Luuk Strijers News

Deribit, the world’s largest crypto options exchange, said Tuesday that its Dubai-based subsidiary was granted a conditional virtual asset service provider license by the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA).

Bitcoin rose on Monday, briefly surpassing $42,000 to reach a 20-month high, in a new surge of momentum fueled by the possibility of U.S. interest rate cuts and traders betting that the U.S. will soon approve exchange-traded spot bitcoin funds. The world's biggest cryptocurrency rose as high as $42,162 on Monday, its highest since April 2022, seemingly casting off the funk that had settled over crypto markets following the collapse of FTX and other crypto-business failures last year. It was up 6.49% at $41,311.26 as of 1605 GMT. Bitcoin's gains lifted the shares of cryptocurrency-related companies, as well as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed in the United States. Coinbase jumped 6.5% and Microstrategy gained nearly 6%, while bitcoin miners such as Riot Platforms, Marathon Digital and CleanSpark rose between 8% and 11%. Last week, Microstrategy disclosed it bought an additional $593 million in bitcoin during November.

bitcoin investors. Watch. Wait. Don't make the first move. The capricious cryptocurrency's been uncommonly quiet over the past four weeks, bound in the range of $28,452 and $25,800. Even the end of the U.S. debt ceiling saga did little to whet risk appetite. Bitcoin's volatility index is near 64, well below the 2023 peak of 116.5 touched in January, according to CryptoCompare. Overall daily cryptocurrency spot trading volumes — above $20 billion for most of the year — have languished at around $10.6-$12 billion in the last two weeks, data from The Block shows. The data signals a reluctance of investors and traders to take positions in either spot or derivatives, said Noelle Acheson, an economist who has tracked the crypto sector for seven years.

bitcoin flies high, investors are keeping their options open, judging by a record race to derivatives. Open interest for bitcoin options and futures has spiked over the past month as fear has stalked global banking, hitting an all-time high of 433,540 contracts on March 23 on Deribit, a leading exchange for crypto-focused derivatives products. In the 12 months preceding March, by contrast, open interest ranged between 150,000 and 300,000, referring to the number of contracts yet to be settled between buyers and sellers, which provides a measure of investor participation in a market. Most options traders are betting on bitcoin prices jumping higher, with open interest in call options at 206,979 contracts on Deribit, more than double the bearish put options of 93,857.