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

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Explainers

Altcoins

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Solidus Ai Tech (AITECH) is an AI-focused computing resource and infrastructure service provider.

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The blockchain industry is in the midst of an unprecedented 

 (AI) boom, mirroring the burgeoning growth of the AI sector. The adoption of technologies based on large language models (LLMs, such as the ubiquitously popular ChatGPT) and other AI algorithms is growing at a rapid pace. At the same time, the computational and infrastructural resources needed to support these AI algorithms are struggling to meet industry demand.

Within the blockchain sector, some platforms are tackling this issue by bringing together consumers and providers of computing capacity through a decentralized marketplace model known as a 

However, classic DePIN platforms specializing in computing capacity trade usually don't have a centralized "resource super-provider" that can step in to meet all the demands of dedicated, large-scale AI computations required in some industry or governmental projects.

Solidus Ai Tech is a provider of computing resources and AI models whose business model is somewhat different from a classic DePIN platform. In addition to pooling computing resources from providers around the world, Solidus Ai Tech has also built a dedicated 8,800-square-foot data center to meet the computational, security and project management demands of the most complex AI projects.

Solidus Ai Tech (AITECH) is an AI-focused computing resource and infrastructure service provider. 

Its services include blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS), AI-as-a-service (AIaaS), high-performance computing (HPC), a decentralized AI models marketplace and a decentralized computing capacity marketplace.

The Solidus Ai Tech platform was originally launched in 2017 as an 

 (ETH) mining company. Over the past few years, the company has refocused its efforts on the AI and HPC niches. In March 2023, Solidus Ai Tech 

 the opening of a new 8,800-square-foot data center in Bucharest, Romania. This dedicated HPC data center is designed to meet AI projects' computational and infrastructural needs in the government and private sectors.

In addition to the HPC data center, which acts as a backbone for the company's BaaS and AIaaS services, Solidus Ai Tech offers decentralized marketplaces for both AI models and computing capacity.

The Solidus Ai Tech ecosystem consists of two key components: 

The company's HPC data center in Romania is designed to serve B2B customers and can meet the demands of the most complex and resource-heavy AI projects. Organizations cooperating with Solidus Ai Tech through its HPC data center can access not only significant computing capacity, but also associated services like security, server management and consulting.

Both governmental and private sector organizations that require the application of AI technologies on a large scale and with the guarantee of high levels of security can benefit from the data center. While focused on high performance, the center notably is designed with sustainability in mind — such as the use of eco-friendly evaporative air-cooling technology that consumes 80% less energy than compressor air conditioning.

The company's decentralized marketplaces for AI models and its computing capacity primarily address the computing and AI needs of smaller businesses and individuals. While the AI marketplace allows AI developers to monetize their models by offering these on the platform, any individual or company wanting to access these modular solutions and algorithms can pay with AITECH tokens, the platform's native cryptocurrency, for flexible access.

The decentralized computing capacity marketplace is envisioned as a typical DePIN solution that brings together resource providers and consumers from around the world. GPU capacity providers earn crypto rewards for their resource contributions, and resource consumers can pay in AITECH tokens to access the available GPU capacity, often for tasks such as AI model training and inferences.

The Solidus AITECH AI Marketplace offers customers a broad selection of models divided into three main categories:

The marketplace offers an intuitive and powerful search engine to help users find AI models and solutions that meet their specific needs.

For developers, the AI Marketplace not only offers monetization opportunities, but also such benefits as tokenized intellectual property (IP) protection, the reduced cost and environmental impact of running their models, and Solidus Ai Tech’s military-grade security mechanism.

The GPU Marketplace uses resource capacity provided by a network of providers worldwide, and enjoys enhanced support from the company's HPC data center. Businesses of all sizes and individuals can use the GPU Marketplace to flexibly source GPU capacity on a per-use basis.

Its single-click deployment function allows capacity users to easily access the Marketplace’s services. Additionally, users benefit from a centralized control panel that provides a comprehensive overview, including usage analytics and performance metrics.

Solidus Ai Tech also operates a Launchpad with benefits that include access to exclusive 

 (IDOs) and more. In order to qualify for Launchpad services, users need to stake AITECH tokens in tier-based pools on the platform. There are six tiers in total, with the higher tiers offering more 

 reward points — which also translates to more exclusive benefits on the Launchpad.

What Is the Solidus Ai Tech Token (AITECH)?

 cryptotoken, is based on BNB Chain (BNB). It’s also available via 

 (SOL). One essential function of the token is to act as the platform's main payment and reward asset. AI model and GPU capacity providers are rewarded in AITECH for their contributions, while consumers of these services use the token to access them.

Staking is another function of AITECH. As noted in the previous section, users can stake their AITECH tokens in tier-based pools on the Launchpad to access a variety of benefits. AITECH is also envisioned as a governance token: stakers receive the right to vote on important changes to the platform via its 

, whereby a certain proportion of AITECH used for service payments will be burned at an increasing rate to moderate the overall supply.

 token, with a maximum supply specified at 2 billion. The token's current total supply is 1,992,002,130. In the future, AITECH’s burn mechanism may result in a further reduction in total supply. Both the burn function and the maximum supply limitation are designed to act as deflationary forces for AITECH.

, which allows you to trade a large variety of cryptocurrencies in a decentralized format directly on-chain. You can trade both versions of AITECH (

As of Jul 30, 2024, the AITECH token is trading at $0.1048, which is 78.8% lower than its ATH of $0.4939 on Mar 13, 2024, and 743.5% higher than its ATL of $0.01244 on Sep 28, 2023.

Long-term price forecasts for AITECH are generally bullish. PricePrediction 

 to trade at $0.2143 in 2025 and $1.48 in 2030, while DigitalCoinPrice 

The demand for computing resources and infrastructure to support AI services and computations will only increase over the coming years. Solidus Ai Tech is among the platforms that stand to benefit from this growth, with its powerful and eco-friendly HPC data center and decentralized marketplaces for AI models and GPU power.

Some might argue that the company's vast data center points to a significant level of centralization in the platform's architecture. While that's undeniable, Solidus Ai Tech’s key advantage is its ability to handle the most sophisticated and resource-intensive AI projects, offering computing resources, military-grade security, server management and project management as part of a comprehensive package. 

Although not all decentralization purists may approve, there's a clear need in the blockchain industry for "super-providers" such as Solidus Ai Tech. As corporate and government 

 become more complex, the demand for such providers will only increase.

Solidus Ai Tech (AITECH): Empowering AI Innovation With Superior Computing Power

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards