Bonk ($BONK ) is a dog-themed token built on the Solana blockchain. Its price increased by more than 80% last week in response to a broader rally among meme coins and a proposal for a massive treasury burn totalling 280 billion tokens. BONK DAO intends to burn 278,393,137,215 BONK from its Treasury, accounting for 100% of the BONK generated by BONK DAO under its revenue-sharing agreement with BONKBot since its launch in late 2023. The proposal has been well received by the Bonk community, which sees the burn as a positive step toward stabilising the coin's market and encouraging growth. As the proposal awaits approval, the anticipation has fuelled a buying frenzy, driving Bonk's price higher.Jito ($JTO ), the Jito Network's native cryptocurrency, has once again joined the mega-uptrend. The Jito ($JTO ) price increased by an incredible 27.2% last week. Jito Network contributes significantly to the Solana ecosystem through its JitoSOL liquid staking pool and a variety of MEV products.BRC-20 token Sats ($1000SATS ) experienced a large-scale pullback prior to the BTC halving and saw strong demand afterward. Sats is the second-largest BRC-20 token by market capitalisation and one of the most popular meme coins. The recent surge is more closely related to the overall strong performance of the Memecoin space.

Overall Market

The above chart shows the BTC price movement in the last 30 days.Our desk believes the $60k - $61k range is in high demand, as previously stated. When the bitcoin price fell below $60k on April 17 due to rising geopolitical tensions between Israel and Iran, strong demand quickly pushed it back above $61k.The demand zone was tested again when a rumour circulated on social media about an explosion in Iran. This could be Israel's response to Iran's drone and missile attack two days ago. Concerns about a potential war between the two countries led to a sudden sell-off in Bitcoin. The long shadow needle also shows that the strong demand zone remains effective.On April 20, Bitcoin completed its fourth halving, reducing the block reward from 6.5 BTC to 3.25 BTC for miners who validate transactions on the Bitcoin network. The BTC price has recovered from the sell-off caused by geopolitical tensions, and it has now turned the downward trendline into a support line. Our team believes that the BTC price will trade sideways as many miners will sell their holdings because they cannot stay in the business after the halving. ETF demand will continue to play a significant role in the coming months, with new Bitcoin ETFs listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Options Market

The above chart shows the at-the-money implied volatility for BTC options.As shown above, the implied volatility for BTC options across various tenors decreased following the halving. The IV for the 7-day expiry option has dropped over 10% from more than 70% to 60% in the last three days. IVs for longer-term options have also gradually declined from the 70% level.As the geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East subside, our desk expects the IVs of BTC options to remain at this level in the coming weeks before gradually returning to the 50% range in the coming months.

The table above displays the at-the-money implied volatility (IV) for BTC and ETH options of varying tenors.Following the BTC halving, the IVs of BTC options fell, while the IVs of ETH options remained around 70%. Following the halving, the difference between ETH and BTC options of the same tenor widened. The current difference between the IVs of ETH and BTC 7-day options is approximately 6.8%. Options traders can capitalise on such IV differences by selling ETH straddle options and buying BTC straddle options with the same notional. Furthermore, the higher IVs on ETH options indicate that the options market believes ETH will be more volatile than BTC in the next several months, which could be a signal of the start of the long-awaited altcoin season.

Macro at a glance 
Last Wednesday (24-04-17)The Eurozone's CPI growth rate slowed further in March. In March, the annualised CPI fell from 2.6% in February to 2.4%, while the core CPI fell from 3.1% in February to 2.9%. The cooling of inflation in the Eurozone provides a solid foundation for the ECB to cut interest rates by 25 basis points in June. Last Thursday (24-04-18)US initial jobless claims remain low; they were reported at 212k last week, the same as the week before. The strong labour market and sticky inflation in the United States have altered market expectations for the Fed's rate cuts this year. To combat persistent inflation, several FOMC members proposed keeping the current interest rate unchanged for an extended period of time.On Tuesday (24-04-23)S&P Global US manufacturing PMI is expected to be 49.9 in April, down from last month's 51.9 and the forecasted 52.0. S&P Global Services PMI is expected to be 50.9 in April, down from the forecasted 52.0 and 51.7 last month. Both PMI figures suggest that the US economy will slow in April. Australia's CPI growth rate has outpaced expectations. The annualised CPI fell from 4.1% in Q4 2023 to 3.6% in Q1 2024, which exceeded the expected 3.4%. However, inflation at 3.6% exceeds the Reserve Bank of Australia's long-term target rate of 2%. Australia's high inflation has delayed the RBA's expected rate cut.Later this week, we haveUS Q1 GDP growth rate on ThursdayBank of Japan’s interest rate decision on Friday local timeUS PCE price index for March will be released on Friday

Convert Portal Volume Change

The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. This week, our desk noticed a drop in trading volume across all zones due to the BTC halving and low trading demand.Over the last seven days, trading volume in the Liquid Staking Zone has decreased by 25.25 percent. Jito ($JTO ) is the most popular token in this zone.The Meme zone saw a 27.05% decrease in trading volume on Convert. Bonk ($BONK ) and Sats ($1000SATS ) experienced the greatest increase in trading demand among all tokens in the Meme Zone.During the same period, volume in the Solana zone decreased by 36.47%. Bonk ($BONK ) and Jito ($JTO ) are the most trending tokens in this zone.

Why trade OTC?  
Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 
Email: trading@binance.com for more information.

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JasmyCoin ($JASMY ) is the native cryptocurrency that powers all of the activities within the Jasmy ecosystem. The project aims to create a world in which users own their data while maintaining privacy and security. Panasonic, the renowned tech giant, recently collaborated with Jasmy (JASMY) blockchain to launch a groundbreaking Web3 platform that will enable the seamless connection of personal data on the Internet of Things (IoT). Uniswap ($UNI ) is the governance token for the decentralized exchange Uniswap. The DEX recently announced that it is raising its trading fees. The majority of swap fees will increase, from 0.15% to 0.25%. This change is in response to potential legal issues raised by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The increase aims to provide long-term funding for ongoing activities and potential legal costs. PAX Gold ($PAXG ) is Paxos' commodity-backed gold stablecoin, which has physical gold backing. When geopolitical tensions in the Middle East escalated over the weekend, investors rushed to purchase the PAXG token for gold exposure. Although the crypto market fell due to the risk backdrop, PAXG reached a new all-time high of $3,295 on the exchange. This was due to strong demand for the risk-haven asset in the crypto market after traditional markets closed.

Overall Market

The above chart shows the BTC price movement in the last 30 days.As we discussed in our previous post, our desk believes the $60k - $61k range is a strong demand zone (the red box). When the BTC price breaks the upward trendline support at $66.5k, the next strong support will be the strong demand zone between $60k and $61k.On April 13 and 14, BTC fell 14.5% in 48 hours, from $71k to $60.6k, due to bearish market sentiments caused by the revision in rate cut estimates by the Federal Reserve and geopolitical tensions.The first wick down from $70k to $65k was more closely related to hawkish Federal Reserve members' comments on this year's rate cuts. Following the hotter-than-expected CPI numbers, the financial market revised its previous expectation of a 25 basis point rate cut by the Fed in June. As supporting evidence, US Treasury yields rose. The revision of estimates of three rate cuts to two by the Federal Reserve this year dampened some bullish sentiment in risky assets, as monetary easing from the Fed may not occur as soon as the market expected. Iran's use of drones and missiles to attack Israel on Saturday heightened Middle Eastern geopolitical tensions. With the risk backdrop, our desk witnessed a massive sell-off in the cryptocurrency market, which was the only market open for trading over the weekend. BTC fell nearly 10% in two hours, dragging down the entire crypto market, with many altcoins falling by 30%-50%. The rapid sell-off resulted in a large number of liquidations, enhancing the scale of the sell-off. While BTC price dropped towards the strong demand zone ($60k - 61k), it quickly rebounded and traded back above $65k within three hours. However, as Middle East tensions between Israel and Iran persisted, bearish sentiment and risk-averse trading behaviour continued to dominate the market. Our desk believes the market will attempt to test the strong demand zone in the coming days. If the Bitcoin price breaks the $60k - 61k range, the next support level will be $59k, which BTC had tested when its price reached the previous all-time high of $69k in March. If the $59k support level fails, the $55k–$56k range will be the next support level.

Options Market

The above table shows the 25-delta skewness for BTC and ETH options.Following the weekend sell-off, our desk noticed that the options market was indicating strong bearish sentiment in the shorter term. The 25-delta skew on BTC options with a 7-day expiry was -6.39, while the data for ETH options with the same expiry was -10.7.The heavily skewed negative data suggests that due to Middle Eastern tensions, options traders and institutional investors were more risk-averse on BTC and ETH over the next 30 days.On the other hand, at the 60-day expiry, the skew of BTC options is positive. At longer time frames, the data remains above zero. Following the halving, options traders and institutional investors remain bullish on BTC in the long run, with a preference for puts to protect against short-term downside.However, our desk noticed that options traders are bearish on Ethereum with a longer tenor. As shown above, the 25-delta skews on ETH are negative in the short, intermediate, and long tenors, turning positive only with a 180-day expiry. Without a catalyst in the near future, we expect ETH to underperform BTC over the next three to six months.With the halving this Friday, our desk anticipates increased implied volatility and higher short-term option premiums. It is critical to manage the risks associated with this much-anticipated event. 

Macro at a glance 
Last Wednesday (24-04-10)In March, the US CPI rose by 0.4% month on month, exceeding the expected 0.3%. The annualised CPI growth rate was 3.5%, versus an estimated 3.4% and 3.2% last month. Core CPI came in higher than expected as well at 0.4% in March, with an annualised rate of 3.8%, both the same as February's figures. After the CPI data print, the market began to reduce the likelihood of a June rate cut.The Bank of Canada kept its interest rate at 5.00% and hinted at a first rate cut in June if inflation continued to decline.Last Thursday (24-04-11)The European Central Bank maintained its interest rate at 4.50% and indicated that it would consider its first rate cut in June. As the European zone's inflation rate has fallen from 10.6% in 2022 to 2.4% in March 2024, the ECB has a stronger foundation to ease monetary policy. Arguably, Eurozone economic conditions allow the ECB to make one rate cut on its own rather than following the Federal Reserve's lead in cutting interest rates. Last week, US initial jobless claims were at 211k, lower than the estimated 216k and the previous week's 222k.In March, US PPI increased by 0.2% month on month, falling short of the expected 0.3% and February's 0.6%. In March, core PPI rose by 0.2% month on month, as expected. The lower PPI data suggests that US inflation may continue to fall, while the higher-than-expected CPI data in March may only be acting as a speed bump.Last Saturday (24-04-13)Iran launched an attack on Israel with more than 300 drones and missiles. The escalated geopolitical conflict caused the crypto market to fall as a whole, with gold-related cryptocurrencies being the only asset to rise. On Monday (24-04-15)In March, US retail sales increased by 0.7% month on month, beating the estimated 0.4% growth rate but falling short of February's 0.9% increase. The core retail sales growth rate was 1.1%, higher than the estimated 0.5% and February's 0.6%. 
Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. This week, our desk noticed that trading volume increased significantly in Launchpad.Over the last seven days, the Launchpad Zone has experienced an 81.9 percent increase in volume. TROY ($TROY) and Open Campus ($EDU) are the main contributors to such growth.The Storage zone saw an 8.2% increase in trading volume on Convert. Bluzelle ($BLZ) and Arweave ($AR) saw the highest increase in trading demand among all tokens in the Storage zone.The NFT zone, however, experienced a 41.7% volume drop during the same period. Tensor ($TNSR) and ApeCoin ($APE) had the most significant volume drop in this zone.

Why trade OTC?  
Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 
Email: trading@binance.com for more information.
Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!

Last week, $FARM , the native token of Harvest Finance's yield farming protocol, increased by 93.9% due to a significant volume increase. Harvest Finance is a yield farming protocol that allocates user funds across multiple defi platforms to generate returns.Bella Protocol ($BEL ) has entered into a strategic partnership with Manta Network ($MANTA) recently. Bella Protocol is dedicated to exploring new partnerships in liquidity farming to increase yield opportunities for its community, drive the development of infrastructure layers and DeFi applications, and pave the way for a more expansive, efficient, and equitable DeFi ecosystem across diverse landscapes.Nervos ($CKB) gained 98.1% last week. This surge is closely related to the application of RGB++, an extension protocol based on the success of RGB (Really Good Bitcoin). RGB++ addresses scalability issues by utilizing Bitcoin's Lightning Network sidechain and Layer 2 capabilities.Ethena ($ENA) is a synthetic dollar protocol based on Ethereum that will provide a crypto-native solution for money that is not dependent on traditional banking infrastructure. Its recent announcement to increase the stake reward sparked market demand, and its price rose 61.3% in 7 days.

Overall Market

The above chart shows the BTC price movement last month.BTC found trendline support from the lower red line and broke through the upper resistant trendline on Monday. However, the BTC price failed to stand above the wedge's upper bound and is currently trading around $69k.On Tuesday, the fake breakout shook off some leveraged long positions, liquidating over $15 million in long positions on the exchange in the last 24 hours. Because the BTC halving day is less than two weeks away, our desk anticipates that the market will be more volatile in the next several weeks.If the $69k support level fails to hold, the next support level is around $66,500 by the lower trendline, followed by the $60k strong demand zone as marked in red.

The above chart shows the ETH price movement last month.On the other hand, ETH successfully broke above the downward trendline and turned it into support. Following Vitalik's last-minute appearance at Hong Kong's largest Web3 event, ETH experienced strong demand in the Asia session and continued its momentum in the Europe session. ETH price increased by more than 8% in 12 hours before retracing in the US session.The bearish sentiment stemmed from the diminishing prospect of SEC ETF approval in May, and the sell-off on the BTC spreadover added to the downward pressure.If ETH can stay above the downward trendline, which is now acting as support, the next major supply zone will be around $4,100.
Options Market

The above table shows the 25-delta skewness for BTC and ETH options.The BTC reward halving date is approaching, with an estimated date of April 19, 2024. Following Monday's fake breakout, the 25-delta skew is slightly below zero on the front end. We observed a similar skew on ETH options with the same duration.In the intermedia tenor, the skew of BTC options remains above zero for both 30-day and 60-day expiry. With the same expiries, the skews of ETH options are closer to the 0 level.Options traders are more risk averse on BTC near-term options, despite maintaining a positive outlook after the halving. They are less bullish on ETH in the medium term, especially since investors and traders have given up hope of an SEC ETF approval in May.With the halving event only two weeks away, our desk expects implied volatility to rise and short-term options to have higher premiums. It is critical to manage risks around this long-awaited event. 

Macro at a glance 
Last Thursday (24-04-04)US initial jobless claims rose to 221k last week, exceeding the estimated 213k and the previous week's 212k. The initial jobless claims are a proxy measure of the US labor market, and they have been reported in the 210k range over the last nine weeks.Several FOMC members made hawkish remarks about the fewer rate cuts in 2024. Risk assets fell sharply, while the US dollar and US Treasury yields rose.Last Friday (24-04-05)US nonfarm payrolls increased by 303k in March, far exceeding the expected 212k and last month's 270k. The strong nonfarm payrolls indicate that the US labour market is stronger than expected.The US unemployment rate fell back to 3.8% in March, having risen from 3.7% in January to 3.9% in February. The data provided clear support for the hawkish remarks made by several FOMC members yesterday. The Canadian unemployment rate increased from 5.8% in February to 6.1% in March, exceeding the expected 5.9%. This Monday (24-04-08)Israel announced on Sunday that it had withdrawn additional soldiers from southern Gaza. The easing of geopolitical tensions caused a retracement in gold and oil prices. Risk assets rose in the US session.BTC unexpectedly soared above $71k with increased implied volatility in options. ETH outperformed BTC following Vitalik's last-minute appearance at Hong Kong's largest Web3 event to give a technical talk on blockchain technology. Later this week, we haveUS CPI data on WednesdayBank of Canada interest rate decision on WednesdayFOMC meeting minutes on WednesdayEuropean Central Bank interest rate decision on Thursday
Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. This week, our desk noticed that trading volume increased significantly in Fan Token and Payments zones.Over the last seven days, the Fan Token Zone has experienced the greatest percentage increase in volume. AS Roma Fan Token ($ASR) is the main contributor to such tremendous growth.The Payments zone saw a 37.4% increase in trading volume on Convert. Pundi X ($PUNDIX) saw the highest increase in trading demand among all tokens in the Payments zone.The DeFi zone also experienced a 1.1% volume increase. Harvest Finance ($FARM ) and Bella Protocol ($BEL ) had the most significant volume increase in this zone and contributed the most to the growth.

Why trade OTC?  
Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 

Email: trading@binance.com for more information.

Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!

GHST, Aavegotchi's native token, recently reached an all-time high. This historic achievement comes three years after the token was introduced, indicating strong growth and active community engagement in the blockchain gaming sector. Moreover, other on-chain gaming projects were outperformed in the last few days.Ravencoin (RVN) is a protocol based on a fork of the Bitcoin code that includes features designed specifically to allow tokens to be issued on the Ravencoin blockchain. These tokens can have any properties that the issuer desires. The massive demand for this token last week doubled its price in four days to $0.06, and it is now trading at $0.418.Another bitcoin code forked token, Bitcoin Cash ($BCH ), received a lot of market attention last week. In just four days, the price of BCH soared from $540 to more than $700. Right now, BCH is trading at $626.PENDLE, a leading project focused on restaking, reached an all-time high of $5.79 today. When PENDLE first listed on Binance on July 3, last year, it was trading at $0.77. In nine months, PENDLE's price increased 7.5x to $5.79, with a total value locked (TVL) of over $3.8 billion in assets.  

Overall Market

The above chart shows the BTC price movement in the last 30 days.The Bitcoin price is currently trading in this bullish pennant pattern. As long as the lower red line holds and BTC price finds support around $63,000, the market's bullish structure will continue. Following the FOMC meeting, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell's dovish comments about rate cuts boosted the market. However, the Swiss National Bank's surprise interest rate cut shifted the market narrative for major central banks. Previously, the market expected the Federal Reserve to be the first central bank to begin the rate cuts, with other major central banks following. The Swiss National Bank has become the first to pivot, with the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England potentially following before the Federal Reserve. The US dollar will be the strongest currency if the Federal Reserve keeps its interest rate unchanged when other central banks are forced to begin their rate cuts. Powell's recent talks provided no clarity on the timing or scale of the Federal Reserve's rate cuts. With such a risk backdrop and the upcoming BTC halving, our desk noticed some profit-taking in the cryptocurrency space, and investors are holding cash on the slide line, waiting for more market clarity before making their next move.
Options Market

The above chart shows the 25-delta skewness change for BTC options last week. BTC reward halving day is approaching, with an estimated date of April 19, 2024. Based on the price actions around the halving time in the previous three halvings, our desk anticipates market to be volatile two weeks around the halving.With the Federal Reserve's muddled macro guidance, our desk found that options traders were more willing to buy puts to protect their downside risk than to buy calls for upside potential.The short-tenor options are trading with a negative skewness on the market, while the intermediate and long-tenor options are trading at a similar skewness level as last week.However, our desk noticed a difference in the ETH options.

The above chart shows the 25-delta skewness change for ETH options last week. The 25-delta skews of ETH options in the 7-day and 30-day expiry options are negative, but the skews are increasing from a week ago. An upward trend was also observed in the 60-day expiry ETH options.It indicates that options traders are changing their outlook on ETH prices over the next two months. One reason could be that options traders are betting on the SEC's approval of the Ethereum spot ETF in May.Over the past few weeks, the price of Ethereum has underperformed the price of Bitcoin as the market's hope on the SEC's approval of ETH spot ETFs has diminished. The approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF demonstrated to the market a significant capital inflow. If the SEC approves ETH spot ETFs in May, ETH prices may see a similar price action. 

Macro at a glance 
Last Thursday (24-03-28)UK GDP fell 0.3% in Q4 2023, following a 0.1% drop in Q3 2023. The data confirmed that the UK was in recession at the end of 2023. US GDP increased by 3.4% in Q4 2023, following a strong 4.9% growth in Q3 2023. The strong US GDP growth reflects different economic conditions than the ones in UK.Initial jobless claims fell from 212k to 210k this week. The US labor market remains strong.The Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), a key indicator of economic activity in the Chicago region, fell further from 44.0 in February to 41.4 in March.Last Friday (24-03-29)The US PCE price index increased by 0.3% monthly in February, slowing from 0.4% in January. The Core PCE price index increased by 0.3% monthly, slowing from 0.5% in January. The annualized core PCE price index was 2.8%, slightly lower than the 2.9% reported in January.On Monday (24-04-01)The US ISM manufacturing PMI was reported at 50.3 in March, exceeding the forecasted 48.5 and the previous month's 47.8. The US ISM manufacturing price was also reported at 55.8, higher than the expected 53.3 and the previous month's 52.5.On Tuesday (24-04-02)Germany's CPI growth rate was expected to be 0.4% monthly in March, lower than the previously estimated 0.5% rate. The annualized CPI growth rate was expected to be 2.2%, down from last month's 2.5% rate.US job openings increased from 8.748 million in January to 8.756 million in February.On Wednesday (24-04-03)The Eurozone CPI growth rate in March was projected to be 2.4% annually, while the core CPI growth rate was projected to be 2.9%. Both projections were slightly lower than the previous forecast.In March, the US ADP nonfarm employment change was 184k, up from the estimated 148k.The ISM non-manufacturing PMI reading was 51.4, lower than the forecasted 52.8. The weaker-than-expected data boosted the US equity and crypto markets by indicating that less demand was expected, resulting in lower inflation pressures. However, Fed Chairman Powell's remarks did not specify the timing or scale of potential rate cuts. Both the equities and crypto markets gave up most of the gains from the PMI readings.

Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. This week, our desk noticed that trading volume increased significantly in Liquid Staking, while volume changes in other zones were minor. Over the last seven days, the Liquid Staking Zone has experienced the greatest percentage increase in volume. Trading volume increased by 370.9%, owing to higher trade demand for Jito ($JTO).The Monitoring zone saw a 9.1% increase in trading volume on Convert. Akropolis ($AKRO) and OAX ($OAX) saw the highest increase in trading demand among all tokens in the Monitoring zone.The NFT zone also experienced a 6.7% volume increase. GMT ($GMT), STEPN's governor token, has seen the most significant volume increase in this zone and contributed the most to volume growth.

Why trade OTC?  
Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 

Email: trading@binance.com for more information.

Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!

Polymesh ($POLYX ), an institutional-grade permissioned blockchain designed specifically for regulated assets, has gained market traction following BlackRock's exploration into the Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization space. Its prominence reflects the growing interest in blockchain-based financial solutions, establishing it as a market leader in this evolving sector. The 190% gain in seven days demonstrates the high demand for this token and the market's interest in the project.Badger ($BADGER ) is a DAO that aims to bring Bitcoin as a collateral asset for DeFi applications. Badger DAO introduced a synthetic BTC token (eBTC), a feature with great potential for use in DeFi lending. The stablecoin, which references the Bitcoin rate and runs on the Ethereum network, uses Lido's staked ether (stETH) as a bond. This goal can be accomplished by implementing a strategy that aims to increase decentralization and capital efficiency throughout the DeFi domain.Terra ($LUNA ) increased 44.6% in the last seven days following Do Kwon's official release from Montenegro prison. The strong rally also increased the hot debut on social media platforms, pushing the price higher.

Overall Market

The above chart shows the BTC price movement in the last 30 days.As previously discussed, we expected last week's BTC selloff from its all-time high to find support at the $60k level, as shown above in the upper red box. The strong demand for bitcoin around the $60k level, combined with Fed Chairman Powell's dovish comments, pushed the bitcoin price back into the $68k resistance zone. Fed Chairman Powell made some dovish comments after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates at 5.50%, with an updated dot plot indicating three rate cuts in 2024. He also mentioned that the Fed was planning to reduce its Quantitative Tightening (QT) program soon. Powell's comments, as well as the dot plot's expected path of interest rate cuts, boosted market sentiment and sent risk assets higher. BTC bulls capitalised on this sentiment and forced bears to close their short positions. As a result of Powell's press conference, the Bitcoin price returned to $68k within four hours.However, our desk noticed a short-term downward trend in BTC price over the last two days. The $69k key level now serves as support. If the Bitcoin price falls below $69k, the lower bound of the upward channel will be tested.

Options Market

The above table shows the 25-delta skewness for BTC and ETH options. As a result of the improved market sentiment that followed the FOMC meeting, the prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum rose from their lows of the previous week and are currently trading sideways.The 25-delta skews on BTC options return to positive territory for all tenors. It demonstrates that market sentiment on BTC leans towards a bullish view. The skewness in front-end options is close to zero, indicating that market sentiment is more or less balanced and that there is no clear direction for BTC price in the short term, according to data.
On the other hand, the 25-delta skews in ETH options do not indicate such a bullish sentiment. In the short to medium term, the skews on ETH options remain negative. Although the skews in the short-term options are less negative than last week's data, it indicates that investors and traders are less willing to hold positive delta positions on Ethereum, and the market is betting on Bitcoin's short to medium-term performance rather than Ethereum's.
Macro at a glance 
Last Wednesday (24-03-20)The Federal Reserve announced that its interest rate would remain at 5.50%, unchanged. Fed Chairman Powell's dovish comments boosted gold, equities, and cryptocurrency markets following the press conference. The dot plot indicates that the Federal Reserve will make three quarter-percentage point cuts in 2024. The market expects the Fed's first rate cut in June.Last Thursday (24-03-21)The Bank of England maintained its interest rate at 5.25%, unchanged. The Bank's governor, Andrew Bailey, stated that the rate cut decision would be data-driven, and the data indicated that it was in the right direction.Last week, initial jobless claims in the United States totalled 210k, which was in line with the forecast of 212k. As Powell stated in the press following the FOMC meeting on Wednesday, the strong labour market would not cause the Fed to be concerned about rising inflation.On Tuesday (24-03-26)In February, US durable goods orders rose by 1.4% month on month, exceeding the expected 1.2% increase. Durable goods orders have begun to recover from January's 6.9% drop.In March, US Conference Board (CB) consumer confidence was 104.7, lower than expected at 106.9. The lower-than-expected consumer confidence data suggested that consumer demand had eased, which would help to reduce inflation over time.This Friday, the PCE price index data will be released, which could provide more clarity to the market if the US inflation rate moves in the direction expected by the Federal Reserve. It will also provide insight into the Fed's rate cuts this year.

Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. This week, our desk noticed that trading volume increased significantly in the Launchpool while remaining low in other zones. Over the last seven days, the Launchpool Zone has seen the greatest percentage increase in volume. Trading volume increased by 80.7%, primarily due to increased trade demand for Shentu ($CTK).The Monitoring zone saw a 14.9% decrease in trading volume on Convert. Among all the tokens in the Monitoring zone, trading demand for Enzyme ($MLN) increased the most, while demand for JasmyCoin ($JASMY) decreased the most.The Layer1/Layer2 zone also saw a 49.9% volume decrease as the market traded sideways. Large market capitalization Layer1 and Layer2 tokens are weighted in this volume drop.

Why trade OTC?  
Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 
Email: trading@binance.com for more information.
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Frontier ($FRONT ) surged from $0.50 on February 17 to a one-year high of $3.08 on March 17. The 500%+ price increase drew significant market attention to this token and its project. This bullish movement was halted with a sharp decline on March 18th, following a message on social media saying that DWF Labs had transferred over 1 million FRONT tokens to Binance. The price was cut in half in two days after reaching a one-year high on March 17. Last week, MANTRA ($OM) outperformed the overall cryptocurrency market. It grew by 98.3%, while BTC fell by 13.7% during the same period. MANTRA is a layer-one blockchain focused on real-world assets (RWAs). The project team announced today that they have received a $11 million investment for their new funding round. RWA tokenization, along with AI and restaking, has been a key innovation sector this year, and the market is seeing significant capital inflows into it. Solana, which is now ranked fifth by market capitalization in the cryptocurrency market, experienced a strong bullish movement last week. Its price once reached $210, a two-year high following the fall of the FTX. The strong market demand for Solana began in October 2023, when SOL was at $22. As the Solana ecosystem grew, so did the transaction volume on the Solana chain, and demand for SOL.

Overall Market

The above chart shows the BTC price movement since October 2023.On March 14, BTC reached a new all-time high of 73,777 USDT, but a sell-off followed shortly. It fell more than 16% from the all-time high in just one week. One possible explanation is Genesis' liquidation. As previously stated in mid-February, one of the potential selloffs could be caused by Genesis' liquidation of GBTC ETF shares. According to Bloomberg, Genesis Global Holdco LLC has been granted bankruptcy court permission to sell Grayscale Bitcoin Trust shares worth more than $1.3 billion to compensate clients who lent it digital assets when BTC was at $52k.In one month, the BTC price increased by 40%, making the potential GBTC sale worth more than $1.8 billion. It's not surprising that Genesis wants to close this position as soon as possible and reap the benefits for its clients and creditors.Compared to the $1 billion liquidation by the FTX bankruptcy trustee, the BTC price may find support above $60k, as indicated by the red box in the chart.If the $60k support level cannot be maintained, the next strong support level will be around $50k.

Options Market

The above table shows the 25-delta skewness for BTC and ETH options. Following the sharp selloff in Bitcoin and Ethereum, both assets experienced negative skewnesses in their short-term options.Following the Dencun upgrade to Ethereum, ETH faced significant selling pressure. Furthermore, market expectations that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would approve an ETH spot ETF in May have waned, lowering the asset's price.The -14.79 skewness on 7-day expiry ETH options serves as a flashing warning to traders that the market is extremely bearish on ETH in the short term. In the last seven days, the spot price of ETH has dropped by 24.5%, from 4,098 to 3,092. The aggressive selloff in BTC and ETH shifted market sentiment from bullish to extremely bearish a week ago. Furthermore, the 30-day expiry ETH options is also seeing negative skewness, indicating that options traders are more willing to maintain a negative delta position on ETH for an extended period of time. In contrast, BTC's 30-day expiry options exhibit a positive skewness. The market remains bullish on Bitcoin, despite the fact that it is only one month away from being halved. This sentiment extends to longer time frames.

Macro at a glance 

Last Thursday (2024-03-14)In February, US retail sales rose by 0.6% month on month, falling short of the expected 0.8% increase. Core retail sales rose 0.3% month on month, less than the expected 0.5%.In February, the US PPI rose by 0.6% month on month, exceeding the expected 0.3% increase. The higher PPI growth rate raises concerns about a rebound in inflation, allowing the Federal Reserve to keep the current interest rate in place for a longer period of time before cutting it.Last week, US initial jobless claims were 209k, lower than the expected 218k. Continuing jobless claims totaled 1,811k during the same period, less than the estimated 1,900k. Both numbers indicate that the US labour market remains strong.On Monday (2024-03-18)In February, the Eurozone CPI rose 0.6% month on month, compared to a 0.4% decrease in January. The annualised CPI growth rate dropped to 2.6% from 2.8% in January.In its March meeting, the Reserve Bank of Australia maintained its interest rate at 4.35%, unchanged. Governor Bullock addressed the fact that inflation has moderated but remains higher than the target rate, and provided no hints about the future path of interest rates.The Bank of Japan ended its negative interest rate policy and raised its interest rate to a range of 0-0.1% from -0.1%, for the first time in 17 years. The BOJ's interest rate decision caused a sell-off in the Japanese yen, which fell to more than 150 yen to the dollar. The end of the negative interest rate suggests that global M2 will shrink at a faster rate if the Federal Reserve keeps interest rates at their current level for longer. A shrinking global M2 will have a negative impact on all risk assets, including Bitcoin.On Tuesday (2024-03-19)The Canadian CPI increased by 2.8% annually in February, down from 2.9% in January. The core CPI increased by 2.1% annually during the same period, down from 2.4% in January. The US building permit issuance was 1.518 million, exceeding the forecasted 1.5 million and January's 1.489 million. The higher-than-expected issuance number implied a positive US economic outlook and a stronger US dollar.On Wednesday (2024-03-20)The Federal Reserve will announce its interest rate decision following the March FOMC meeting. Based on recent strong economic data, the "higher for longer" narrative remains in play. The market expects the Fed to begin cutting interest rates in June, followed by three more cuts in 2024. The Fed's dot plot will be in focus because it will provide more clarity on the interest rate path in 2024.

Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. This week, trading volume increased significantly in the Liquid Staking and Launchpad zones. In the last seven days, the Liquid Staking Zone has experienced the greatest percentage increase in volume. The trading volume increased by 74.6%, with Jito ($JTO) driving the growth.The Launchpad zone also experienced a 22.9% increase in trading volume on Convert. Tokocrypto ($TKO) is the primary driver of the volume increase.Our desk also noticed that demand in the AI zone has decreased by 51.8%. After weeks of increased volume, trading demand for AI-related tokens decreased significantly. Our desk noticed that the majority of flows in the AI zone appeared to be focused on cashing out. Worldcoin ($WLD ) was one of the tokens whose volume dropped.

Why trade OTC?  

Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 

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On March 11, Amp ($AMP ), the digital asset token used to collateralize payments on the Flexa Network, increased by more than 350% in just twelve hours. The volatile move in AMP price was thought to be caused by a short squeeze. It reached a multi-week high of 0.02429 USDT before quickly dropping back into the 0.01 USDT range. It is currently trading at $0.01425 USDT.The 0x Protocol is an open-source, decentralized exchange infrastructure that facilitates the exchange of tokenized assets across multiple blockchains. ZRX, the 0x Protocol's governance token, has experienced strong market demand since March 9. The high demand was fueled by social media hype claiming that big whales are accumulating large long positions in this token.This week, our desk noticed that on-chain gaming projects are receiving a lot of funding, and investors are lining up to buy gaming project tokens. Yield Guild Games ($YGG) and GALA ($GALA ) are the two with the highest volume growth on Convert. Last week, both tokens experienced a more than 200% increase in volume on Convert, as well as an over 80% increase in price.
Overall Market

The above chart shows the BTC price movement since the beginning of January 2024.BTC surpassed the previous cycle peak of 69,000 USDT set in 2021, reaching 73,000 USDT today, March 12, 2024.Four years ago, on March 12, 2020, the crypto market and the entire financial market experienced one of their most volatile trading sessions in history. Along with the US equity market, which suffered the largest single-day percentage drop since the 1987 stock market crash, the crypto market experienced a massive market crash that day. BTC price fell 39.4% in one day, from 7,934 USDT to 4,800 USDT. It fell further when the Asian market opened, reaching a low of 3,782 USDT before recovering to the 5,000 range. ETH's price fell 44.6%, from 194 USDT to 107 USDT. It continued to fall to its lowest point of 86 USDT before recovering above the 100 level.Fast forward to today, BTC has reached an all-time high of 73,000 USDT, while ETH is trading at around 4,000 USDT.According to our analysis, BTC is in the price discovery phase, with 73,000 USDT serving as the new resistance level. This resistance level will not keep the BTC price in this range for long, and we expect it to quickly reach 80,000 once it clears the 73,000 barrier.
Options Market

The above table shows the 25-delta skewness for BTC and ETH options. Following the strong break of the previous all-time high of $69,000, BTC experienced some selling pressure, and we see that demand has cooled down.Ethereum, on the other hand, will have its Dencun upgrade on March 13. The Dencun upgrade will significantly reduce gas fees on layer 2 networks, resulting in more on-chain transactions on L2s. However, the Dencun upgrade will not reduce the Layer 1 network gas fee, so users will continue to pay high gas fees for transactions on the Ethereum network. Therefore, we could see fewer transactions on the ETH network and more in L2 networks after the upgrade.Options traders continue to be bullish on Bitcoin, from short to long term.  However, traders have different perspectives on Ethereum in the short and long term.According to the table above, the 25-delta skewness of BTC options is positive across all tenors, with a greater skewness to the upside in long-duration options. That suggests that traders may retreat from their bullish views on BTC in the short term but remain bullish in the long term.The negative skewness of ETH options in the 7-day and 30-day expiries indicates that options traders are more willing to hold a negative delta position in the shorter tenors. In the long-duration ETH options, our desk noticed that the skewness has returned to positive territory. The 180-day expiry ETH options currently have a positive 6.75 skewness, which is similar to the skewness observed in BTC options of the same duration. 

Macro at a glance 
Last Wednesday (2024-03-06)The Bank of Canada maintained its interest rate at 5.00%, unchanged. Governor Tiff Macklem declined to lay out a rate cut schedule, citing underlying inflation data that suggests a rate cut is premature at this time.In February, ADP nonfarm employment increased by 140,000, falling short of the expected 149,000. The lower-than-expected employment growth suggests that US labour market demand may begin to decline.Last Thursday (2024-03-07)The European Central Bank kept its interest rate at 4.50%, unchanged. The ECB also reduced its annual inflation forecast and hinted that they will have more data in June to increase its confidence in a rate cut.Fed Chairman Powell testified before the House, stating that the Fed does not expect a recession in the United States in the foreseeable future. He also stated that the Fed was close to having enough confidence to cut interest rates. The market is now pricing in the first interest rate cut for the June meeting. Last Friday (2024-03-08)Average hourly earnings in the United States increased by 0.1% in February, falling short of expectations of 0.2% and January's 0.5% increase. Slower hourly earnings growth reduces consumer demand in the United States, resulting in lower inflationary pressures on goods and services.The US unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 3.9% in February from 3.7% in January. The unexpected change in the unemployment rate indicated some extent of labour market rebalancing.On Tuesday (2024-03-12)In February, Germany's CPI increased by 0.4%, up from 0.2% in the previous month. The annualized CPI growth rate was 2.5%, down from 2.9% in January.The US CPI increased by 3.2% annually in February, exceeding the forecasted 3.1% and January's 3.1%. Core CPI growth was 3.8% annually, higher than the expected 3.7% but lower than January's 3.9%. The higher-than-expected CPI readings caused some volatility in the US futures markets. The hot CPI readings, however, did not change the market's view of the Fed's June rate cut. The S&P 500 index rose 1.12%, the Nasdaq index rose 1.54%, and the Dow Jones industrial average index rose 0.61%.Along with the strong US equity market, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $73k after the market opened and was heavily sold afterwards. The Bitcoin price fell 6% to $68,620 intraday before recovering from the low and now trading at $72,030.
Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. This week our desk observed massive trading demand on Gaming and Infrastructure zones. In the last seven days, the Gaming Zone has emerged as the most popular area. The trading volume increased by 89.8%, primarily due to high demand for Yield Guild Games ($YGG) and GALA ($GALA ).The Infrastructure zone also experienced a 50% increase in trading volume on our Convert Portal. Livepeer ($LPT) and Render ($RNDR), both of which focus on the DePin area, are the two main contributors to this high growth volume.Our desk also observed that demand in the Meme zone has decreased by 25.9%. Following the stunning 1,182% volume increase last week, the FOMO (fear of missing out) sentiment subsided. Our desk noticed that most flows in the Meme zone seemed to be skewed towards cashing out.
Why trade OTC?  
Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 
Email: trading@binance.com for more information.
Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!

This week, Shiba Inu ($SHIB ) is one of the most popular coins on social media. The price of SHIB was up 387% since February 26 to 0.00004567 on March 5, the highest in 2 years. The parabolic move on SHIB price also brought in massive trading demand for this token. Now SHIB is ranked 11 by market capitalization, bypassing Chainlink ($LINK) and Uniswap ($UNI), and one rank below Dogecoin ($DOGE).Moreover, the hype on SHIB spread to other dog-themed coins, including Floki ($FLOKI ). Floki experienced an exciting week, with a 400% gain in one week, from February 26 to March 4. The price surge came on the heels of a community-backed proposal to burn 2% of the token’s supply. The proposal to burn tokens was met with overwhelming support from the community, with nearly 90% of votes favouring the initiative.With the incredible price action on meme coins, ConstitutionDAO ($PEOPLE ) also joined the party. The price of PEOPLE started to pump on February 26 and posted a 125% gain when the BTC price reached a new all-time high of $69,000 today.
Overall Market

The above chart shows the BTC price movement since the end of January 2024.BTC hit an all-time high of 69,000 USDT on the spot market today!After the BTC price reached 69,000 USDT on November 10, 2021, the bear market began with a series of market capitulation events, including the collapse of the Terra Luna ecosystem, the bankruptcy of Three Arrow Capital, and the bankruptcy of crypto exchange FTX. On November 21, 2022, the bitcoin price fell to 15,476 USDT in just one year.Although the Bitcoin price found its ground and moved higher in 2023, the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank caused a 22% correction in Bitcoin price.Since the beginning of 2023, the Bitcoin price has undergone multiple 15% corrections, the most recent being the selloff following the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs.Today, the Bitcoin price reclaimed its all-time high of 69,000 USDT before falling as much as 14.5% in five hours to $59,005 USDT on the spot market. The bulls recovered some of the loss, and it is now trading at 65,743 USDT.Such volatile trading sessions are normal in the crypto market, and our desk observed a larger scale of correction in other altcoins, particularly those that had doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled in the previous few days.Today’s retracement found its support at the red box zone around $59,500, as illustrated in the chart above. This is a strong support zone. The bitcoin price could continue its upward journey as long as this support level is intact.
Options Market

The above table shows the 25-delta skewness for BTC options last week.The recent Bitcoin price action has resulted in several spikes on the short-term options market (the black line). The skewness reached more than 10 on March 1, when the Bitcoin price soared to $63,500. The increase in skewness suggests that options traders were rushing to build a positive delta position, either by buying calls, selling puts, or a combination of both.We saw multiple downside spikes today, indicating the opposite trading action. During the capitulation, when the Bitcoin price fell to $59,000, it appeared that options traders were taking a negative delta position.Despite significant fluctuations in the short-tenor options last week, we noticed that the skewness in the mid-to-long-tenor options remained positive at the same level. Nonetheless, options traders remain optimistic about the bitcoin price over the next three to six months. This bullish sentiment could help the BTC move higher and reach a new all-time high in the coming months.

Macro at a glance 
Last Thursday (2024-02-29)In February, Germany's monthly CPI growth rate was 0.4%, lower than the estimated 0.5%. The annualized CPI growth rate fell from 2.9% in January to 2.5% in February, which was lower than the expected 2.6%.In January, the US PCE price index increased by 0.3% month on month, up from 0.1% in December. The annualized PCE price index rose 2.4%, in line with market expectations, slowing from 2.6% in December. The US core PCE price index was also regaining momentum, rising from 0.1% in December to 0.4% in January month on month, as expected. The annualized core PCE price index fell from 2.9% in December to 2.8% in January, as expected. The re-acceleration of PCE price index growth and core PCE price index growth raises the prospect of a June rate cut by the Fed. The US dollar index rose, while the Bitcoin price fluctuated around $62,500.Last Friday (2024-03-01)The annual CPI growth rate in the Eurozone fell to 2.6% in February, down from 2.8% in January. However, it exceeded the estimated 2.5% rate. The core CPI growth rate fell from 3.3% in January to 3.1% in February, but it remained higher than the expected 2.9%.In February, the US ISM Manufacturing PMI was reported at 47.8, lower than the economists' forecast of 49.5 and further down from January's 49.1. It indicates that the US manufacturing industry has continued to contract.On Tuesday (2024-03-05)The US ISM non-manufacturing PMI was reported at 52.6, below the economists' forecast of 53.0.The US equity market fell due to a selloff in AI-related stocks, including Microsoft and Adobe, after AI startup Anthropic claimed that its new models, Claude 3, could outperform OpenAI's ChatGPT. The risk-off sentiment has spread to the cryptocurrency market. BTC fell $10,000, or 14.5%, after reaching a new all-time high of 69,000 USDT in the spot market.

Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. This week our desk observed massive trading demand on Meme and Metaverse zones. The Meme zone's volume increase of 1,182.1% is primarily driven by high demand for Shiba Inu ($SHIB ). Shiba Inu ($SHIB ) has doubled in price over the last seven days, owing to strong buying demand. The popularity of dog-themed coins increased trading volume for Dogecoin ($DOGE) and Floki ($FLOKI ). Meme ($MEME), ConstitutionDAO ($PEOPLE ), and Bonk ($BONK) are also experiencing significant trading volume increases.The trading volume in the Metaverse zone has risen by 160.7% in the last seven days. Decentraland ($MANA) and The Sandbox ($SAND) are the primary sources of increased demand. Our desk saw a 126.7% increase in trading volume in the POW zone. With Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high of $69,000, trading volume for Bitcoin ($BTC) and Bitcoin Cash ($BCH) increased a lot, generating strong interest in coins in the POW zone.

Why trade OTC?  
Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 

Email: trading@binance.com for more information.

Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!

Uniswap, a leading decentralized exchange (DEX), saw its UNI token skyrocket last week after a proposal to share platform fees with token holders who delegate and stake their tokens. Last Saturday, the UNI price soared over 70% to a near two-year high of $12.79, driven by expectations of increased demand and lower UNI circulating supply due to increased staking on the platform.Other DEX projects, such as DYDX ($DYDX), Curve ($CRV), and Pancakeswap ($CAKE), benefited from the rising UNI as well. Investors hope that the same fee-sharing model will be applied to other DEX platforms.Pepe ($PEPE ), a fog-themed meme coin, has seen a surge in demand in recent days, following rumors on social media that it will be listed on a US cryptocurrency exchange. The bullish sentiment caused the price to double in 48 hours, and it is currently trading at 0.00000330. The increased number of active Pepe wallet addresses fueled the bullish sentiment.   Theta Network ($THETA ) is currently developing the Theta EdgeCloud, an innovative decentralized software platform for periphery computing. The first phase of EdgeCloud will be unveiled on May 1, 2024, according to Theta's roadmap. The Theta team's announcement sparked investor interest, sending the THETA price to a two-year high of $2.30.
Overall Market

The above chart shows the BTC price movement since May 2021.As we discussed last week, once Bitcoin broke through the $53,000 resistance level, the next resistance level was $59,000. BTC price fluctuated in the $53,000 red zone for 12 days before breaking through the upper boundary in the European session on Wednesday, February 28.The bullish momentum continued when the US market opened, and the massive inflow from Bitcoin spot ETFs drove the BTC price even higher. Over $500 million of net inflows from Bitcoin spot ETFs in two consecutive days demonstrates the market's strong demand for Bitcoin exposure from investors.On Thursday morning, European time, the strong buy flow returned, pushing the Bitcoin price above $60,000, a level not seen in over two years. The rapid movement in the Bitcoin price resulted in a large liquidation of short positions, and the squeeze pushed the Bitcoin price to 64,000 USDT, according to the Binance spot market. Although bears pushed the BTC price down to 58,700, the daily low, right after the $64,000 high was claimed, bulls were able to recover their gains and keep the price around $62,000 into Asia morning.The volatile market caused significant long- and short-position liquidations, and the market normalised after the big up-and-down swing in the US session.Our desk noticed that altcoins, particularly Ethereum, the second largest coin by market capitalization, were not moving in conjunction with Bitcoin. Instead of spreading purchasing power across other altcoins, the buy flows were heavily concentrated on Bitcoin.The capital inflow pattern is different from what we have experienced in the 2016 and 2020 bull markets. In our opinion, it indicates that the new capital flowing into the crypto market is primarily from the traditional finance world via ETFs, rather than capital from the blockchain/crypto native world.That being said, Bitcoin spot ETFs have a significant impact on the Bitcoin price and the crypto market as a whole, and this new capital may disrupt the bull market structure seen in the previous two bull runs following the Bitcoin reward halving event.We might see the bull market top sooner than most crypto traders expect in 2025. It also suggests that we might see an all-time high in Bitcoin price before the Bitcoin reward halving event in April.
Options Market

The above table shows the at-the-money implied volatility for BTC in February.Bitcoin's price fell to $38,500 in January before beginning a bull run on February 7. The strong bullish move during the Lunar New Year drove the IVs up from below 40% at the beginning of February to 50% by mid-February.After the BTC price consolidated in the $51,000 to $53,000 range for 12 days after mid-February, the IVs of BTC options remained between 50% and 60%, rather than dropping back to 40%.When the BTC price rose recently due to strong demand, so did IVs, indicating that the market was pricing in more volatility in the underlying bitcoin price.Things got interesting after Bitcoin broke the $53,000 and $59,000 resistance levels in a very short time; IVs erupted as the market was surprised by such a rapid rise. The IV for 7-day options spiked over 80% due to the large up-and-down swing last night, and it is currently priced at 70%.The IVs of longer-term options also increased following the volatile trading session, with all trading above the 60% level.The IVs will be maintained at such a high level in the coming days if the BTC price stays above the critical level of $60,000. If the BTC price gradually falls below $60,000, we expect to see 50% IVs for options across all expiries.

Macro at a glance 
Last Thursday (2024-02-22)In January, Eurozone CPI growth decreased by 0.4% on a monthly basis, while the annualised CPI growth rate was 2.8%. The continued slowdown in CPI growth in the Eurozone provides the basis for the European Central Bank to lower interest rates later this year.US initial jobless claims fell to 201k last week, below the estimated 217k and the previous week's 213k. The data suggest that the US labour market remains tight.In February, the S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI was 51.5, exceeding economists' expectations of 50.5. The higher-than-expected PMI reading indicates that the US manufacturing sector is recovering from its contraction last year.The US S&P Global Services PMI was 51.3 in February, below economists' forecasts of 52.4 and the previous month's 52.5. It demonstrates that managers in the US service sector were less optimistic than last month about future economic activity.Germany reported GDP growth of -0.3% q/q and -0.2% y/y. The decline in Germany's GDP growth raised market concerns about the economy's impact from high interest rates. On Tuesday (2024-02-27)In January, US durable goods orders fell 6.1% month on month, worse than the expected 4.9% drop. It marked a significant change from the 0.3% decline in durable goods orders in December.Consumer confidence in the United States fell to 106.7 in February, from an estimated 114.8 and 110.9 in January, according to the Conference Board. Lower consumer confidence will reduce retail sales and consumption.On Wednesday (2024-02-28)The US GDP growth rate in the fourth quarter was 3.2%, slightly lower than the expected 3.3%. The 3.2% growth rate followed a strong 4.9% GDP growth rate in the third quarter in the United States, implying that the US economy was on a firmer footing heading into the first quarter.Next Week, we will keep an eye on the following events:US ADP nonfarm payroll changeBank of Canada interest rate decisionEuropean Central Bank interest rate decision

Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. This week our desk observed massive trading demand on Meme and DeFi zones. The Meme zone's 78.0% volume increase is primarily due to high demand for Pepe ($PEPE ). The abnormal hype surrounding PEPE coin on social media resulted in high demand for this coin, which quickly spread to other Meme coins such as Bonk ($BONK) and Dogecoin ($DOGE), causing their prices to move in the same direction. The trading volume in the DeFi zone increased by 64% in the last seven days. The primary drivers of increased demand are Spell ($SPELL), COTI ($COTI), and Uniswap ($UNI ). As stated at the beginning of the commentary, all three tokens are in the top five weekly coin interest tables.We observed a 16% drop in trading volumes in the AI zone. Following a remarkable 375% increase in trading volume last week, demand for coins in the AI zone has decreased.

Why trade OTC?  

Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 

Email: trading@binance.com for more information.

Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!

 

After passing $51,000 last Wednesday, Bitcoin encountered strong resistance at $53,000 and is currently trading sideways in the $51,000 to $53,000 range. While Bitcoin struggles to gain another leg up, the altcoin space is brimming with strong performers. The recently released text-to-video model Sora by OpenAI reignited market interest in artificial intelligence (AI). Worldcoin ($WLD ), founded in 2019 by Sam Altman, Max Novendstern, and Alex Blania, is one of the winners following the product's release. Sam Altman is also the CEO of OpenAI. WLD prices increased from $3.50 to $7.80 in only four days following the introduction of Sora. Livepeer ($LPT ) has also benefited from Sora's introduction. Livepeer is a decentralized live video streaming network protocol that leverages decentralized technology to provide a viable alternative to traditional, centralized broadcasting methods. LPT's market capitalization nearly tripled in two days following the news, and it now trades at $15.Prom ($PROM) also had a volatile week, with a more than 90% increase in a few hours after DWF Labs CEO Andrei Grachev publicly confirmed his personal investment in the project. Prom is a gaming non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace and rental platform that allows for uncollateralized rentals of NFTs and mortgage services.

Overall Market

The above chart shows the BTC price movement since December 2021.As we discussed last week, BTC faces significant resistance above $53,000, as shown by the red zone. If BTC overcomes this resistance level, there will be no significant resistance until it reaches $59,000. As a result, the bears will try to defend this resistance level as much as they can.While BTC has been trading sideways over the last few days, inflows from Bitcoin spot ETFs remain strong. A constant $300 to $500 million in net inflows to Bitcoin ETFs per day demonstrates the high demand from investors for risk exposure to bitcoin.However, the Bitcoin price has increased by 35% last month, rising from $38,500, the lowest level since the FTX bankruptcy estate liquidated $1 billion of GBTC, to $52,000. It's not surprising that investors and traders are rotating their capital from Bitcoin to other altcoins. This capital rotation is completely normal given BTC’s significant price movement.

The above chart shows the ETH/BTC price movement in the last two weeks.
After Bitcoin surged and passed $51,000 last Wednesday, our desk noticed a strong demand for Ethereum. In the last seven days, the ETH/BTC price has increased from 0.0531 to 0.0572, with ETH outperforming BTC.Our desk expects this upward trend in ETH/BTC to continue in the coming weeks, as the ETH network will have the long-awaited Dencun upgrade in March.Another factor contributing to the ETH price's outperformance is the potential approval of an Ethereum spot ETF. Currently, the market expects the SEC approval in May.

Options Market

The above table shows the at-the-money implied volatility for BTC and ETH options with different expiries.While the implied volatilities for BTC options are all above 50%, they stay at the same level as last week. On the other hand, the implied volatilities for ETH options are around 60%, except for the 30-day expiry one.With a large difference in IVs between ETH options and BTC options in the front end, it seems options traders are buying ETH options and pushing the options in the front-end tenor to be higher. It signals that a potential large movement in ETH price in the next few days is priced in the options market.It will be interesting to monitor the IV on ETH near-term options and see if it retraces to the normal range soon. As the bulls failed to hold their ground and keep the ETH price above the $3,000 critical level, our desk expects to see both bulls and bears push forward and crash on the other side.Given the high IVs on ETH front-end options, selling covered calls and covered puts can yield nice returns. For example, selling an ETH-3000 call expiring March 1 will collect an 86.4 USDT premium, a 119% annualized yield, with a spot reference of 2940 USDT.

Macro at a glance 
Last Thursday (2024-02-15)In January, US retail sales fell 0.8% month on month, more than the expected 0.2% drop. The retail sales growth rate in December was revised to 0.4% from 0.6%. Core retail sales fell 0.6% on a monthly basis in January, compared to the expected 0.2% increase.US initial jobless claims remained in the low range, with 212k new claims reported last week, slightly exceeding the expected 219k.British retail sales increased by the most in nearly three years in January as consumers regained their appetite for spending, implying that the economy could recover more quickly than expected from its recession in the second half of last year. Retail sales increased by 3.4% in January, far exceeding the estimated 1.5% increase and December's 3.3% decrease.Last Friday (2024-02-16)The US PPI increased by 0.3% on a monthly basis in January, surpassing both the previous month's -0.1% and the estimated 0.1% increase. The rising PPI will put upward pressure on inflation and could lead to a later rate cut by the Fed.According to Statistics Canada, Canada's CPI fell to 2.9% year on year in January, down from 3.4% the previous month. This reading came in lower than the market's expectation of 3.3%. On a monthly basis, the CPI remained unchanged, despite the expected 0.4% increase. The annual Core CPI increased by 2.4% during the same period, down from 2.6% in December.  The disinflationary numbers in Canada raise the possibility of an early rate cut by the Bank of Canada.On Tuesday (2024-02-20)China's central bank cut the 5-year loan prime rate by 0.25 basis points to 3.95%, while leaving the 1-year rate unchanged at 3.45%. This rate cut is regarded as the latest effort to relieve pressure on the country's struggling real estate market.

Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. This week our desk observed massive trading demand on AI and Fan Token zones. The impressive 374.5% volume increase in the AI zone is mainly due to the strong demand for Worldcoin ($WLD ). The newly released OpenAI product Sora renewed the market's enthusiasm for Worldcoin, an iris biometric cryptocurrency project founded by Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO.The trading volume in the Storage zone also doubled. The main drivers of increased demand are Arweave ($AR) and Filecoin ($FIL). Filecoin ($FIL), a peer-to-peer file storage network, announced on Sunday that it will collaborate with smart contract platform Solana (SOL) to develop decentralized blockchain storage solutions. The announcement caused Filecoin to rise from $5.8 to $7.4 in three days.

Why trade OTC?  
Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 

To access manual price quotations, you may visit our Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/spot), where you can RFQ (request-for-quote) and trade directly with our OTC trading team via a live chat.

To utilise our Algo orders features, you may visit our Binance Algo Orders platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/AlgoTrading). 

For any other inquiries on OTC trading, please reach out to us via our email at trading@binance.com for our trading desk to get in touch with you and get started. 

OTC trades may also be automatically quoted on Binance Convert and via API, offering users a quick and simple way to execute trades across 60,000+ pairs with one simple click. Binance Convert supports over 350 tokens listed on the exchange including fiat pairs. Begin trading from as little as 1 USD. To start, simply navigate to the Binance Convert & Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert), select the coins you wish to trade, preview and confirm the quote with settlement reflecting almost instantly in your wallet balance. For details and access to Binance Convert OTC API, please refer to our Convert Endpoints (https://binance-docs.github.io/apidocs/spot/en/#convert-endpoints) and reach out to us at trading@binance.com if you have any questions or require assistance.

Visit Binance OTC (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for more information on our OTC products and solutions. 

Experience the main benefits of Binance Convert and OTC Trading: 
Fast & Competitive Pricing Instant settlement Widest availability of coins Bespoke service with unique market insights Zero fees and slippage 

Email: trading@binance.com 

Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!

With the strong BTC rally during the Lunar New Year holidays, Stacks ($STX ) soared over 40% in the last seven days.Stacks ($STX ) is a Bitcoin layer 2 solution that enables decentralised apps and smart contracts. Stacks ($STX ) has been running its native network since 2020, and the recent #BRC20 and #BRC404 innovations fuel the enthusiasm for different layers on Bitcoin dApp. And Stacks is one of the leading players in this field.STX was trading at ~$0.63 in November 2023, and BTC was trading at~$36,000 at that time. It started to move higher along with the Bitcoin price, which was driven by the potential Bitcoin spot ETFs approval narrative. With the BTC spot ETFs approvals by the SEC on January 10 and the resulting constant inflow, except the first 9 trading days on the FTX bankruptcy estate liquidation, BTC reclaimed a two-year high above $52,000. Consequently,  STX, an L2 solution on the Bitcoin network and high beta relative to BTC, soared from $0.63 in November 2023, to $2.70 as of today, which is a 328% increase in three months.
Overall Market

The above chart shows the BTC price movement from December 2021.Despite the Lunar New Year holiday, BTC price experienced a strong inflow and the price soared above the $52,000 level, before facing some resistance currently ranging between $52,000 and $53,800.The long-awaited Bitcoin spot ETFs approved by the SEC released a tremendous amount of enthusiasm from US investors, especially asset managers who were lacking financial instruments to invest in cryptocurrencies due to the regulations and their investment policy. Although CME launched the Bitcoin Futures in 2017 and Grayscale offered a variety of products linked to cryptocurrencies, the liquidity and the scale of these products were very limited.Bitcoin spot ETFs provided asset managers with an option to invest in Bitcoin with significant liquidity and a large scale of Assets Under Management (AUM). Unlike Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, the trust fund before it got converted to spot ETF, the nature of the ETF allows creation/redemption using the underlying asset, which eliminates the price difference between the ETF price and the underlying asset price. One of the differences between investing in Bitcoin itself and ETFs custody of the assets. With the better regulatory environment in the ETF marketplace, ETF investors were more reassured with less risks relating to custody of the assets while being able to gain exposure equivalent to holding Bitcoin.That explains the strong inflows from the Bitcoin spot ETFs and the price action caused by it.However, this morning, Bloomberg reported that Genesis Global Holdco LLC won bankruptcy court permission to sell the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust shares worth more than $1.3 billion to compensate clients who lent it digital assets.This news could act as a headwind to the recent strong BTC price. When the FTX bankruptcy estate liquidated the $1 billion of GBTC back in January, BTC tumbled from $48,500 to a low of $38,500.Will the sale from Genesis cause the same degree of selloff on the BTC price? The answer is less likely. Here are some of the reasons:1) FTX bankruptcy estate was selling its stake in a rush, clearing its $1 billion position in only 9 trading sessions. Genesis might not be under the same time constraint as the prices are favourable and the momentum is strong.2) The market sentiment was not as bullish as we are right now, getting closer to the 5th halving event in April. Back in January, the market was filled with “buy the rumour, sell the news” sentiment, and the FTX sale further increased pressure on the BTC price.3) The total ETF AUM is now much larger than when the spot ETFs launched on January 11. The larger AUM and a border clientele base on spot ETF provide a stronger ability to cushion the selling pressure. Therefore, our desk expects to see some headwinds on the BTC price due to Genesis’ $1.3 billion sale but not a large-scale correction.
Options Market

The above table shows the at-the-money implied volatility on BTC in the past week. As the BTC price went in one direction, the implied volatility increased as expected. When the underlying price moves in one direction for consecutive days, the risk of any pullback increases, which is reflected in the elevated implied volatility (IV).However, we did not see any large elevated IVs in the mid to long tenors, which tends to imply that options traders have either missed the chance to build their positions and are waiting for better entry levels, or have trimmed their positions along the way up. Either way, it suggests that options traders are not chasing this upward trend.That being said, the current bullish momentum could continue for an extended time. If we see a sharp increase in IVs with a small rally on the underlying price, it could signal that the market sentiment is overextended, and a pullback is down the road.

Macro at a glance 
Last Thursday (2024-02-08)US initial jobless claims fell to 218k, down from 227k last week.In January, the German CPI rose by 0.2% month on month, slightly higher than the 0.1% increase in December. On a yearly basis, the German CPI rose 2.9%, a significant decrease from December's 3.7%.On Tuesday (2024-02-13)The US CPI came in higher than expected in January. The CPI increased 3.1% year on year, 0.2% higher than the expected 2.9% increase, and slowed from 3.4% in December. It increased by 0.3% m/m in January, slightly more than the expected 0.2% and more than the 0.2% increase in December.The US core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose by 3.9% year on year, exceeding the expected 3.7% increase and matching the reading from last December. It increased by 0.4% monthly, exceeding the expected increase of 0.3%.After the CPI reading was released before the US market opened, risk assets such as US equities and cryptocurrencies experienced an immediate selloff, while the US dollar index ($DXY) rose as rate cut expectations eased. The S&P 500 fell 1.37% on the day, while the Nasdaq fell 1.58% and the Dow Jones fell 1.35%. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) surged 13.64% and closed at a three-month high.The US dollar index rose 0.70% and closed at 104.83. Gold prices fell below $2,000 and closed at $1,991.60.Bitcoin fell 3% immediately following the CPI reading, but recovered gradually during the US session, closing with a loss of less than 1%.

Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. The POW (Proof-of-Work)  zone saw the highest overall increase in trading volume last week. The soaring BTC price brought in trading demands on Bitcoin ($BTC) itself and Bitcoin Cash ($BCH), with the trading volumes on both coins doubling over the last week.The trading volume in the NFT zone also doubled. SuperVerse ($SUPER) and SuperRare ($RARE) are the two leaders in this category with over 400% and 200% trading volume increase, respectively.The two tokens, Dogecoin ($DOGE) and Ordi ($ORDI), are the main contributors to the 55% volume growth in the Meme zone. The trading volume on both tokens jumped 52% and 82%, respectively. 

Why trade OTC?  
Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 

To access manual price quotations, you may visit our Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/spot), where you can RFQ (request-for-quote) and trade directly with our OTC trading team via a live chat.

To utilise our Algo orders features, you may visit our BinanceAlgo Orders platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/AlgoTrading). 

For any other inquiries on OTC trading, please reach out to us via our email at trading@binance.com for our trading desk to get in touch with you and get started. 

OTC trades may also be automatically quoted on Binance Convert and via API, offering users a quick and simple way to execute trades across 60,000+ pairs with one simple click. Binance Convert supports over 350 tokens listed on the exchange including fiat pairs. Begin trading from as little as 1 USD. To start, simply navigate to the Binance Convert & Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert), select the coins you wish to trade, preview and confirm the quote with settlement reflecting almost instantly in your wallet balance. For details and access to Binance Convert OTC API, please refer to our Convert Endpoints (https://binance-docs.github.io/apidocs/spot/en/#convert-endpoints) and reach out to us at trading@binance.com if you have any questions or require assistance.

Visit Binance OTC (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for more information on our OTC products and solutions. 

Experience the main benefits of Binance Convert and OTC Trading: 
Fast & Competitive Pricing Instant settlement Widest availability of coins Bespoke service with unique market insights Zero fees and slippage 

Email: trading@binance.com 

Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!

In recent months, $OM has experienced significant bullish momentum. The token has increased in value by 65.7% this week, accompanied by a large increase in trading volume.The rise in $OM 's value follows a DAO proposal to increase staking rewards on MANTRA Finance, the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem powered by MANTRA DAO. The proposal received overwhelming support, with 99.6% of voters backing it, resulting in a significant increase in staked $OM tokens. Chainlink ($LINK ), the largest market capitalization token in the Oracle space, broke through its resistance level and traded above $18 last week. It has been trading in the $13 to $16.5 range since November 2023, and it finally broke the upper resistance level, soaring above $19 after large short positions were liquidated. Currently, it is trading above $18.Terra Luna Classic ($LUNC) had volatile trading sessions over the weekend. The 18% increase followed by an 8% retracement in two days posed significant price risks to traders and investors. 
Overall Market

The above chart shows the BTC price movement starting in 2024.Our desk has identified a strong resistance level in the $43,300 to $44,000 range, as shown in the red area. The BTC price attempted to challenge the resistance level several times last week, but all attempts were rejected. Price rallies typically occur right before the US session begins and fade away after the US session ends. The time pattern suggests that the recent BTC buy flows are primarily driven by inflows from BTC spot ETFs. Meanwhile, our desk noticed that trading volume on the exchange has decreased as we approach the Lunar New Year this Saturday, February 10, 2024. The Lunar New Year is a major festival in many countries and cultures, and a lower trading volume is expected during the holiday season. That being said, we anticipate a consolidation of BTC prices in the coming days before the market finds a direction.Google recently approved the advertising of some cryptocurrency products, such as spot ETFs for Bitcoin. Facebook and Instagram, two of the most popular social media platforms in the United States, are planning to allow businesses to advertise spot Bitcoin ETFs. The change represents a significant step toward greater mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies.

The above chart shows the ETH price movement starting in 2024.Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin in recent days, with the ETH price rising back above $2,300. However, ETH is also encountering resistance between $2,350 and $2,390, as shown in the red zone.The SEC delayed its decision on several Ethereum spot ETF applications last week, as the market expected. Analysts predict the SEC will approve the Ethereum spot ETF in May.The recent increase in the ETH price could be attributed to staking on EigenLayer, an Ethereum-based restaking protocol. EigenLayer's total value locked (TVL) increased by $1.8 billion after the developers removed the upper limit on all pools for various liquid staking tokens. The large increase in EigenLayer's TVL was primarily due to the deposit from Lido's sETH. ETH holders can earn higher rewards by restaking their staked ETH on EigenLayer. The restaking feature encourages ETH holders to stake their ETH with higher rewards while also lowering market supply by reducing the amount of ETH in circulation.
Options Market

The above table shows the at-the-money implied volatility on BTC and ETH options with different expiry dates. Following the recent consolidation of BTC and ETH prices, implied volatility has fallen below 40% on the front end. The IVs for BTC and ETH's seven-day expiry options are 35.16% and 37.88%, respectively. The IVs of long-dated options are around 50%, down from 60% one month ago. Retracements of IVs on BTC and ETH options are consistent with our expectations. We anticipate a slow trading flow over the next week or so during the celebration of the Lunar New Year. Our desk believes the trading flow will recover and the IVs will move higher as the bitcoin halving date approaches, which is expected to be around April 17. 

Macro at a glance 

Last Thursday (2024-02-01)The Eurozone's projected annual CPI growth rate is 2.8% in January 2024, with a projected core CPI growth rate of 3.3%. Both readings exceeded the expected rates of 2.7% and 3.2%, respectively.The Bank of England maintained its interest rate at 5.25%, unchanged. BoE Governor Andrew Bailey indicated that the central bank was ready to begin easing policy, but only after more evidence that inflation was heading in the right direction.US initial jobless claims increased to 224k last week, exceeding the expected 213k and the previous week's 215k.The US ISM Manufacturing PMI was 49.1 in January, higher than the expected 47.2 and the previous month's 47.1. ISM manufacturing prices increased from 45.2 in December to 52.9 in January. The better-than-expected manufacturing data suggests that US manufacturing business activities are improving as the border economy strengthens.Last Friday (2024-02-02)US nonfarm payrolls increased by 353k in January, far exceeding the expected 187k. In January, average hourly earnings rose by 0.6% on a monthly basis, exceeding the expected 0.3% increase.The US unemployment rate was 3.7% in January, lower than the expected 3.8%.The stronger-than-expected nonfarm payroll growth and average hourly earnings growth support the Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates unchanged last Wednesday.On Monday (2024-02-05)The US ISM non-manufacturing PMI was 53.4 in January, higher than the expected 52.0 and the previous month's 50.5. ISM non-manufacturing prices increased from 57.4 in December to 64.0 in January. The better-than-expected data suggests that the US economy is in expansion mode.The Reserve Bank of Australia maintained its interest rate at 4.35%, unchanged. However, RBA governor Michele Bullock left the door open for further rate hikes to address the high inflation rate.

Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. The DeFi zone saw the highest overall increase in trading volume last week. The trading volumes of the recently listed Jupiter ($JUP) account for the majority of the increase in this zone.The two tokens with the greatest volume increase in the Launchpad zone were Tokocrypto ($TKO) and TROY ($TROY). Our desk has observed strong trade demand for Tokocrypto over the last two weeks, and its price has risen by more than 14% during that time.In the Layer 1/Layer 2 zone, the decreased volume is primarily due to slower trading activity on large-cap coins. Our desk observes strong trading demand for Nervos Network ($CKB) and Oasis Network ($ROSE ); however, the volume increase was offset by a decrease in volume for other coins. 

Why trade OTC?  

Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 

To access manual price quotations, you may visit our Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/spot), where you can RFQ (request-for-quote) and trade directly with our OTC trading team via a live chat.

To utilise our Algo orders features, you may visit our BinanceAlgo Orders platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/AlgoTrading). 

For any other inquiries on OTC trading, please reach out to us via our email at trading@binance.com for our trading desk to get in touch with you and get started. 

OTC trades may also be automatically quoted on Binance Convert and via API, offering users a quick and simple way to execute trades across 60,000+ pairs with one simple click. Binance Convert supports over 350 tokens listed on the exchange including fiat pairs. Begin trading from as little as 1 USD. To start, simply navigate to the Binance Convert & Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert), select the coins you wish to trade, preview and confirm the quote with settlement reflecting almost instantly in your wallet balance. For details and access to Binance Convert OTC API, please refer to our Convert Endpoints (https://binance-docs.github.io/apidocs/spot/en/#convert-endpoints) and reach out to us at trading@binance.com if you have any questions or require assistance.

Visit Binance OTC (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for more information on our OTC products and solutions. 

Experience the main benefits of Binance Convert and OTC Trading: 
Fast & Competitive Pricing Instant settlement Widest availability of coins Bespoke service with unique market insights Zero fees and slippage 

Email: trading@binance.com 

Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!

Following an immediate selloff of BRC20 tokens on the exchange, 1000SATS and ORDI recovered in the last seven days, posting 23.2% and 15.2% gains, respectively.The volatile market conditions prompted traders and investors to use Binance Convert to reduce the price risk of their positions' setup and existence. Convert provides users with 24/7 access to an automated quoting platform. Once the user accepts the quote, the trade is complete. The price displayed on the screen is the final price; there are no additional trading fees. Furthermore, once the price is locked, the user does not have to be concerned about market price fluctuations if the market is moving against them. It is one of the most effective ways to reduce price risk for large trades. In addition, trading on Convert reduces the amount of trading information available to the open market because the trade is executed directly with the Binance OTC desk. It mitigates market impact and information leakage on the orderbook.
Overall Market

The above chart shows the BTC from November 2023 to the present.As we mentioned in our previous post, following the $1 billion GBTC liquidation by FTX's bankruptcy estate, the BTC price finally got a chance to breathe and recovered above the green support zone around $38,000.The rebound successfully pushed BTC's price back above the lower blue trend line support. The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday afternoon that the interest rate would remain unchanged at 5.50%, and Fed Chairman Powell's speech shattered the market's hopes for a March rate cut. All risk asset prices fell following the speech. US equities closed lower, with the S&P500 index down 1.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index down more than 2.2%. The cryptocurrency market is experiencing the same selloff force as the rate cut will be delivered by the Fed later than markets were anticipating. BTC fell by over $1,800 from $43,730 before the Fed rate decision announcement to $41,900 after the Asian markets opened.If the BTC price is supported around $41,500, near the lower blue trend line, and bounces back, we can confirm that the correction from $49,000 right after the Bitcoin spot ETF approval date has ended. And we should see the $50,000 milestone before the halving event later this year.

The above chart shows the ETH price since November 2023.As we discussed in our previous post, Ethereum experienced a significant selloff following the on-chain movements initiated by Celsius Network. The large-scale movement of ETH to centralized exchanges caught the market's attention that the next round of liquidation could be not too far down the road.The market consolidated and recovered alongside the BTC price. However, following the breach, the lower blue support trend line has flipped to resistance.Yesterday, ETH surged above $2,380 in a short period of time after a Standard Chartered Bank analyst issued a bullish forecast. The analyst believes the SEC will approve ETH spot ETFs on May 23, with a price target of $4,000 for ETH prior to approval. However, the sentiment faded quickly. Today, ETH prices fell alongside other risk assets after Fed Chairman Powell downplayed the likelihood of a March rate cut.Our desk remains cautious about the ETH price. If ETH gains support above the red line ($2,130) and breaks above the resistant blue trend line, we can expect bullish momentum to push ETH to $2,700 and higher. However, if we lose the $2,130 support line, ETH will be able to test the $1,850 support level.
Options Market

The above table shows the 25-delta skewness on BTC and ETH options. Following the recent consolidation of BTC and ETH prices, implied volatility returned to the range seen before the spot ETF approval. This indicates that the market expects less volatility in BTC and ETH prices. Currently, the IVs for BTC and ETH options in the short to medium-term range are between 45% and 50%.The 25-delta skewness table above indicates that options traders are neutral on the market, with a slight upward bias for long-dated options.The return-to-normal implied volatility and low skewness indicate that options traders expect price consolidation over the next 30 to 60 days.

Macro at a glance
Last Wednesday (2024-01-24)The Bank of Canada kept its interest rate at 5.00% unchanged for the fourth time in a row. Tiff Macklem, governor of the Bank of Canada, signaled that the monetary policy path has shifted from raising interest rates to maintaining them. He pointed out that while inflation has been falling, it remains above the comfortable level for a rate cut.Last Thursday (2024-01-25)The European Central Bank kept its interest rate unchanged at 4.50%. ECB President Christine Lagarde stated in the press that talk of rate cuts is premature, and that more data is needed to show a sustainable inflation rate at the target level before the rate cut.The US Q4 GDP growth rate is expected to be 3.3% on a yearly basis, significantly higher than economists' estimates of 2.0%. The strong GDP growth data indicates that the US economy is robust.US initial jobless claims rose from last week’s 189k to 214k this week.Last Friday (2024-01-26)The US PCE price index increased by 2.6% in December, as expected and the same as the previous month. Core PCE price index growth is 2.9%, slightly lower than the expected 3.0% and a decrease from November's 3.2%. It suggests the possibility that the stubborn core inflation rate in the United States would begin to fall.On Tuesday ( 2024-01-30)Germany's Q4 GDP growth is expected to be -0.2% on a yearly basis, which is better than the previous quarter's 0.4% decline.Consumer confidence in the United States increased significantly in January to 114.8, up from 108.0 in December. The strong consumer confidence is bolstered by low inflation and robust economic growth.The number of job openings in the United States was 9.026 million in December, indicating a larger labor market gap than the estimated 8.750 million. The data show that the labor market gap between supply and demand was 8.925 million in November, with economists expecting a smaller gap of 8.750 million in December. Instead, the data suggests a larger labor-market gap of 9.026 million. The widening gap implies a larger imbalance in the US labour market.On Wednesday (2024-01-31)US ADP nonfarm employment change fell to 107k in January from 158k in December.The US Federal Reserve held its January FOMC meeting and announced no change to its benchmark interest rate decision of 5.50%. The Fed Chairman Powell turned down the possibility of a March rate cut, stating that more data demonstrating a sustained inflation slowdown to the 2% target rate is required before considering a rate cut. The market is now pricing the Fed's first rate cut for June rather than March.Following the Fed rate decision announcement, the Dow Jones Industrial Index fell 0.82%, the S&P500 index fell 1.61%, and the Nasdaq index fell 2.23% at close. BTC price fell 3.7%, trading below $42,000. ETH price fell 5.2%, trading below $2,253.

Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. Last week, trading volume in the Infrastructure zone increased the most overall. The trading volumes of the recently listed AltLayer ($ALT) increased the most out of the 47 tokens in this zone.The two tokens with the highest volume increase in the Launchpad zone were Tokocrypto ($TKO) and Open Campus ($EDU). The increased trading demand for Tokocrypto and Open Campus was driven by last week's price volatility.In the AI zone, the increased volume is mainly driven by the Worldcoin ($WLD). Vitalik, a co-creator of Ethereum, posted an article about crypto + AI, and the name of Worldcoin was specifically mentioned on January 30. After the article was posted on social media, Worldcoin soared 17% in 30 minutes but gave up all the gains after 24 hours. The volatile market drove traders to utilize our Convert to minimize price risks.
Why trade OTC?  

Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 

To access manual price quotations, you may visit our Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/spot), where you can RFQ (request-for-quote) and trade directly with our OTC trading team via a live chat.

To utilise our Algo orders features, you may visit our BinanceAlgo Orders platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/AlgoTrading). 

For any other inquiries on OTC trading, please reach out to us via our email at trading@binance.com for our trading desk to get in touch with you and get started. 

OTC trades may also be automatically quoted on Binance Convert and via API, offering users a quick and simple way to execute trades across 60,000+ pairs with one simple click. Binance Convert supports over 350 tokens listed on the exchange including fiat pairs. Begin trading from as little as 1 USD. To start, simply navigate to the Binance Convert & Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert), select the coins you wish to trade, preview and confirm the quote with settlement reflecting almost instantly in your wallet balance. For details and access to Binance Convert OTC API, please refer to our Convert Endpoints (https://binance-docs.github.io/apidocs/spot/en/#convert-endpoints) and reach out to us at trading@binance.com if you have any questions or require assistance.

Visit Binance OTC (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for more information on our OTC products and solutions. 

Experience the main benefits of Binance Convert and OTC Trading: 
Fast & Competitive Pricing Instant settlement Widest availability of coins Bespoke service with unique market insights Zero fees and slippage 

Email: trading@binance.com 

Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!

On January 17, the UMA price started to move up from around $2.00 to $2.50. The next day, the bulls continued to hike the price, which triggered a $3 million short position liquidation and pushed the price to $6.70, the intraday high. Additionally, a large price spread between spot and perpetual prices and a negative funding rate created a favorable condition for the higher demand and upward momentum of UMA.UMA’s trading volume on Convert soared 23,920.7% in the last seven days during the volatile market move. Traders and investors utilized our auto-quoting Convert platform to eliminate market risk by locking the price on the platform for sizable trades. Furthermore, there is no trading fee on Convert, further supporting favorable trading conditions.The massive price action on UMA also spread to other Oracle projects, including API3 ($API3), Tellor ($TRB), and Chainlink ($LINK). The trading volume of these tokens on Convert similarly soared due to the volatile market conditions. 
Overall Market

The above chart shows the BTC from November 2023 to present.Following the BTC selloff in the first two trading weeks after the 11 BTC spot ETFs were launched on January 11, the upper and lower blue trend lines were broken and now serve as resistance lines. The green zone, which is around $38,000, is now serving as a strong support zone. This was the resistance level that prevented the Bitcoin price from rising for more than 21 days in November 2023. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust has experienced $2.8 billion in outflows since its conversion to an ETF on January 11. Over $1 billion of the $2.8 billion outflow came from FTX's bankruptcy estate, which sold the GBTC ETF on the market. The quick liquidation action by FTX's bankruptcy estate explains part of the heavy selling pressure that occurred over the last two weeks.After the bankruptcy estate finished its liquidation, we should see a slowdown in BTC selloff from the ETF side. However, BTC is not out of the woods yet. Mt. Gox recently sent confirmation emails to creditors, hinting at a significant Bitcoin release within the next 60 days. Although the exact size is unknown, it is thought to range from 142,000 to 200,000 BTC. The potential selloff from Mt. Gox caused market concern about the BTC price, pushing it to $38,500 today before bouncing back.

The above chart shows the ETH price since November 2023.Ethereum was moving on the upward channel after successfully breaking the downward trend that had been in place since the Shanghai upgrade. The recent BTC selloff following the Bitcoin spot ETF approval brought the entire crypto market down, and Ethereum's spot ETF approval narrative faded after analysts suggested that the SEC approval would take longer than initially expected.The recent free fall in the ETH price with increased volume was caused by on-chain movements initiated by Celsius Network. The on-chain explorer shows that Celsius Network sent over 15,000 ETH to centralized exchanges. This move is consistent with the platform's commitment to liquidating assets to meet financial obligations and creditor demands. The potential liquidation encourages other investors and traders to close long positions and open short positions in order to profit from the potential ETH selloff.Currently, the $2,130 level serves as support. If ETH breaks through this support level,  it opens the door to further downside, with the next support level expected to be around $1,850.
Options Market

The above table shows the 25-delta skewness on BTC and ETH options. Following the recent selloff in BTC and ETH, implied volatility returned to the range before the spot ETF approval. This indicates that the market expects a lower probability of volatile moves in BTC and ETH prices. Currently, the IVs of BTC and ETH options in the short to medium term range are between 45% and 50%.The 25-delta skewness table above indicates that options traders are biased towards the downside for BTC and ETH prices. Across the 7 to 90-day tenors, all BTC and ETH options have negative 25-delta skewnesses.The negative skewness suggests that investors are buying puts to hedge their downside risks rather than calls for potential upside.The return-to-normal implied volatility and negative skewness indicate that downward pressure on BTC and ETH persists. While the selling pressure may not be as strong as it was in the previous two weeks, downward momentum continues to build. 

Macro at a glance 
Last Wednesday (2024-01-17)Eurozone CPI growth in December 2023 is up 2.9% on a yearly basis, an increase from 2.4% in November 2023. The core CPI growth rate is 3.4%, a decrease from November's 3.6% annual rate.In December of last year, US retail sales increased by 0.6% on a monthly basis, exceeding the estimated 0.4% and the 0.3% seen in November. Core retail sales increased by 0.4%, exceeding the expected 0.2%. Retail sales growth rates in the United States were higher than expected, indicating that the economy remains relatively strong and in the expansion stage.Last Thursday (2024-01-18)US initial jobless claims fell to 187k, a 16-month low. The initial jobless claims were 203k the week before, with an estimated 207k for the week ending January 13. The low jobless claim number and strong retail sales growth indicate that the US economy is strong, which may make it difficult for the Fed to cut rates in March, as markets have priced in and are anticipating.The Atlanta Fed predicted that US GDP would grow by 2.4% in Q4 2023. The strong growth in the United States GDP suggests that the Federal Reserve may need to keep interest rates at their current level for an extended period.On the other side of the Atlantic, the UK reported its retail sales change for December 2023. Its retail sales fell 2.4%, while its core retail sales fell 2.1% on a yearly basis. The weaker-than-expected retail sales data points to some spending weakness among UK consumers.On Monday (2024-01-22)The Bank of Japan maintains its interest rate decision of -0.1%. BOJ Governor Ueda repeatedly emphasized the bank's progress toward sustained inflation. In the press, he stated that the BOJ aims to implement monetary policy without causing significant market disruptions with a policy exit.

Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. In the last seven days, our desk has noticed some significant volume changes in the different zones.Last week, trading volume in the Fan Token zone increased the most overall. The trading volumes of $ALPINE and $SANTOS increased the most out of the twelve tokens in the Fan Token zone.Last week, the two tokens with the highest volume increase in the Monitoring zone were $XEM and $MOB. The increased trading demand for $XEM and $MOB was driven by last week's price volatility.In the Meme zone, trading volume for BRC20 tokens, $ORDI, and $1000SATS has decreased a lot. Both tokens' prices were highly correlated with the BTC price, which had recently experienced significant selling pressure. The poor performance of the two tokens resulted in lower trading demand from the market.

Why trade OTC?  
Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 

To access manual price quotations, you may visit our Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/spot), where you can RFQ (request-for-quote) and trade directly with our OTC trading team via a live chat.

To utilise our Algo orders features, you may visit our BinanceAlgo Orders platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/AlgoTrading). 

For any other inquiries on OTC trading, please reach out to us via our email at trading@binance.com for our trading desk to get in touch with you and get started. 

OTC trades may also be automatically quoted on Binance Convert and via API, offering users a quick and simple way to execute trades across 60,000+ pairs with one simple click. Binance Convert supports over 350 tokens listed on the exchange including fiat pairs. Begin trading from as little as 1 USD. To start, simply navigate to the Binance Convert & Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert), select the coins you wish to trade, preview and confirm the quote with settlement reflecting almost instantly in your wallet balance. For details and access to Binance Convert OTC API, please refer to our Convert Endpoints (https://binance-docs.github.io/apidocs/spot/en/#convert-endpoints) and reach out to us at trading@binance.com if you have any questions or require assistance.

Visit Binance OTC (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for more information on our OTC products and solutions. 

Experience the main benefits of Binance Convert and OTC Trading: 
Fast & Competitive Pricing Instant settlement Widest availability of coins Bespoke service with unique market insights Zero fees and slippage 

Email: trading@binance.com 

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On Wednesday, January 17, 2024, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved eleven Bitcoin spot ETFs. The BTC price did not change much following the news, whereas the ETH price increased from $2,475 to $2,687 in 18 hours. Meanwhile, we saw strong demand for Ethereum infrastructure projects like $ENS.Prior to the launch of the Bitcoin spot ETF, the BTC price reached a two-year high of $49,000. However the Bitcoin price fell off a cliff, dropping more than 6% in the first two hours in the first trading session. The next day, the BTC price continued to fall, dropping another 8.5% after the US market closed. BTC reached a low of $41,500 on Thursday afternoon.In comparison, ETH has outperformed BTC in the seven days since the BTC spot ETF approval. ETH rose 8.3%, while BTC fell 6.5%. The soaring ETH price was driven by the expectation that the SEC would approve an ETH spot ETF in Q2 this year. However, the upward momentum collapsed following a significant BTC decline and multiple research reports indicating that the ETH spot ETF would not be approved in the near future.

Overall Market  

The above chart shows the BTC price in the past two months.Following the selloff in BTC during the first two trading days of the 11 BTC spot ETFs' launch, the upper blue trend line was breached and is now acting as a resistance line. The selloff on BTC could be caused by several reasons:1. Buy the rumour, sell the news narrative: Following the US SEC's approval of BTC spot ETFs, traders unwound their long positions to secure their profit. The BTC spot ETF narrative has driven the BTC price up nearly 100% since September 2023. When this narrative was gone, our desk was not surprised to see profit-taking action on the market.2. Asset allocation: After the BTC spot ETFs were approved, the story of an ETH spot ETF approval later played out, and the ETH/BTC price indicates that a large amount of capital flowed into ETH from BTC.3. Grayscale Bitcoin spot ETF outflow: Grayscale converted its Grayscale Bitcoin trust into an ETF, allowing investors to sell their shares on the market. Previously, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust required a six-month lockup, and market liquidity was limited once the lockup period expired. Following the conversion to an ETF, investors sold their shares with the increased liquidity. Furthermore, the Grayscale BTC spot ETF charges the highest management fee, 1.50%, while the other ETF asset managers are charging 0.25% or lower. The management fee difference could also be a push for investors to sell their GBTC shares for other ETFs with lower fees. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust had 619.22K BTC before the conversion; today, their Bitcoin spot ETF has 605,890 BTC, according to information updated on their website. The GBTC ETF saw a net outflow of over 13 thousand BTC in the last four trading days, totalling USD 579 million.

The above chart shows the ETH price since January 2023.After the Shanghai upgrade, ETH experienced a downward trend, but the price successfully broke the downward channel and began to rise in November 2023. Recently, the BTC selloff influenced the ETH price, which found support above the $2,450 level. From a technical standpoint, the ETH upward channel remains intact, and the ETH price may continue to rise to challenge the upper channel boundary. Using the Fibonacci levels, the next target level for ETH is $3,062
Options Market

The above table shows the at-the-money implied volatility for BTC and ETH options. The market experienced a volatile trading week on BTC and ETH after the BTC spot ETF approval last Wednesday. The implied volatility of Bitcoin options has retraced from over 80% to 50% in the short-term options. So did the implied volatility of ETH options.Our desk observed that the implied volatility of BTC and ETH options has returned to normal levels, with a large spread between the implied volatilities of ETH options and BTC options in the longer tenor options.That being said, the market expects the BTC price to move sideways and the ETH price to fluctuate in the near future.

Macro at a glance 
Last Thursday (2024-01-11)In December 2023, the US CPI increased by 3.4% year on year, exceeding the expected 3.2% and November's 3.1%. During the same period, the core CPI increased by 3.9% year on year, exceeding the estimated 3.8% but falling slightly short of November's 3.9%. Because the US CPI numbers did not fall as expected, the market expects the Fed to cut interest rates later. As a result, the US dollar index DXY rose 0.39% after the numbers were released but lost all of its gains intraday. US initial jobless claims remain in the low range, reported at 202k, lower than the estimated 210k and last week's 203k.China's CPI fell 0.3% year on year in December 2023. The decrease was less than the expected 0.4% drop and November's 0.5% drop.China's PPI fell 2.7% year on year in December, following a 3.0% drop in November. The declines in China's CPI and PPI indexes indicate that the Chinese economy is facing strong headwinds, and deflation has put additional pressure on China's economic recovery.On Monday (2024-01-15)The UK unemployment rate in November was 4.2%, slightly lower than the estimated 4.3% and the same as October's figure.In December, the German CPI was 3.7% on a yearly basis, up 0.5% from 3.2% in November.On Tuesday (2024-01-16)In January, the US New York Empire State Manufacturing Index was -43.70, significantly lower than the estimated -5.00 and -14.50 in December. The index last recorded a similarly low reading in April 2020, following the nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19. The index reading raised market concerns about the US economy's conditions.
Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. In the last seven days, our desk has noticed some significant volume changes in the different zones.Last week, trading volume in the Liquid Staking zone had the largest increase across the board. Jito ($JTO) is the primary contributor to the volume growth. Jito ($JTO) is a liquid staking and maximum extractable value (MEV) protocol on the Solana network.In Meme zone, our desk has seen a significant drop in trading volume on ConstitutionDAO ($PEOPLE) and the BRC20 tokens, ORDI ($ORDI) and SATS ($1000SATS), in the last seven days. The falling BTC price has a large impact on BRC20 token trading volumes.

Why trade OTC?  
Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 

To access manual price quotations, you may visit our Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/spot), where you can RFQ (request-for-quote) and trade directly with our OTC trading team via a live chat.

To utilise our Algo orders features, you may visit our BinanceAlgo Orders platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/AlgoTrading). 

For any other inquiries on OTC trading, please reach out to us via our email at trading@binance.com for our trading desk to get in touch with you and get started. 

OTC trades may also be automatically quoted on Binance Convert and via API, offering users a quick and simple way to execute trades across 60,000+ pairs with one simple click. Binance Convert supports over 350 tokens listed on the exchange including fiat pairs. Begin trading from as little as 1 USD. To start, simply navigate to the Binance Convert & Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert), select the coins you wish to trade, preview and confirm the quote with settlement reflecting almost instantly in your wallet balance. For details and access to Binance Convert OTC API, please refer to our Convert Endpoints (https://binance-docs.github.io/apidocs/spot/en/#convert-endpoints) and reach out to us at trading@binance.com if you have any questions or require assistance.

Visit Binance OTC (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for more information on our OTC products and solutions. 

Experience the main benefits of Binance Convert and OTC Trading: 
Fast & Competitive Pricing Instant settlement Widest availability of coins Bespoke service with unique market insights Zero fees and slippage 

Email: trading@binance.com 

Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!

Celestia ($TIA ) had outperformed in the previous seven days, rising 17%, while BTC rose 1.5% and ETH fell 0.5%. The native network staking service allows investors to stake TIA with annual yields ranging from 15% to 17%. Staking services have increased demand for this cryptocurrency. There are also expectations of future airdrops to stakers from projects built on the Celestia blockchain.Last week, Stacks ($STX ), a Bitcoin layer-2 network for smart contracts, received a lot of market attention and gained 14.5%. This cryptocurrency is being pursued in the Korean market. As a result, it was trading at a significant premium to the Korean won. The hype stemmed from the story of a Bitcoin spot ETF approval, which will boost the BTC price and benefit the STX price due to its high beta profile.Meanwhile, Aribitrum ($ARB ), an Ethereum layer-2 network, attracted market attention as trading volume on the decentralized exchange GMX increased. The decentralized exchange protocol GMX is deployed on two EVM chains, Arbitrum and Avalanche, and the increased trading volume resulted in an increase in the Arbitrum network's gas fee.
Overall Market  

The above chart shows the BTC price in the past two months.On Monday during the American session, the Bitcoin price successfully broke through the $45k key resistance level and closed above it. The increased trading volume, combined with the rally, suggests that the market was optimistic about the SEC's approval of the BTC spot ETF this week, and traders were attempting to front-run the Wall Street asset managers.The $45k level has now become a strong support level for the Bitcoin price. After the US markets closed on Tuesday afternoon, the SEC account on the social media platform X posted a message stating that all BTC spot ETFs had been approved. The price of bitcoin fluctuated between $47,972 and $44,748 after SEC Chairman Gary Gensler posted on X with his personal account that the SEC account had been compromised and that the BTC spot ETF had not been approved.The dramatic change in the BTC price demonstrated that the market was easily manipulated by headlines and that market volatility was extremely high. As the market awaits the SEC's approval result, which will be announced after the US market closes tomorrow, the BTC price may experience another volatile session. Either approval or rejection could cause the BTC price to move by 5-10% in a matter of minutes.When trading this critical event, our desk advises investors and traders to be aware of the volatility and use good risk management.
Options Market

The above chart shows the 25-delta skewness for BTC and ETH options. This skewness data is used to gauge market sentiment by comparing the 25-delta call premium and put premium. A positive value indicates that option traders are willing to pay more for call premiums.The skewness of BTC options is negative for short-term options. Our desk observes a skewness of -3.75 on options with a 7-day expiry and a skewness of -1.94 on options with a 30-day expiry.It implies that on the options market, options traders are longing for near-term puts and shorting for near-term calls. Given the high premium on near-term options, it is beneficial to mitigate downside risks for investors and traders who have spot BTC positions and earn a good premium.As we get closer to the SEC's decision on Bitcoin spot ETF approval, using options to hedge the risks would be a savvy strategy.

Macro at a glance 
Last Thursday (2023-01-04)Germany's CPI was projected at a 3.7% growth rate on a yearly basis in December 2023, higher than the previous month’s 3.2%. It shows that the inflation rate in Germany rebounded, which might increase the odds for the ECB to maintain its interest rate at the current level for a longer period of time.US ADP nonfarm employment increased by 164k in December 2023, higher than the estimated 115k and the previous month’s 101k. The better-than-expected nonfarm employment increase suggests that the US economy is recovering and employers are hiring more employees for business.US initial jobless claims were 202k last week, less than the estimated 216k and the previous week’s 220k. Last Friday (2023-01-05)Eurozone CPI was projected at a 2.9% growth rate on a yearly basis in December, slightly less than the estimated 3.0%. However, it popped from last month’s 2.4% CPI growth rate. The rebounding CPI number could lead to a “higher for longer” interest rate environment in the Eurozone.US unemployment rate in December was 3.7%, the same level as it was last month. The low unemployment rate suggests that the US labour market remains tight.US ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI surprisingly dropped from 52.7 in November to 50.6 in December. The PMI reading in December was above the 50 line, but the decline raised a bit of concern for the US economy. PMI reading was a proxy to measure business activities, and a below-than-fifty reading suggests a contraction in business activities.On Tuesday (2023-01-09)Eurozone unemployment rate was 6.4% in November 2023, slightly better than October’s 6.5%. 

Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. In the last seven days, our desk has noticed a significant volume change in the above zones.Last week, trading volume in the NFT zone had the largest increase across the board. Origin Protocol ($OGN) and Blur ($BLUR) are the two main contributors to the volume growth. In Meme zone, our desk witnessed a massive increase in trading volume on Dogecoin ($DOGE) and Floki ($FLOKI) over the last seven days. It seems the dog meme coins were getting market attention with large block trades.Our desk also noticed decreased trading volume in the Metaverse zone and AI zones. While the NFT zone was getting more flows over the desk, the Metaverse zone was showing the difference. It could be the capital allocation by investors to bet on these two zones.

Why trade OTC?  
Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 

To access manual price quotations, you may visit our Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/spot), where you can RFQ (request-for-quote) and trade directly with our OTC trading team via a live chat.

To utilise our Algo orders features, you may visit our BinanceAlgo Orders platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/AlgoTrading). 

For any other inquiries on OTC trading, please reach out to us via our email at trading@binance.com for our trading desk to get in touch with you and get started. 

OTC trades may also be automatically quoted on Binance Convert and via API, offering users a quick and simple way to execute trades across 60,000+ pairs with one simple click. Binance Convert supports over 350 tokens listed on the exchange including fiat pairs. Begin trading from as little as 1 USD. To start, simply navigate to the Binance Convert & Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert), select the coins you wish to trade, preview and confirm the quote with settlement reflecting almost instantly in your wallet balance. For details and access to Binance Convert OTC API, please refer to our Convert Endpoints (https://binance-docs.github.io/apidocs/spot/en/#convert-endpoints) and reach out to us at trading@binance.com if you have any questions or require assistance.

Visit Binance OTC (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for more information on our OTC products and solutions. 

Experience the main benefits of Binance Convert and OTC Trading: 
Fast & Competitive Pricing Instant settlement Widest availability of coins Bespoke service with unique market insights Zero fees and slippage 

Email: trading@binance.com 

Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!

Tellor ($TRB ) had a wild trading session at the beginning of 2024, swinging up to $720 before plummeting to $180 in hours. Tellor's market cap once reached $1.46 billion, but it is now back down to $337 million as of today.During the period when the TRB price was fluctuating, our desk noticed a significant increase in trading volume. As there was no bullish news about the project released at the time, the volatile market could be led by a relatively illiquid market and an overleveraged trading position. The volatile price movement increased TRB trading volume on Convert when traders wanted to secure the price via our Convert Portal rather than trading it directly on the order book to avoid market risks.When the entire market tanked along with BTC, our desk also saw a bullish SEI price. While BTC is down 10% and altcoins are down 20% to 30%, SEI recovered quickly in the session and reached a new all-time high of $0.87
Overall Market  

The above chart shows the BTC price in the past eight months.The blue line mentioned in the previous post served as support, and the BTC price recovered after the fake breakout this Thursday during the European session. As we have stated numerous times since the beginning of December 2023, the $45k level remains a barrier to the BTC price. Unless we see a solid break through the $45k level, the BTC price will remain in this wedge pattern while the market decides a direction.A report published by a crypto institution went viral on social media. This report took a different stance on the spot BTC ETF approval than the majority. The SEC will reject the spot BTC ETF in January, per the report. It will, however, be approved in the second quarter. According to the report, the price of Bitcoin will fall to between $36k and $38k. The report, however, did not specify the critical issues from the current spot BTC ETF applications which could result in the rejection. Whether it was a coincidence or not, BTC price tanked 10% a few hours later. From a technical standpoint, the BTC price is approaching a significant resistance level. Our desk is not surprised to see such a pullback at the start of the year after a 150%+ gain in 2023. Nonetheless, given the BTC reward halving event occurring in the first half of the year and an eventual approval of spot BTC ETFs, our desk remains bullish on the BTC price in the long run.
Options Market

The above chart shows the 25-delta skewness for BTC and ETH options. By comparing the 25-delta call premium and put premium, this skewness data is used to gauge market sentiment. A positive number indicates that options traders are willing to pay higher call premiums.The skewness of BTC options is positive across the tenors, indicating that option traders prefer to buy calls rather than puts, according to the table above.However, the skewness of the near-term ETH option is negative, and the skewness of the 30-day expired ETH option is close to zero. It implies that the market is less optimistic about the ETH price in the near future.
Macro at a glance 
Last Thursday (2023-12-28)Initial jobless claims in the United States were 218k, up from 210k expected and 206k the previous week. Although the figure is higher than expected, it remains in the low range of history. This implies that the unemployment rate in the United States remains low.Last Saturday (2023-12-30)China's manufacturing PMI was 49.0 in December, lower than the estimated 49.5 and 49.4 in November. The PMI reading below 50 indicates that the Chinese manufacturing industry is still contracting.On Wednesday (2024-01-03)The ISM Manufacturing PMI was 47.4 in December, up from 47.1 expected and 46.7 the previous month. However, despite the better-than-expected PMI data, the US manufacturing sector remains in contractionary mode.The FOMC Meeting Minutes were released, revealing that FOMC members had a growing sense that inflation was under control, as well as a growing concern about the risk that the overly restrictive monetary policy could pose to the economy. 
Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. In the last seven days, our desk has noticed a significant volume change in the above zones. Except for the POW zone, most zones are contracting.Last week, the trading volume in the DeFi zone fell by more than 40%. The two tokens that contributed the most volume growth were ALPACA and 1inch. However, the volume increase was offset by other DeFi projects' declining trading volume during the same period.In the Gaming zone, our desk witnessed a massive increase in trading volume on GHST over the last seven days.Our desk also noticed a decrease in trading volume in the Layer1/Layer2 and Meme zones. The slow trading activity during the holiday season, when people spend time with their family and friends, is one of the reasons for this declining volume.

Why trade OTC?  
Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 
To access manual price quotations, you may visit our Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/spot), where you can RFQ (request-for-quote) and trade directly with our OTC trading team via a live chat.
To utilise our Algo orders features, you may visit our BinanceAlgo Orders platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/AlgoTrading). 
For any other inquiries on OTC trading, please reach out to us via our email at trading@binance.com for our trading desk to get in touch with you and get started. 
OTC trades may also be automatically quoted on Binance Convert and via API, offering users a quick and simple way to execute trades across 60,000+ pairs with one simple click. Binance Convert supports over 350 tokens listed on the exchange including fiat pairs. Begin trading from as little as 1 USD. To start, simply navigate to the Binance Convert & Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert), select the coins you wish to trade, preview and confirm the quote with settlement reflecting almost instantly in your wallet balance. For details and access to Binance Convert OTC API, please refer to our Convert Endpoints (https://binance-docs.github.io/apidocs/spot/en/#convert-endpoints) and reach out to us at trading@binance.com if you have any questions or require assistance.
Visit Binance OTC (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for more information on our OTC products and solutions. 
Experience the main benefits of Binance Convert and OTC Trading: 
Fast & Competitive Pricing Instant settlement Widest availability of coins Bespoke service with unique market insights Zero fees and slippage 

Email: trading@binance.com 

Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!

This week, our desk saw a significant increase in trading demand for DeFi tokens and Layer1/Layer2 tokens.Raydium ($RAY ) is a decentralized exchange deployed on the Solana chain, and BakerySwap ($BAKE) is a decentralized exchange deployed on the Binance Smart Chain. Both projects are automated market makers (AMMs) that provide users with liquidity and yield farming.NEAR token ($NEAR ) is the native token of the NEAR Protocol, a layer-one blockchain. Its market cap more than doubled in eight days, from December 19 to December 26, with the price rising from $2.29 to $4.62. It is currently trading at $3.93. The NEAR price skyrocketed after the NEAR project revealed its development roadmap for 2024. It includes high-speed transactions that exceed 100,000 transactions per second, improved scalability to eliminate bottlenecks, and the introduction of innovative dApps like Nightshade 2.0, which promise enhanced privacy and security. 

Overall Market  

The above chart shows the BTC price in 2023.The blue line mentioned in the previous post served as support, and the BTC price recovered after the Monday touch. However, as we have stated repeatedly since the beginning of December, we see the BTC price trading sideways below that key level last week.On January 10, 2024, the SEC will make a decision on a BTC spot ETF approval, which could be a catalyst for the BTC price to break through this resistance level and continue its bull rally.

The above chart shows the ETH price in 2023.Ethereum gained traction in the final week of 2023, reaching a new yearly high of $2,445.80 today. Many layer 1 competitors, including Solana ($SOL) and Avalanche ($AVAX), outperformed Ethereum in 2023. Furthermore, layer 2 ETH network solutions such as Arbitrum ($ARB) and Optimism ($OP) have outperformed ETH. As mentioned in the December 14 commentary, our desk predicted a significant movement in the ETH price while BTC struggled to break the $45k resistance level.

Options Market

The above chart is the at-the-money implied volatility (IV) for BTC and ETH options. Our desk observed strong momentum in the ETH price after it broke above the $2,400 level today. ETH option implied volatilities have returned to yearly highs. The IV of ETH options is almost 10% higher than the IV of BTC options in the near-term option with a 7-day expiry, which is the largest spread in 2023. For longer-term options, we see that the IVs of ETH options are all higher than the IVs of BTC options. The positive spreads of IVs of ETH over IVs of BTC were the norm during the bull market in 2021.As the  IV differences between ETH options and BTC options have returned to positive territory, it may indicate that we are entering an altcoin season in which the ETH price will outperform the BTC price in the coming months.

Macro at a glance 

Last Wednesday (2023-12-20)Conference Board (CB) Consumer confidence in the United States was reported at 110.7 in December, much higher than the estimated 103.8 and previous month’s 101.0. It implied that US consumers had been encouraged to increase spending because of the positive outlook for the country's economy. The US economy will benefit from the higher levels of confidence.Last Thursday (2023-12-21)The US GDP growth rate in Q3 2023 was 4.9%, slightly lower than the estimated 5.2%. The data show that the Federal Reserve managed to have a "soft landing" with the US economy, with gradually lower inflation and strong GDP growth.Initial jobless claims in the United States were 205k, similar to last week's 203k, and better than the estimated 214k. This signals that the unemployment rate in the United States remains in the low range.On the other hand, the UK reported quarterly GDP growth of -0.1% in Q3 2023, which was slightly lower than the expected 0%. Its GDP growth rate is 0.3% year on year, the same as in the previous quarter, falling short of the estimated 0.6% growth rate. The UK economy is growing at a slower pace than the US economy.Last Friday (2023-12-22)The US PCE price index, which the Federal Reserve uses to measure inflation, was recorded at 2.6% on a yearly basis in November, down from 2.9% in October. The core PCE price index was 3.2%, down from 3.4% in October. The slowing of inflation increased the likelihood of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates sooner. The US dollar index (DXY) fell to 101.668, while gold rose to $2,070 before closing at $2,052.

Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. Our desk has noticed a significant volume change in the above zones in the past seven days.The Metaverse zone is where the volume change on Convert is most noticeable. The largest contributors to this volume change are BurgerCities ($BURGER) and the Sandbox ($SAND). Both Mataverse projects have trading volume growth at 377% and 128%, respectively.The main cause of last week's +52.91% increase in the DeFi zone volume was the strong trading demand for Raydium ($RAY ).The primary cause of the Layer1/Layer2 zone volume increase is Optimism ($OP) and Mina Protocol ($MINA ). Both tokens experienced a strong rally in the past week, and investors utilized the Convert Portal to lock in the price, disregarding the volatile market change.

Why trade OTC?  

Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 

To access manual price quotations, you may visit our Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/spot), where you can RFQ (request-for-quote) and trade directly with our OTC trading team via a live chat.

To utilise our Algo orders features, you may visit our BinanceAlgo Orders platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/AlgoTrading). 

For any other inquiries on OTC trading, please reach out to us via our email at trading@binance.com for our trading desk to get in touch with you and get started. 

OTC trades may also be automatically quoted on Binance Convert and via API, offering users a quick and simple way to execute trades across 60,000+ pairs with one simple click. Binance Convert supports over 350 tokens listed on the exchange including fiat pairs. Begin trading from as little as 1 USD. To start, simply navigate to the Binance Convert & Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert), select the coins you wish to trade, preview and confirm the quote with settlement reflecting almost instantly in your wallet balance. For details and access to Binance Convert OTC API, please refer to our Convert Endpoints (https://binance-docs.github.io/apidocs/spot/en/#convert-endpoints) and reach out to us at trading@binance.com if you have any questions or require assistance.

Visit Binance OTC (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for more information on our OTC products and solutions. 

Experience the main benefits of Binance Convert and OTC Trading: 
Fast & Competitive Pricing Instant settlement Widest availability of coins Bespoke service with unique market insights Zero fees and slippage 

Email: trading@binance.com 

Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!

The native coin of Internet Computer, ICP ($ICP ), recently saw a spike in value after it was announced that it would integrate with Bitcoin ($BTC). This helped ICP capitalise on the recent gold rush surrounding the BRC20 inscription. ICP's price dropped to an all-time low of $2.83 in September 2023 after the US Securities and Exchange Commission labelled it an unregistered security earlier this year. ICP saw a sharp increase in demand after the news of BTC integration, and it is now trading at $9.33, up 64% in just one week.The value of Worldcoin ($WLD ) has increased by 56.2% over the past seven days, exhibiting an impressive surge. The announcement of a significant protocol update for Worldcoin and new platform integrations occurred at the same time as this spike.Following the announcement of the partnership with SingularityNET ($AGIX), the price of Fetch.ai ($FET) increased. It attracted interest from the AI blockchain community. This partnership is proof of the expanding fusion of blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI), which many investors think has the potential to usher in a new wave of innovation in the cryptocurrency space.

Overall Market  

The above chart shows the BTC price in 2023.Our desk has repeatedly stated since the beginning of December that $45,000 will be a key resistance level for Bitcoin. We also forecasted that the price of Bitcoin would move sideways as it got closer to the resistance level.Our desk predicts that the price of bitcoin will continue its sideways trend during the holiday season and gain momentum to overcome the upper resistance level after the holidays.During the last two weeks, when Bitcoin fell to $41,000, the upper blue line served as support. By year-end, if the market witnesses significant profit-taking, the lower blue line will serve as the second level of support.

The above chart shows the ETH price in 2023.Ethereum demonstrated its strength in the market after the price of ETH broke the downward trend that lasted for more than six months. On December 9, it hit its annual high of $2,407, and a lot of profit-taking sales occurred on ETH as traders and investors shifted their capital in anticipation of other exciting projects, such as BRC20 projects.As of right now, the $2,130 high that was recorded following the Shanghai upgrade is serving as a support level. A price breakdown below this level of support for ETH will open the door for further downside.

Options Market

The above chart is the at-the-money implied volatility for BTC options. As was previously mentioned, our desk observes a sideways trend in the price of Bitcoin, which is also supported by the implied volatility of short-dated bitcoin options. The current implied volatility of BTC options with a 7-day expiration date is 45%, whereas the IVs of options with a longer duration are approximately 55%.The market's estimate of the likely movement in the price of Bitcoin is known as implied volatility. Our desk predicts that the price of Bitcoin will pick a direction at the beginning of 2024 as there is a divergence between the IVs of options of different tenors.

Macro at a glance 
Last Thursday (2023-12-14)The Bank of England kept its interest rate at 5.25% unchanged, as expected.The European Central Bank keeps its interest rate unchanged at 4.75%, as expected.Following the Federal Reserve's lead, most central banks halted their rate-hike cycle and kept their interest rates unchanged.In November, US retail sales grew 0.3% month over month, outpacing the forecast 0.1% decline.The number of initial jobless claims filed in the US decreased from 221k to 202k this week. It indicates that the US labour market is still stable.On Tuesday (2023-12-19)The Eurozone CPI increased 2.4% year on year in November, as expected, slowing from the 2.9% increase in October. In addition, the year-over-year growth rate of the core CPI decreased from 4.2% in October to 3.6% in November.The Canadian Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.1% year on year in November, matching the 3.1% increase in October.The Federal Reserve shifted its view in last week's FOMC meeting, after one of the most aggressive rate-hike cycles in history. As a result, risk assets saw gains, and the US dollar dropped:The Dow Jones index closed at 37,557.92 on Tuesday, having reached a new all-time high of 37,562.83. This represents a gain of +13.31% for the year.The S&P 500 index ended Tuesday at 4,768.37, up +24.19% in 2023The Nasdaq index ended Tuesday at 15,003.22, up +43.35% in 2023The gold price ended Tuesday at 2,039.56 USD/ounce, up +11.82% in 2023The US dollar (DXY) ended Tuesday at 102.139, down -1.26% in 2023The price of Bitcoin ended Tuesday at 42,266 USD, up +156.2% in 2023The price of Ethereum ended Tuesday at 2,177.27 USD, up +82.8% in 2023.
Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. Our desk has noticed a significant volume change in the above zones in the past seven days.The AI zone is where the volume change on Convert is most noticeable. The largest contributor to this volume change is Worldcoin ($WLD ). Many traders and investors were able to trade WLD during last week's turbulent price movements through the Binance Convert platform.The main cause of last week's +166.80% increase in the Launchpool zone volume was the strong trading demand for Shentu ($CTK). Shentu Chain is a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) blockchain built with the Cosmos SDK.The primary cause of the Meme zone volume increase is SATS, one of the most popular projects in the BRC20 area. Our desk witnessed a sharp rise in SATS trading volume following Binance's listing of the 1000SATS/USDT pair as traders and investors used the Convert platform to lower risks and get better prices. 

Why trade OTC?  

Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 

To access manual price quotations, you may visit our Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/spot), where you can RFQ (request-for-quote) and trade directly with our OTC trading team via a live chat.

To utilise our Algo orders features, you may visit our BinanceAlgo Orders platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/AlgoTrading). 

For any other inquiries on OTC trading, please reach out to us via our email at trading@binance.com for our trading desk to get in touch with you and get started. 

OTC trades may also be automatically quoted on Binance Convert and via API, offering users a quick and simple way to execute trades across 60,000+ pairs with one simple click. Binance Convert supports over 350 tokens listed on the exchange including fiat pairs. Begin trading from as little as 1 USD. To start, simply navigate to the Binance Convert & Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert), select the coins you wish to trade, preview and confirm the quote with settlement reflecting almost instantly in your wallet balance. For details and access to Binance Convert OTC API, please refer to our Convert Endpoints (https://binance-docs.github.io/apidocs/spot/en/#convert-endpoints) and reach out to us at trading@binance.com if you have any questions or require assistance.

Visit Binance OTC (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for more information on our OTC products and solutions. 

Experience the main benefits of Binance Convert and OTC Trading: 
Fast & Competitive Pricing Instant settlement Widest availability of coins Bespoke service with unique market insights Zero fees and slippage 

Email: trading@binance.com 

Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!

Avalanche ($AVAX ), a layer-0 network, has gained 132.8% in the last 30 days, and its market cap is now over $14 billion, ranking 10th in terms of market cap.The recent increase in AVAX could be attributed to traditional financial giants JPMorgan and Citi collaborating with the Avalanche Foundation on real-world asset tokenization initiatives.Furthermore, the Avalanche network's total value locked (TVL) has increased 82% in the last three months, from $490 million to $894 million. According to the valuation matrix, Avalanche may have been undervalued previously, and the recent surge is more about bringing AVAX up to fair market value. Last week, four of the top five coins in terms of interest were in the Layer1/Layer2 zone, indicating a high demand for the infrastructure level in the blockchain space. This could indicate that investors are pouring money into infrastructure blockchains in order to improve the underlying network performance. It may provide some direction for future investments.

Overall Market  

The above chart shows the BTC price in 2023.As previously discussed, $45,000 will be a significant resistance level for Bitcoin, and our desk predicted that the price of Bitcoin would move sideways as it approached the resistance level.BTC hit a two-year high of $44,700 on December 8 before plummeting in Asia Monday morning. The US market session on the same day saw the lowest price of Bitcoin recorded at $40,222.Following the release of the US CPI and PPI figures, which aligned with expectations, the Bitcoin price recovered to the $42,000 level. At today's FOMC meeting, the Fed decided to keep its benchmark interest rate at 5.50%, with Fed Chairman Powell taking a softer tone, saying the Fed is just getting started talking about cuts. According to the updated dot plot, the Fed anticipates a 75 basis point rate cut in 2024. The upbeat outlook drives risky assets higher, with Bitcoin reaching an intraday high of $43,475 during the US session.With the heavy resistance level at $45,000, our desk believes the Bitcoin price will trade sideways between $40k and $45k through the holidays.

Options Market

The above table is the at-the-money implied volatility for BTC and ETH options. Following the recent price correction in BTC and ETH, the near-term options (the 7-day expiries) are priced with implied volatility less than 50%. Meanwhile, the implied volatility of 30-day expiry options on BTC and ETH remains above 50%. ETH options have higher implied volatility than BTC options across all tenors, according to our research. It is the first time since May 2023 when ETH successfully transitioned from PoW to PoS.According to the above table, ETH could see significant movement in the near term, whereas BTC could be struggling to break through the $45k resistance level.BTC has a year-to-date return of 157%, while ETH has a year-to-date return of only 87%. Given our observations in the current options market, our desk predicts that the performance difference between BTC and ETH will narrow during the holiday season.

Macro at a glance 
Last Thursday (2023-12-07)The US Initial jobless claims were 220k, slightly less than the 222k predicted. The labour market in the United States remained tight.Japan's GDP fell by 0.7% quarter on quarter in 2023 Q3, following a 0.9% increase in the previous quarter. GDP growth year over year was -2.9%, down from +3.6% in the previous quarter. The German CPI change was +3.2% year over year in November, down from 3.8% the previous month. The decline in CPI in Germany, Europe's largest economy, indicates that Europe's disinflationary environment is supporting the rate hike pause decision from the ECB.Last Friday (2023-12-08)US nonfarm payroll rose by 199k in November, exceeding expectations of 180k and representing a significant increase over the previous month's 150k.The US unemployment rate was at 3.7% in November, a decline from 3.9% last month.The increase in nonfarm payrolls in November, combined with a decrease in the unemployment rate, indicates that the mismatch between demand and supply in the US labour market is improving.On Tuesday (2023-12-12)US CPI increased by 3.1% year-over-year in November, dropping from last month’s 3.2%. The core CPI increased by 4.0% year over year, the same as the previous month's figure. Both sets of data met expectations. The declining CPI trend indicates that the US inflation rate is moving in the Fed's favour, increasing the likelihood of an interest rate pause decision by the FOMC on Wednesday. On Wednesday (2023-12-13)US Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand in the US rose 0.9% year-over-year in November, lower than the estimated 1.0% and down from the 1.2% increase recorded in October.The Federal Reserve maintained its benchmark interest rate at 5.50% for the third consecutive meeting. The dot plot indicates that there will be three rate cuts in 2024, with the market expecting the first cut as early as June. Fed Chairman Powell softened his tone when speaking to the media, stating that the Fed is just starting to talk about easing policy. While he emphasised that the Fed would continue to roll off its balance sheet, he also mentioned a discussion among FOMC members about lower borrowing costs. The Fed's revised dot plot indicates that, contrary to their September forecast of 5.1%, officials now believe the fed funds rate will peak in 2024 at 4.6%. Following the Fed's interest rate decision, risk assets gained significantly for the day,Dow Jones Index was up 1.4%, closed at a new all-time high at 37,090.24S&P 500 Index was up 1.37%, closed at 4,707.09Nasdaq Index was up 1.38%, closed at 14,733.96,Russell 2000 Index was up 3.52%, closed at 1,947.51Bitcoin was up 3.32% and reached $43,400, the intraday highEthereum was up 2.57% and reached $2,285, the intraday highUS dollar index (DXY) was down 0.88%, closed at 102.905

Convert Portal Volume Change
The above table shows the volume change on our Convert Portal by zone. Our desk has noticed a significant volume change in the above zones in the past seven days.On Convert, the most notable volume change is the BNB Chain zone. A variety of projects in the BNB ecosystem have seen a large increase in trading volume on Convert.The high demand for BitTorrent ($BTTC) was the primary reason for the Storage zone volume's +121% increase last week. Our desk saw a +272% increase in BTTC trading volume on Convert.OG Fan Token ($OG ) and FC Porto Fan Token ($PORTO) are the two largest contributors to the +117% volume growth in the Fan Token zone. The volume changes for OG and PORTO are +403% and +378%, respectively.Recently, the Metaverse zone saw a high trading volume on Convert, posting +76.2% growth week over week. The Sandbox ($SAND ) contributed a +147% volume increase in the Metaverse zone.

Why trade OTC?  
Binance offers our clients various ways to access OTC trading, including chat communication channels and the Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for manual price quotations, Algo Orders, or automated price quotations via Binance Convert and Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert) and the Binance Convert OTC API. 

To access manual price quotations, you may visit our Binance OTC platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/spot), where you can RFQ (request-for-quote) and trade directly with our OTC trading team via a live chat.

To utilise our Algo orders features, you may visit our BinanceAlgo Orders platform (https://www.binance.com/en/OTC-Trading/AlgoTrading). 

For any other inquiries on OTC trading, please reach out to us via our email at trading@binance.com for our trading desk to get in touch with you and get started. 

OTC trades may also be automatically quoted on Binance Convert and via API, offering users a quick and simple way to execute trades across 60,000+ pairs with one simple click. Binance Convert supports over 350 tokens listed on the exchange including fiat pairs. Begin trading from as little as 1 USD. To start, simply navigate to the Binance Convert & Block Trade platform (https://www.binance.com/en/convert), select the coins you wish to trade, preview and confirm the quote with settlement reflecting almost instantly in your wallet balance. For details and access to Binance Convert OTC API, please refer to our Convert Endpoints (https://binance-docs.github.io/apidocs/spot/en/#convert-endpoints) and reach out to us at trading@binance.com if you have any questions or require assistance.

Visit Binance OTC (https://www.binance.com/en/otc) for more information on our OTC products and solutions. 

Experience the main benefits of Binance Convert and OTC Trading: 
Fast & Competitive Pricing Instant settlement Widest availability of coins Bespoke service with unique market insights Zero fees and slippage 

Email: trading@binance.com 

Join our Telegram (https://t.me/BinanceOTC) to stay up to date with the markets!