Coindesk

Just when you thought the year-end couldn't get any more intriguing, a significant options expiry is set to shake things up in this highly levered-up market.Options are derivative contracts that give the purchaser the right to buy or sell the underlying asset at a preset price at a later date. A call gives the right to buy, and a put confers the right to sell.On Friday at 8:00 UTC, 146,000 bitcoin options contracts, valued at nearly $14 billion and sized at one BTC each, will expire on the crypto exchange Deribit. The notional amount represents 44% of the total open interest for all BTC options across different maturities, marking the largest expiry event ever on Deribit. ETH options worth $3.84...

Traders expect bitcoin (BTC) choppiness to continue with a possible rotation to altcoins, as a major options expiry weighs on market dynamics in the festive week ahead.“All eyes are on the massive expiry this Friday, where almost $20B notional across BTC and ETH options will expire,” Singapore-based QCP Capital said in a broadcast message early Tuesday. “This represents almost half the total OI on Deribit. We believe it's quite possible especially if spot continues to range here and as option sellers continue to roll their shorts out.”"Rolling" means that instead of letting their options expire, traders shift their positions to later expiration dates. This is often done to keep the trade active if they still believe in their market forecast....

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's weekly wrap-up of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development.In this week’s issue of the Protocol newsletter:Trump’s crypto teamAptos' leadership shake-upTikTok meets tokensKraken scales upThis article is featured in the latest issue of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.Network NewsTRUMP CRYPTO APPOINTMENTS: President-elect Donald Trump continues to make high-profile appointments embracing cryptocurrency and emerging technologies in his second term. 1) Stephen Miran, tapped as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, is a pro-crypto advocate who aims to integrate blockchain and decentralized finance into the U.S. economy. 2) Bo Hines, a former college...

Web3 is drowning in metrics, most of which paint an unclear picture. Transaction volumes, token prices and flashy headlines often mask what really matters: the quality of user engagement and the potential for organic, exponential growth. As the industry moves beyond the hype, reliable, data-driven signals of success are no longer optional — they’re essential.Here’s the good news: the tools to cut through the noise already exist. By combining multiple on-chain metrics into a single “health index” score indicating the depth and quality of overall user engagement, we can identify which chains are truly thriving and poised for long-term growth. With 2024 coming to a close, let’s dig into what these signals reveal about today’s leading chains, and what we...

Solana-based gaming-focused layer-2 blockchain Sonic will airdrop its SONIC token to all its users onboarded through social-media platform TikTok.Sonic built its SonicX game natively inside TikTok, attempting to replicate the success of mini apps that were built on theTON blockchain inside messaging platform Telegram.The game has over 2 million users onboarded using TikTok, which Sonic attributed to the app's seamless experience and reach in an emailed announcement that didn't give further details of the token release.Blockchain-based games have often suffered from a clunky experience which has made user retention difficult. By working through Web2 apps such as Telegram or Tiktok, developers can make use of existing procedures for onboarding and building an easy user experience. TikTok has 1 billion monthly...