A new report from market maker Wintermute found that institutions now dominate crypto trading, driving lower volatility, selective altcoin flows and growth in tokenized assets.
Few periods in Ethereum's 11-year history have brought as much change, from leadership shakeups at the Ethereum Foundation to institutional adoption, as the past year has.
The perpetual — the 24/7, leveraged contract that crypto invented and then perfected — is no longer just a way to trade crypto, says Katana Network’s Matthew Fisher. It’s becoming the way to trade everything.
Bitcoin held near $64,000 despite the Fed's hawkish split, Iranian ballistic missiles and an 8% surge in oil overnight that sent the Dow down 2.2% and the Nasdaq to a three-month low.
S&P 500 futures gained 0.2% and Nasdaq 100 contracts rose 0.4% after the index had slipped into a correction, with Microsoft up 8% in premarket after its cloud unit grew at the fastest pace in four years while it held the line on spending.
Perpetual futures drive much of the price discovery for bitcoin and ether. When traders pointed the same machinery at a private company, they priced the biggest IPO in history more accurately than Wall Street, and then watched the stock walk away from them.
Price volatility around the Federal Reserve's rate decision cleared positions for roughly 90,000 traders, with unusually equal losses for bulls and bears.
Four analysts agree the Fed's hawkish hold changes the calculus for risk assets, but they split on whether bitcoin's real test is already here or still six weeks away.
The HAWK system isn't deployed anywhere, and Bitcoin doesn't use it. But is sitting in the same quantum race that Bitcoin developers are scrambling to finish.
Insiders say that the bipartisan Senate duo revamping the bill's Trump-approved ethics section have come up with something they hope wins sufficient yes votes.
The brokerage reported $100 million revenue from crypto trading, a 38% decline in a year, offset by stronger options, equities and prediction markets activity.
Rather than competing directly with faster chains, some builders argue Ethereum's strength lies in supporting the layer-2 networks where trading is taking place.