In This Article:
By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
As the crypto rally gathers pace, ether has widened its lead over bitcoin in terms of volatility expectations, signaling relatively greater action not just in the second-largest cryptocurrency, but in the broader digital asset market as a whole.
Deribit's ether implied volatility index (ETH DVOL), which represents the 30-day expected price turbulence, has shot up 11% to an annualized 7% this week while the bitcoin equivalent, BTC DVOL, held steady near multimonth lows around 45%, according to data source TradingView.
The divergence has widened the spread between the two to 27%, the most in at least two years. Clearly, traders are anticipating greater volatility in ETH and the broader altcoin market.
According to some observers, ETH has turned deflationary because the Pectra upgrade implemented this week has boosted on-chain activity and led to over 38,000 ETH burned or destroyed in the past 24 hours. Some market participants are buying higher strike ETH calls on Deribit in anticipation of continued price gains.
We could be on the verge of an altcoin season, as the BTC dominance rate looks to end its five-month-long uptrend. (Check out Technical Analysis).
In key news, American fast-food chain Steak ‘n Shake said Thursday it will begin accepting BTC as a payment mode at all U.S. locations starting May 16, allowing its 100 million customers to shop with the world's biggest digital-asset token.
T-Rex, the Web3 consumer entertainment platform, which is backed by Portal Ventures, North Island Ventures, Framework Ventures and Arbitrum Gaming Ventures, raised $17 million in pre-seed financing.
Finally, just in case you missed it, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase agreed to buy the world's largest crypto options exchange, Deribit, for $2.9 billion in cash and shares in the crypto industry's largest ever M&A deal. Deribit controls over 80% of the activity, meaning Coinbase will be able to offer a full suite of spot and derivative products, boosting liquidity on the platform. Stay alert!
What to Watch
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Crypto:
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May 12, 1 p.m.-5:30 p.m.: A U.S. SEC Crypto Task Force Roundtable on "Tokenization: Moving Assets Onchain: Where TradFi and DeFi Meet" will be held at the SEC's headquarters in Washington.
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May 13: The Singapore High Court holds a hearing to determine whether Zettai, the parent company of WazirX, can proceed with restarting the India-based crypto exchange and compensating users affected by the July 2024 hack.
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May 14: Neo (NEO) mainnet will undergo a hard fork network upgrade (version 3.8.0) at block height 7,300,000.
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May 14: Expected launch date for VanEck Onchain Economy ETF (ticker: NODE).
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May 16, 9:30 a.m.: Galaxy Digital Inc.’s Class A shares are set to begin trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol GLXY.
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Macro
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May 9, 8 a.m.: The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) releases April consumer price inflation data.
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Inflation Rate MoM Prev. 0.56%
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Inflation Rate YoY Prev. 5.48%
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May 9, 8:30 a.m.: Statistics Canada releases April employment data.
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Unemployment Rate Est. 6.8% vs. Prev. 6.7%
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Employment Change Est. 2.5K vs. Prev. -32.6K
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May 9-12: Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will hold trade talks with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during his visit to Switzerland.
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Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
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May 9: TeraWulf (WULF), pre-market
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May 12: Exodus Movement (EXOD), post-market
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May 13: Semler Scientific (SMLR), post-market
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May 14: Bitfarms (BITF), pre-market
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May 14: IREN (IREN), post-market
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May 15: Bit Digital (BTBT), post-market
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May 15: Bitdeer Technologies Group (BTDR), pre-market
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May 15: KULR Technology Group (KULR), post-market
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