Major derivatives marketplace Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group will launch options trading for its micro Bitcoin and Ether futures products. In a Tuesday announcement, the CME Group said that, subject to regulatory review, it plans to launch options contracts for its existing micro Bitcoin (BTC) futures and micro Ether (ETH) futures that will be 10% the size of the respective tokens. The futures options, expected to start trading on March 28, will come more than two years after the firm launched a BTC options trading product in January 2020 and more than four years since the group launched the first Bitcoin …

Bitcoin (BTC) price traded down 23% in the 8 days following its failure to break the $45,000 resistance on Feb. 16. The $34,300 bottom on Feb. 24 happened right after the Russian-Ukraine conflict escalated, triggering a sharp sell-off in risk assets. While Bitcoin reached its lowest level in 30 days, Asian stocks were also adjusting to the worsening conditions, a fact evidenced by Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropping 3.5% and the Nikkei also reached a 15-month low. The first question one needs to answer is whether cryptocurrencies are overreacting compared to other risk assets. Sure enough, Bitcoin's volatility is …

An uptick in Bitcoin (BTC) supply to whales' addresses witnessed across January appears to be stalling midway as the price continues its intraday correction toward $42,000, the latest data from CoinMetrics shows. Whales, fishes take a break from Bitcoin The sum of Bitcoin being held in addresses whose balance was at least 1,000 BTC came to be 8.10 million BTC as of Feb. 16, almost 0.12% higher month-to-date. In comparison, the balance was 7.91 million BTC at the beginning of this year, up 2.4% year-to-date. Notably, the accumulation behavior among Bitcoin's richest wallets started slowing down after BTC closed above …

On-chain data analysis from Glassnode shows that Bitcoin investors are hedging out risks in order to stay protected against Federal Reserve interest rate hikes in March. Glassnode’s The Week On-Chain newsletter from Feb. 14 indicates that the most significant trend in Bitcoin (BTC) right now is the flat futures term structure through March. This is strongly attributed to “investor uncertainty regarding the wider economic impact of a tighter US dollar.” The rate hike is already priced in to spot markets, according to Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe, but the longer term effect it will have is still unclear. As …

Trading perpetual futures contracts in decentralized apps is a crypto sub-sector ripe for growth, especially as discussions of regulation, taxation and mandatory KYC at centralized exchanges continue to take place. One DEX platform that has begun to gain traction is Injective (INJ), an interoperable layer-one protocol designed to facilitate the creation of cross-chain Web3 decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $3.91 on Feb. 3, the price of INJ has rallied 157.8% to a daily high of $10.08 on Feb. 11 amidst a 1,756% spike in its 24-hour trading …

In response to institutional investors' concerns about the risks of trading in a new asset class, TMX Group, Canada's major stock market operator, has revealed plans to launch its first-ever crypto futures product. While speaking to Reuters, TMX Group's John McKenzie said that the firm plans to release the product on the Montreal Exchange later this year. According to Mackenzie, "more institutional investors and dealers are [...] holding more crypto assets within their portfolios or for their clients or in ETFs," adding they are working on how to mitigate risk due to crypto's huge volatility. Cointelegraph reached out to TMX …

The Nasdaq-listed digital assets financial services company Eqonex has launched a new type of Bitcoin (BTC) investment product, a BTC dated futures contract with a physical settlement. Announcing the news on Wednesday, Eqonex explained that its BTC dated futures are denominated in the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin and increase in parallel with the BTC price increase against USDC. In contrast to perpetual futures, which have no maturity limit, dated futures expire at a pre-set date and time frame like each month or each quarter, Eqonex noted. “Any position in a perpetual future stays open until the trader decides to close …

Hope for the possibility of another significant rally in the cryptocurrency market has returned, even though Bitcoin (BTC) rejected at $45,500. Currently, bulls are looking to shore up their defense at the $43,000 support level. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after making a run to a weekly high at $45,500 early on Tuesday, bears managed to drop the price of BTC to $42,900 during afternoon trading as investors realized profits and prepare to place bids around $38,000. Here’s a look at what analysts are saying sparked the rally in BTC price over the past week and …

Founded in 2019 in Singapore, Phemex has been operating as a crypto derivatives exchange. The platform rose to the “top 10 global exchanges in less than two years, with a daily peak trading volume of more than $12 billion.” Cointelegraph talked to Jack Tao, founder and CEO of Phemex, about the difficulties and risks of running a crypto exchange and where he plans to take Phemex next. Tell us about the story behind the exchange and what it was like to launch a trading platform during the crypto winter? The story behind Phemex is one that seeks to provide solutions …

The Bitcoin (BTC) daily price chart seems to be making a steady recovery pattern, but some concerning indicators are coming from derivatives markets. At the moment, the futures and options markets are showing a lack of confidence from Bitcoin pro traders, but there's a positive spin to the data. The road to $40,000 seems uncomfortably predictable, and cryptocurrency traders usually call it "manipulation" when such price movements happen. If you #bitcoin around that region, just be careful. A picture speaks a thousands words and I think mine says it all. Make it or break it time around the corner for …

After a stellar launch, interest has waned in the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy Exchange Traded Fund (BITO) which now has the lowest amount of CME contracts since Nov. 2021. The Bitcoin futures exchange traded fund (ETF) holds a total of 4,904 Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) futures contracts, according to the fund's latest update from Jan. 11. A Bitcoin futures ETF allows investors to speculate on the future price of Bitcoin (BTC) without having to hold the asset themselves. BITO’s assets under management (AUM) figure has retraced to $1.16 billion from a high of $1.4 billion last Nov. This is about the …

Bitcoin (BTC) broke through $42,000 on Jan. 11 as expectations of a fresh "short squeeze" mounted. Short-term squeeze "reasonably likely" Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it recovered from Monday's dip to $39,600 — its first breach of the $40,000 mark since September. While short-term bullish prognoses were conspicuously absent on the day, attention focused on the potential for derivatives markets to spark another "short squeeze." With open interest near all-time highs despite the downturn and sentiment clearly favoring further downside, a surprise uptick could have the impact of "squeezing" short positions and providing some relief …