for Sui’s ecosystem. This expands Phantom's multichain support beyond Solana, Bitcoin, and Ethereum, offering Sui users features like staking, swaps, and NFT storage across mobile and browser platforms.

Yesterday, BTC Spot ETF flows recorded a $148.8M outflow from GBTC, partially offset by a $145.0M inflow to non-GBTC funds, resulting in a net outflow of $3.8M.

" hints at a potential $FUEL airdrop happening earlier than expected, despite the Fuel points program running until January 2025. Speculation surrounds whether this refers to the airdrop or another development.

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Phantom Wallet Expands Multichain Support with Sui Integration

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.

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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

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GameFi

Explainers

Altcoins

GUNZ’s Off The Grid game allows players to play with or without NFTs, combining cyberpunk gameplay with optional blockchain ownership for a flexible Web3 experience.

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 space is filled with diverse games that apply different mechanics and gameplay through blockchain technology. With most of these games, you get to play, earn and keep your assets.

But what if you just wanted to play for fun and not earn assets? This is the approach taken by the popular gaming platform GUNZ, whereby players can opt out of the 

 (NFT) aspect of gaming. In short, you can choose simply to stick with the non-crypto aspect of the 

 (OTG) game — or opt to engage in the NFT aspect of gaming.

Let’s look deeper into the GUNZ platform and the way its unique optional NFT ownership can be a catalyst for the next wave in blockchain gaming.

 is a blockchain-based gaming platform that provides a user-friendly ecosystem for developers to create games, and for players to engage in various games without gameplay limitations while trading gaming assets. 

Powered by Gunzilla Games, GUNZ is designed by gaming developers to allow a simple, flexible and rewarding gaming experience.

 blockchain subnet. By running on Avalanche, the GUNZ gaming ecosystem remains eco-friendly through lower energy consumption, using 0.0005% of the energy other networks use. This savings is further enhanced by using

 (PoS) consensus mechanism, rather than the 

 (PoW) consensus that’s heavy on computational power.

GUNZ is designed with developers in mind. They can conveniently launch games via the GUNZ platform, which provides them with innovative industry tools to integrate and deploy games. Gaming developers can use GUNZ’s minting engine API to create tokens and NFTs, and can trade or create their own NFT marketplace, offer users a mobile app or integrate a wallet without incurring transaction costs.

. Players can loot items on a fault drone and collect rare NFT items, which earns them bragging rights in the larger GUNZ gaming community. 

Additional features of the GUNZ platform include an NFT marketplace, a custom-made blockchain scanner and a companion mobile app to access assets safely and securely.

The in-game currency of GUNZ is GUN, which is used to trade items on the marketplace and reward players for completing different challenges.

 (OTG) is a battle royale 2.0 free-to-play AAA game developed by Gunzilla in which players immerse themselves in cyberpunk battles. The unique thing about OTG is its optional NFT element: players can either opt out of receiving NFTs in the game, or choose to convert their assets into NFTs if they wish. The game is available for play as an early access launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series 

Vlad Korolev, CEO of Gunzilla Games and co-founder of the project, expressed enthusiasm about the potential of the 

 game, which he believes expands the horizons for AAA games by providing an innovative approach to 

 has been under development for over four years, building on the foundation of battle royale and pushing the boundaries by integrating new technology with more advanced mechanics.

 runs on Avalanche’s subnet, GUNZ blockchain, which allows the game to deliver high performance and scalability.

 achieved significant milestones. On October 13, 

 recorded over 3 million transactions on the Avalanche blockchain and was 

 on Epic Games' store, surpassing popular titles such as 

The game has also gained growing visibility through its viewership on streaming platform Twitch. A partnership with Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins — who has skin in the game — has further 

 was also recognized as one of Twitch's top three most viewed games, with 156,000 concurrent viewers worldwide.

 is an innovative third-person shooter that redefines the battle royale genre by integrating deep narrative elements and dynamic gameplay mechanics. Directed by visionary filmmaker Neill Blomkamp, known for science fiction films like 

 offers players a unique blend of player-versus-player (PvP) and player-versus-environment (PvE) experiences within a dystopian cyberpunk setting.

Set on Teardrop Island, a once-thriving locale now transformed into a battleground by the machinations of three mega corporations, 

 immerses players in a world where corporate greed and technological advancements collide.

The game's narrative unfolds through a 60-hour campaign, allowing players to engage in story-driven missions that run concurrently with traditional battle royale matches. This seamless integration ensures that every match contributes to the overarching storyline, providing depth and context to the high-stakes combat.

 introduces the "Extraction Royale" mode, a fresh take on the battle royale formula, in which a maximum of 60 players split into teams of three to engage in intense PvP skirmishes while simultaneously undertaking PvE objectives. The primary goal is not only to be the last team standing, but also to extract valuable resources, known as Hexes. These are scattered across the map, and are guarded by AI-controlled adversaries, adding layers of strategy and risk to each match.

 is the extensive customization available to players. Characters referred to as Zeroes can be enhanced with cybernetic limbs (“cyberlimbs”), which provide unique abilities and advantages on the battlefield. These enhancements can be acquired during matches, either by looting or by defeating opponents and claiming their cyberlimbs. This real-time customization allows players to adapt their strategies dynamically, tailoring their abilities to the evolving challenges of each encounter.

The weapons system in OTG is equally robust, featuring over 300 combinations achieved through various attachments and modifications. Players can customize their arsenal to suit their preferred playstyle, whether it involves long-range engagements, close-quarters combat or tactical versatility. The ability to modify weapons and cyberlimbs mid-match adds a layer of depth, encouraging players to think strategically and adapt to the ever-changing battlefield conditions.

Teardrop Island's diverse terrain offers numerous traversal options, enhancing both combat and exploration. Players can utilize vehicles, such as trucks and cars, for rapid movement across the map. Additionally, advanced equipment like grappling hooks and jetpacks enables vertical mobility, allowing for surprise attacks and quick escapes. These tools not only facilitate strategic positioning but also add a dynamic element to engagements, as players can approach objectives and confrontations from multiple angles.

 delivers stunning visuals that bring its cyberpunk world to life. The game's environments are richly detailed, featuring neon-lit cityscapes, industrial zones and desolate areas that reflect the island's tumultuous history. Character models and animations are meticulously crafted to keep players invested in the characters they play. The use of advanced lighting and particle effects creates a visually stunning experience, enhancing players' overall immersion.

GUNZ offers players a platform on which to truly own the assets they earn in the game via NFTs. Benefits of owning GUNZ NFTs include the following.

On traditional gaming platforms, players' in-game items are typically controlled by the games’ developers, limiting players' rights over these assets. GUNZ changes this dynamic by allowing players to fully own their in-game items as NFTs, granting players complete control and the ability to trade or sell these assets as they see fit.

2. Seamless Trading on Established Marketplaces

Through integration with major NFT marketplaces such as 

, GUNZ allows players to trade their in-game NFTs with a broader audience. This integration provides a transparent and secure platform for transactions, enhancing the liquidity and value of players' assets.

By incorporating NFTs, GUNZ offers a more immersive and personalized gaming experience. Players can acquire unique items, customize their characters and participate in a dynamic in-game economy, contributing to a richer and more engaging gameplay environment.

The ability to trade NFTs means that players can potentially earn real-world value from their in-game activities. By selling rare or valuable items, players can monetize their gaming skills and time investment, adding a financial incentive to their gaming experience.

The GUNZ platform is designed to support multiple games, thus allowing NFTs to be utilized across different titles. This interoperability means that players' assets can retain value and utility beyond a single game, providing a cohesive and expansive gaming ecosystem.

GUN is the official token for the GUNZ ecosystem. You can use it to buy and trade in-game items on GUNZ’s marketplace. GUN token is also used to reward players for completing various in-game challenges on the platform. Here are some of the challenges you can complete to earn GUN tokens:

GUNZ provides an innovative approach to gaming. The optional NFT element for players is unique, creating flexibility for those who don't want to explore the blockchain aspect. The platform’s 

 game has already recorded remarkable success, gaining popularity among Web 2.0 and web3 gamers.

With the capability for gaming developers to easily create and integrate games, GUNZ is strategically placed to influence blockchain gaming. Its in-game currency, GUN, is a token to watch as this AAA game continues to make its mark on the web3 gaming industry and beyond.

GUNZ (GUN): Optional NFT Ownership in Off The Grid’s Cyberpunk World

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards