Perpetual contracts, also known as inverse swaps, have an embedded rate usually charged every eight hours. This fee ensures there are no exchange risk imbalances. Even though buyers' and sellers' open interest is matched at all times, leverage can vary, and when buyers (longs) are demanding more leverage, the funding rate turns positive. Thus, they are the ones paying the fees to the sellers (shorts). However, the opposite situation occurs when shorts require additional leverage, and this causes the funding rate to turn negative. The Bitcoin (BTC) futures funding rate has been negative since May 18 (37 days), and this …

After a brief recovery to $41,000 on June 14, Bitcoin (BTC) investors might have thought that the bear market was finally over. After all, it was the highest level since May 21 and the date that MicroStrategy (MSTR) announced a successful $500 million debt offering. The funds are usually available in one or two business days, and the proceeds would be used to acquire even more Bitcoin for the business intelligence company's balance sheet. MicroStrategy followed this fund-raise with another surprise filing to sell up to $1 billion of its stock to buy even more Bitcoin. However, a 30% drop …

The United Kingdom’s financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned consumers against 111 crypto companies that are yet to register with the FCA. Since Jan. 10, all U.K.-based crypto firms have had to comply with Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing laws, as well as to register with the FCA in order to operate legally. Many are yet to do so. Mark Steward, FCA’s head of enforcement asserted at the “City & Financial’s City Week” event on June 22, that the unregulated crypto entities pose a threat to consumers, banks, and payments firms who do business with them, noting …

Bitcoin price is still in a rut, trading near $33,000 and trapped in a downtrend that just seems to get worse with the passing of each day. As the price slumps, analysts have consulted with several technical and on-chain metrics to explain the price collapse, but none of these have picked up on the exact reason. One area of interest has been the sharp rise in short positions at Bitfinex in the past week. Traders are placing exaggerated importance on these Bitcoin (BTC) margin shorts as if they are predictors of the current market crash. Still, as Cointelegraph previously reported, …

Bitcoin (BTC) price dropped roughly 22% over the past 7 days, retesting the $31,700 area for the second time in June. The most pressing news for the negative performance has been China supposedly cracking down bank accounts of over-the-counter desks, according to some analysts: China cracking down on the bank accounts of #bitcoin OTC desks, this is getting serious!!! — Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) June 21, 2021 However, as reported by Cointelegraph, Bitcoin's hash rate dropping nearly 50% to an 8-month low could also have played a vital role in the price correction. Not even MicroStrategy's recent $489 million purchase was …

Ether (ETH) faces its largest options expiry ever on June 25 as nearly $1.5 billion out of $3.3 billion notional open interest (OI) in ETH options will expire. June’s expiry has over 638,000 ETH options contracts in its purview, accounting for 45% of the total open interest in these options. Although it’s the largest options expiry in the history of the derivative product, the open interest in ETH options OI hit its all-time high of nearly $5.5 billion on May 20 soon after ETH had hit its all-time high of $4,362 on May 12. The huge expiry amid the ongoing …

An unusual phenomenon called 'backwardation' is taking place in Bitcoin (BTC) futures trading, mainly the June contract, which expires on June 25. The fixed-month contracts usually trade at a slight premium, indicating that sellers request more money to withhold settlement longer. Futures should also trade at a 5% to 15% annualized premium on healthy markets, in line with the stablecoin lending rate. This situation is known as contango and is not exclusive to crypto markets. Whenever this indicator fades or turns negative, this is an alarming red flag. This situation is known as backwardation and indicates a bearish sentiment. As …

Bitcoin (BTC) bulls have little reason to celebrate the 25% rally over the past nine days. After testing the $31,000 support on June 8, top traders' optimism faded, and even the recent $41,000 high was unable to boost their expectations. Contrary to market sentiment, the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority has indicated a significant increase in cryptocurrency ownership in the country. A consumer survey found that 2.3 million adults in the U.K. now hold crypto assets, which is up from 1.9 million last year. Another theory that has been proven wrong is the supposition that whales have been selling, causing …

Forthcoming decentralized derivatives exchange SynFutures has closed an oversubscribed $14 million Series A funding round led by Polychain Capital. The automated market maker’s funding round also saw participation from other heavyweight crypto investors including Pantera Capital, Framework, and Wintermute. Including the DEX’s January 2021 seed round, SynFutures has nowraised $15.4 million in total. According to an announcement, the exchange plans to offer a one-stop-shop for derivatives, allowing anybody to launch arbitrary trading pairs with any expiry date based on the value of the underlying assets for which the liquidity is provided. SynFutures will not be alone in servicing the decentralized …

Huobi, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, has reportedly restricted derivatives for new and existing users over concerns about China’s regulatory crackdowns. Chinese journalist Colin Wu reported on Twitter Thursday that Huobi had temporarily dropped the maximum allowable trading leverage from 125x to less than 5x for existing users. In addition, new users based in China were not allowed to engage in derivatives trading on the exchange. Exclusive: Due to concerns about regulatory policies, China's largest exchange Huobi recently restricted the leverage of existing users to less than 5x after stopping new users in China from using …

While speaking at the Virtual Fintech Forum in Hong Kong on May 27, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin commented on obstacles related to the Ethereum 2.0 rollout. Buterin said that there had been several internal team conflicts in the past five years and as a result, he confirmed that Ethereum 2.0 launch is unlikely to occur before late 2022. In a May 22 report from Goldman Sachs, analysts said that Ether (ETH) has a “high chance of overtaking Bitcoin as a dominant store of value.” Furthermore, the report noted the growth of the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector and the nonfungible token …

Bitcoin started the week with a strong breakout to $40,900, but today bulls are trying to hold Bitcoin price above the $40,000 level. As the price broke from the $31,000 to $39,000 range on June 14, traders speculated that setting a daily higher high and a close above $41,000 would set BTC up for a move to $47,000, but a lack of sustained buy volume and the much-discussed possibility of a death cross between the 50- and 200-day moving average are factors that could be keeping traders cautious. According to Simon Peters, an analyst at eToro: “Bitcoin is at its …