BTC, ETH ETFs to become more powerful as options rule relaxes: Crypto Daybook Americas

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

The U.S.-listed bitcoin BTC$89,536.81 and ether ETH$2,960.85 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that have sucked in billions in institutional money, smoothing out the once-crazy volatility in these tokens, are about to get more powerful.

Trading in options, handy hedging tools tied to the ETFs, is no longer capped by a rule limiting any single participant to no more than 25,000 contracts. Nasdaq filed for the change on Jan. 7, and it went live this week.

Options allow traders to bet on the future price of an asset at a minimal initial cost. For a small fee, they are able to lock in a BTC purchase at a specific price and capitalize on future gains. Put options work in the opposite direction, representing a bailout pass to sell at today’s price if the asset plummets in future.

Dropping the cap means big funds and institutions can fully hedge their spot ETF positions and dive in deeper. Options on these ETFs, especially BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF, IBIT, already rival the BTC options activity on leading centralized exchanges like Deribit. Without the cap, they could emerge as the clear leader.

These options have already driven down implied volatility turning crypto’s wild west into a Wall Street pro league as institutions that write (that is, sell) call options keep hold of the ETF shares. This allows them to collect the premium received for selling the option while maintaining bullish exposure through the spot ETF position.

As for the market action, not much has changed over the past 24 hours. Cryptocurrencies are still underperforming precious metals. Bitcoin, ether ETH$2,960.85, XRP XRP$1.9211, solana SOL$127.17, BNB BNB$892.08 have dropped as much as 2.5%.

Tron’s TRX is an outlier, gaining nearly 3%. The upswing follows reports that Tron DAO Ventures invested $8 million in River, a chain-abstraction stablecoin system designed to connect assets, liquidity and yield across ecosystems.

In traditional markets, the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback’s value against fiat currencies, held steady at Tuesday’s low of 98.25. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) warned that the burgeoning fiscal debt makes some form of crisis inevitable. Stay alert!

Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today

What to Watch

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead”.

• Crypto
  • Jan. 23: Trump family-linked World Liberty Financial to announce “something massive” entering the WLFI ecosystem.
• Macro
  • Jan. 23, 9:45 a.m.: U.S. Jan. S&P Global PMI Flash. Composite (Prev. 52.7), Manufacturing (51.8), Services (52.5)
  • Jan. 23, 10:00 a.m.: U.S. Jan. Michigan inflation expectations final est. 4.2% (Prev. 4.2%)
• Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)

Token Events

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead”.

• Governance votes & calls
• Unlocks
  • Jan. 25: H$0.1615 to unlock 4.57% of its circulating supply worth $21.95 million.
• Token Launches
  • Spacecoin (SPACE) to be listed on Binance Alpha, Kraken, KuCoin, MEXC, and others.

Conferences

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead”.

• No major conferences scheduled.

Market Movements

• BTC is down 1.03% from 4 p.m. ET Thursday at $104,909.52 (24hrs: -1.72%)
• ETH is unchanged at $2,933.29 (24hrs: -0.81%)
• CoinDesk 20 is down 0.57% at 2,730.84 (24hrs: -1.53%)
• Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is down 2 bps at 2.83%
• BTC funding rate is at 0.0078% (8.5848% annualized) on Binance

• DXY is unchanged at 98.36
• Gold futures are up 0.20% at $4,923.30
• Silver futures are up 2.42% at $98.71
• Nikkei 225 closed up 0.29% at 53,846.87
• Hang Seng closed up 0.45% at 26,749.51
• FTSE is up 0.13% at 10,163.36
• Euro Stoxx 50 is down 0.52% at 5,925.22
• DJIA closed on Thursday up 0.63% at 49,384.01
• S&P 500 closed up 0.55% at 6,913.35
• Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.91% at 23,436.02
• S&P/TSX Composite closed up 0.46% at 33,002.70
• S&P 40 Latin America closed up 2.11% at 3.538,45
• U.S. 10-Year Treasury rate is down 0.8 bps at 4.243%
• E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.21% at 6,930.50
• E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.32% at 25,575.00
• E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are down 0.21% at 49,454.00

Bitcoin Stats

• BTC Dominance: 59.85% (unchanged)
• Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.03283 (-0.43%)
• Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,035 EH/s
• Hashprice (spot): $39.79
• Total fees: 2.29 BTC / $204,962
• CME Futures Open Interest: 122,380 BTC
• BTC priced in gold: 18.1 oz.
• BTC vs gold market cap: 5.97%

Technical Analysis

• The chart shows bitcoin’s daily price swings in candlestick format, starting from early 2022.
• Recent consolidation in a gently rising channel mirrors the pattern seen early that year, right before a deeper crash to $20,000 unfolded.
• While past patterns don’t guarantee future results, history suggests caution: Bitcoin typically enters year-long bear markets about 18 months post-halving.
• The latest halving occurred in April 2024, placing us squarely in that brutal bearish window.

Crypto Equities

• Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Thursday at $223.14 (–1.67%), –0.13% at $222.86 in pre-market
• Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $30.92 (–4.71%), –0.78% at $30.68
• MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $10.29 (–2.56%), –0.68% at $10.22
• Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $17.08 (–0.99%), –0.76% at $16.95
• Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $18.08 (–0.66%), –0.33% at $18.02
• CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $13.19 (+2.97%), –0.38% at $13.14
• Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $15.75 (+0.13%)
• CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF (WGMI): closed at $46.93 (–2.05%), +0.26% at $47.05
• Circle Internet Group (CRCL): closed at $71.35 (–1.78%), +0.21% at $71.50
• Bullish (BLSH): closed at $36.48 (–4.93%), unchanged in pre-market

Crypto Treasury Companies

• Strategy (MSTR): closed at $160.98 (–1.73%), –0.46% at $160.24
• Strive Asset Management (ASST): closed at $0.87 (–2.47%), +1.24% at $0.88
• SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $9.78 (–1.91%), –1.02% at $9.68
• Upexi (UPXI): closed at $1.98 (–5.71%)
• Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.32 (unchanged)

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs

• Daily net flows: -$32.2 million
• Cumulative net flows: $56.58 billion
• Total BTC holdings ~1.3 million

Spot ETH ETFs

• Daily net flows: -$42 million
• Cumulative net flows: $12.37 billion
• Total ETH holdings ~6.04 million

Source: Farside Investors

While You Were Sleeping

China Sees a Chance to Lure Jaded U.S. Allies (The Wall Street Journal): China has seized on the disarray left by President Donald Trump within NATO, denouncing his push to acquire Greenland and trying to entice U.S. allies with the promise of reliable trade partnerships.

ETH, SOL and ADA slip as bitcoin fails to build momentum near $90,000 (CoinDesk): Bitcoin was at just below the $90,000 during Asian trading hours as gains in regional equities and a weaker U.S. dollar failed to push crypto upward after a volatile week. Ether slipped toward $2,970, while major tokens including solana, cardano and XRP edged lower.

Revolut scraps US merger plans in favour of push for standalone licence (FT): Revolut, a U.K. fintech with a $75 billion valuation that offers crypto trading, scrapped plans to buy a U.S. bank and will instead apply for a banking license as it expands in the world’s largest financial market.

TikTok Seals Deal to Operate in the US After Years of Drama (Bloomberg): TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance sealed a long-awaited deal to transfer parts of their U.S. operations to American investors, securing the popular video app’s future in the country and avoiding a ban.