1. Implied volatility of Ethereum options remains high
Analysts say uncertainty surrounding Ethereum's future price has kept the asset's options implied volatility at a much higher level than Bitcoin. In contrast, Bitcoin's implied volatility has seen a more dramatic drop, suggesting that derivatives traders believe the Bitcoin market is stabilizing. According to data from The Block, Ethereum's IV has not fallen to the same extent as Bitcoin during the current post-halving market adjustment. The Bitcoin Volatility Index fell from 72% at the time of the halving event to a multi-month low of 55%. In contrast, the same indicator for Ethereum has fallen less, from 76% to the current 65%. Note: Implied volatility (IV) is a measure used in the options market that represents the market's prediction of possible future changes or price fluctuations in an asset or security.
2. Panda Securities becomes the first underwriter of virtual asset spot ETF
The first batch of six virtual asset spot ETFs launched by Harvest Global, China Asset Management (Hong Kong) and Bosera International were officially listed and traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Panda Securities has reached cooperation with Harvest Global, China Asset Management (Hong Kong) and Bosera International, and opened product subscription channels for investors as a participating securities company. Panda Securities has in-depth cooperation with Beirui Financial to help it conduct physical subscription.
3. Analysis: The number of active Bitcoin long contracts is significantly higher than the number of short contracts, indicating bullish market sentiment
“We saw some bullish follow-through as Bitcoin volatility and funding rates reversed and rebounded from last Friday into the weekend,” QCP Capital said in a note on Monday. “BTC risk reversals have turned positive (calls are more expensive than puts) and demand for BTC September $75,000 and $100,000 calls has re-emerged.” Over-the-counter trading house Paradigm made a similar observation on Monday, saying there was increased demand for OTM call options, or call options that are well above Bitcoin’s prevailing market price. It said: "The options market appears to be anticipating a short-term rally early this morning, with BTC and ETH trading highest on Paradigm, including large-scale buying of OTM call options. We noticed that the previous buyer of $200,000 March 2025 (expiration) call options closed out and bought $85,000 July 2024 (expiration) options." Data from Deribit shows that traders have locked in more than $688 million in $100,000 strike call options of various maturities, which is the highest notional open interest of all options on the exchange. (CoinDesk)
4. SouthState Bank holds BlackRock IBIT and Grayscale GBTC worth more than $570,000
Financial institution SouthState Bank disclosed in a 13F filing with the U.S. SEC that it holds a total of $577,198 worth of Bitcoin spot ETFs, including 6,606 Grayscale GBTC shares (about $417,301) and 3,951 BlackRock IBIT shares (about $159,897). SouthState Bank is a bank headquartered in Florida, USA. After merging with CenterState Bank, the two entities manage a total of $34 billion in assets.
5.Vitalik: Plasma can prevent double withdrawal of any asset in a self-consistent way
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said on the X platform that the purpose of Plasma is not to prevent invalid/unusable state transitions, but to allow users with valuable assets to use the previous (valid and usable) state to exit when this happens, in a way that has self-consistent rules to prevent double exits of any assets.
6. Renzo pledges TVL of over $3.3 billion
Renzo, a liquidity re-staking protocol, posted on the X platform that since EigenLayer and EigenDA were launched on the Ethereum mainnet on April 9, Renzo has been leading in multiple indicators: the re-staking TVL reached 3.32 billion US dollars, ranking first; the number of AVS reached 9, ranking first; the number of restakers ranked first among 9 AVS. In addition, the modular programmable oracle network eoracle has provided points for Renzo users. Earlier in April, the Ethereum re-staking protocol EigenLayer announced that it was officially launched on the Ethereum mainnet and launched the data availability (DA) service EigenDA on the mainnet. EigenDA is an active verification service (AVS) developed by Eigen Labs to help other blockchain protocols store transaction data and other information.
7. Uniswap’s total transaction volume on the Arbitrum network exceeds $150 billion
Ethereum layer 2 protocol Arbitrum has surpassed $150 billion in trading volume on decentralized exchange Uniswap. Uniswap Labs wrote in a social media post on Monday that Arbitrum is the first Layer2 to break the $150 billion total trading volume threshold on a DEX. As of early May, Arbitrum's cumulative swap volume reached $150.2 billion. Blockchain data tracker DeFiLlama shows that Arbitrum's total value locked (TVL) is $2.64 billion, making it the Layer2 with the largest TVL and the fifth largest protocol after Layer1 Solana, BSC, Tron, and Ethereum.
8. U.S. CFTC Chairman: There will be a wave of cryptocurrency enforcement actions in the next six months to two years
According to The Block, Rostin Behnam, chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said in a chat at the Milken Institute's 27th Annual Global Conference that he expects the next "enforcement action cycle" to occur in the next six months to two years. Behnam said: "From my perspective as a regulator, we may see another round of enforcement action cycles in the next six to eighteen months or six to twenty-four months, and this is because of this cycle of asset appreciation and retail investor interest. Without a regulatory framework, without transparency, without these tools that we normally use as regulators, you will continue to see this fraud and manipulation."
9. SEC v. Ripple case progress: SEC will submit a public revised version of the remedy response brief and supporting evidence by Wednesday
Former U.S. federal prosecutor James K. Filan shared the latest developments in the U.S. SEC's lawsuit against Ripple on the X platform. The SEC has submitted sealed documents containing its remedies response brief and supporting evidence. These documents have not yet been made public. The public revised version will be submitted before May 8 (Wednesday). Other documents related to the seal will be submitted later.
