Ether (ETH) price fell below the $3,000 support on Sept. 20 as global markets entered a risk-aversion mode. The Invesco China Technology ETF (CQQQ) closed down 4.2%, while the SPDR S&P Metals and Mining ETF (XME) lost 3.8%. Some analysts pointed to the potential ripple effects of the default of Evergrande, a major Chinese real estate company. In contrast, others blame the ongoing debates over the debt limit in Washington as the catalyst for this week's volatility. As a result, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), usually referred to as the "stock market fear index," jumped by more than 30% to …

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, continues limiting its services amid the ongoing global regulatory scrutiny, announcing new trading restrictions in Australia. Existing Binance users in Australia will have 90 days to reduce and close their positions for products such as cryptocurrency futures, options and leveraged tokens, the exchange announced Monday. Effective from Friday, Australian users will no longer be able to increase or open new positions for derivatives products on Binance. Users will still be able to top-up their margin balances to prevent liquidations and margin calls, the announcement notes. After Dec. 23, Binance users in …

Bitcoin (BTC) investors seem concerned about the increasing speculation that China’s second-largest property developer, Evergrande Group, will default on its $300 billion in debts. These fears manifest in global equities markets, which saw a 1.5%–3% drop at this morning’s market open. Despite the price move, the BTC outflow (net withdrawals) from exchanges has continued a multi-month trend, particularly on Coinbase Pro. Traders also know that every exchange has a different user profile. For example, liquidations on Bybit tend to be more extreme when compared to FTX, which is known for having more conservative clients. Take, for example, Tuesday’s drop below …

For the past 40 days, Ether (ETH) has trended modestly upward, respecting a narrow channel most of the time. It enjoyed a brief rally toward $4,000 in the first week of September, but a subsequent crash brought the price into the ascending channel. In August, nonfungible tokens posted record-breaking transactions, clogging the Ethereum network and causing average transaction fees to surpass $40 in early September. Although NFT trading volume has continued to subside, new items continue to be minted every minute regardless of whether they're being traded. On Sept.13, Cathie Wood — CEO of Ark Invest, a $58 billion asset …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) has continued to prove its explosive growth due to numerous protocols, including lending, exchange and global payments that don’t require financial intermediaries. With many use cases, the newest contender taking the crypto sphere by storm is derivatives. Derivatives are products like options and futures, where an arrangement has a value determined from the underlying asset, whether this is a stock, interest rate or cryptocurrency. The benefit to investors is that they gain exposure without ever holding the asset. Today many centralized exchanges deal with derivatives trading. With DeFi, no broker is required, meaning settlement occurs automatically on …

Top U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase has submitted an application to become a registered Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) with the National Futures Association (NFA). Details are sparse, but according to the NFA website, the pending application was submitted on Wednesday under the name “Coinbase Global Inc.” Coinbase highlighted the move via Twitter on Thursday and stated that “this is the next step to broaden our offerings and offer futures and derivatives trading on our platforms. Goal: Further grow the crypto economy.” If Coinbase becomes an approved FCM member under the NFA, the firm will then need to register with the U.S. …

Over the past ten days, Bitcoin (BTC) price tested the $44,500 resistance on multiple occasions, and this marked a 16% drawdown from the previous week's $53,000 local top. Not even the $3.4 billion long futures contracts liquidations that occurred on Sept. 7 while BTC dropped by 18.7% was enough to eliminate bulls' optimism, according to options markets data. If historical data plays any role in the price of Bitcoin, the month of September presented negative performances in four of the previous five years, and BTC finished August trading at $47,110. Regardless of the price, adoption by institutional investors has been …

The recent 256% recovery by Polkadot (DOT) over the past 56 days has been nothing short of spectacular. Although the price is 23% below its $49.80 all-time high from four months ago, the altcoin's $39 billion market capitalization has outperformed Ether (ETH) by 66% over the past thirty days. Polkadot is a blockchain network designed to support various interconnected, application-specific parallel chains — known as parachains. This scalability-focused project breaks transactions up into many shards and processes them in parallel, similar to what ETH 2.0 aims to achieve. Polkadot refers to the entire ecosystem of parachains that plug into a …

According to derivatives markets, Ether (ETH) traders are still confident that there is the chance formore upside even though the 23% correction on Sept. 7 took a hit on prices. Ethereum network congestion also peaked on Sept. 7 when the average transaction fee reached $60, and since then it has remained above $17. As a result of the lingering challenges experienced by the network, investors have shifted into Ethereum competitors with bridge and layer-two capabilities. For example, Polkadot’s DOT rose by 29% over the past week and Algorand’s ALGO spiked 67%. Undoubtedly, there’s a quest for interoperability and layer-two scaling …

Decentralized exchange dTrade has raised $22.8 million for a market-making fund designed to provide the ecosystem with higher liquidity, potentially setting the stage for wider DeFi adoption on Polkadot once the DEX launches later this year. The funds will enable dTrade to launch with “deep liquidity” backed by some of crypto’s largest market makers, the company announced Tuesday. Specifically, the capital will be used to facilitate on-chain loans to market makers that provide order book liquidity on dTrade. Community members will also have the opportunity to participate in the on-chain program once dTrade launches, which is expected soon after Polkadot …

Eurex, a derivatives exchange owned by German stock market operator Deutsche Boerse, has debuted cryptocurrency derivatives trading with ETC Group’s Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded note (ETN) futures product. Eurex officially announced Monday the launch of the Bitcoin ETN Futures contract developed by London-based crypto derivatives issuer ETC Group. “As the first step in our portfolio of crypto derivatives, the offering is the first regulated market in Bitcoin-related derivatives in Europe,” Eurex said. Trusted path to #crypto: today, we launched #Bitcoin ETN #Futures. As the first step in our portfolio of #CryptoDerivatives, the offering is the first regulated market in Bitcoin-related #derivatives …

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is facing an intense period of volatility since moving from a $52,950 top on Sept. 7 to a $42,800 low just two hours later. More recently, the $45,000 support was held for a couple of days despite being heavily tested, and this triggered a $3,400 up- and down-swing on Sept. 13. There’s little doubt that shorts — traders betting on a price decrease — have taken the upper hand since the liquidation of $3.54 billion worth of long (buyers) futures contracts on Sept. 7. MicroStrategy’s Sept. 13 announcement that it added over 5,050 Bitcoin at …