The Ethereum network will undergo a major upgrade on Aug. 4, as the long-awaited London hard fork is expected to launch at block 12,965,000. The transition is part of a roadmap leading to the Ethereum 2.0 release, which aims to migrate the network to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. By no longer depending on the intense energy-consumption mining, the main goal is to drastically increase the network's capacity by using parallel processing, also known as sharding. The upcoming London upgrade will implement the critical Ethereum Improvement Proposal EIP-1559, making Ether (ETH) gas costs more predictable. This controversial change includes a transaction …

This year’s 500% accumulated gain took Ether’s (ETH) price to a $4,380 all-time high on May 12, and this rally was even more robust than the late-2017 move. The famous bull market, or bubble, depending on how you see it, took Ether’s price on a 390% rally from $290 in November 2017 to $1,420 in mid-January 2018. Maybe this year’s mega rally was a DeFi and NFT bubble that will take another two years to reclaim its peak, but it seems premature to make a prediction now. However, some analysts, including Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky, argue that Ether’s "flippening" …

Bitcoin (BTC) might have tested the $40,000 support in mid-July, but according to various derivatives metrics, there has not been a significant change in investor optimism. This situation either means that price is not what they are looking for to mark the end of the current bear market or that most traders are still underwater at $40,000. One of the best measures of optimism is the futures market premium, which measures the gap between longer-term contracts and the current spot market levels. In healthy markets, a 5% to 15% annualized premium is expected. However, during bearish markets, this indicator fades …

Ether’s (ETH) $1.5-billion monthly expiry on June 25 was slightly favorable for bears, and at the time, Cointelegraph reported that the $2,200 price was critical to eliminate 73% of the neutral-to-bearish put options. However, bulls were unable to sustain their advantage because the expiry price was near $1,950. In the end, the protective put options outnumbered the neutral-to-bullish call options by $30 million. Fast forward to July, and after a noticeable 10% rally, Ether’s price again struggles to sustain the $2,100 support. Bitcoin’s (BTC) negative 3.5% performance could partially explain last week’s price move, but the London hard fork scheduled …

Bitcoin (BTC) has been ranging from $30,400 to 36,400 for the last 12 days, and it has been difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for investors’ lack of appetite. Some analysts have pointed to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) unlocking in mid-July finally giving institutional investors a chance to offload their funds, but this is not likely to be the main reason. Meanwhile, industry leaders have suggested that the “crypto regulatory crackdown” taking shape in the United States is severely impacting investors’ sentiment, and this view is especially problematic considering China has recently banned all crypto mining activity in the …

Decentralized derivatives platform, Tracer DAO, has announced a successful $4.5 million fundraising round to expand its team and product suite. They hope to launch innovative derivatives for “any market with an oracle price feed,” with plans to one day allow ordinary consumers to hedge the cost of commuting and other household bills using tokenized derivatives. This week’s raise saw participation from crypto venture heavyweights, including Framework Ventures, Maven 11, DACM, and Apollo Capital. The investors will share 10% of the project’s governance token supply, which will be vested linearly over two years. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Pat McNab, Tracer DAO founder …

Derivatives data shows that Ether (ETH) traders are feeling less bullish when compared to Bitcoin (BTC). Even though the altcoin captured a nearly 200% gain in the first half of 2021 versus Bitcoin's modest 22% price increase, traders seem to be more affected by Ether's recent underperformance. Institutional flow also backs the decreased optimism seen in Ether derivatives, as ETH investment vehicles suffered record outflows this past week while Bitcoin flows began to stabilize. According to data from CoinShares, Ether funds experienced a record outflow of $50 million this past week. Take notice of how Ether is underperforming Bitcoin by …

On June 25, the amount of Bitcoin (BTC) margin shorts at Bitfinex increased by 22,000, equivalent to $726 million. At the time, Cointelegraph reported that there was a significant increase in Bitfinex's spot volume market share starting at 9 am UTC, matching the demand in the short margin. Data confirms that one (or more) whales actively shorted the market, betting on a price decrease. The average price of the trade was around $33,000, so every $500 difference would result in an $11 million profit or loss when closing the short position. Related: Why Bitcoin's next breakout may not be an …

Crypto exchange platform Huobi has updated its user agreement document, banning crypto derivatives trading for customers in China. According to the updated user agreement section of the Huobi Global website, the ban on crypto derivatives trading covers users in jurisdictions such as China, Taiwan, Israel and Iraq. Other banned countries include the United Kingdom — restricted to retail customers — as well as Bolivia, Bangladesh and Ecuador, to mention a few. The crypto derivatives trading ban is also in addition to longstanding prohibitions of the use of its platform in places such as Hong Kong, Japan, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, …

Institutional exposure to cryptocurrencies via derivatives continued to grow in the second quarter, as CME Group’s newly launched Bitcoin (BTC) micro contract received considerable uptick in its first two months of trading. Since launching on May 3, CME’s Micro Bitcoin futures contract has already surpassed 1 million contracts traded, the Chicago-based derivatives market announced earlier this week. CME executive Tim McCourt said the new product has been popular among institutions and day traders seeking to hedge their spot Bitcoin price risk. Denominated at 0.1 BTC, the micro contract is one-tenth the size of one Bitcoin. By comparison, CME’s main Bitcoin …

One of the most common errors traders make when analyzing cryptocurrency markets is taking an exchanges' bid and ask data and traded volumes at face value. When doing this type of analysis, the trader has to exclude the trading venues mentioned on multiple 'fake trading volumes' reports, like the one Bitwise published in March 2019. There's really no way to know if the top exchanges inflate their volumes by granting special access and zero fees for market makers. Even the exchanges themselves have no way to know if a group of users are related or conducting multiple transactions among themselves …

Many traders entering cryptocurrency markets from traditional finance may look to derivatives as vehicles for price speculation and hedging. There are plenty of choices when it comes to exchanges and instruments; however, traders should consider a few key differences between crypto futures and traditional futures before dipping a toe into this rapidly growing market. Related: 3 things every crypto trader should know about derivatives exchanges Different instruments Traders entering cryptocurrency from the traditional markets will be accustomed to futures contracts with a fixed expiration date. Although fixed expiration contracts can be found in cryptocurrency markets, a significant proportion of crypto …