53% Of Bitcoin Option Just Expired, Marking a Historic Milestone.

Bitcoin and Ethereum just saw their largest respective options expiry ever, marking a major milestone for the cryptocurrency market This expiry took place earlier today and it did not coincide with any intense volatility, despite what some analyst had forecasted It now appears that the volatility associated with this event did occur earlier this week It is possible that the options expiry, and investors’ anticipations about it, helped fuel the recent Bitcoin decline to lows of under $9,000 Bitcoin just saw its largest options expiry ever. This marks a major milestone for the benchmark digital asset, as its options market has been growing at a rapid pace throughout 2020. Until recently, the market dynamics seen were largely influenced solely by margin trading, but an evolving landscape signals that options and futures both may play a larger role in how Bitcoin trades going forward. Some analysts do believe that today’s expiry did contribute to the recent price decline to the lower-$9,000 region. Bitcoin Sees Largest Options Expiry Ever Earlier today, over half of the total Bitcoin open interest expired. This marked the largest options expiry ever seen by the benchmark crypto. According to data from options trading platform Deribit, these option s contracts were worth a total of 74,000 Bitcoin, having a notional value of $675 million. Ethereum also saw a historic expiry today, with contracts worth 309,000 ETH expiring. This only marked 43% of the total outstanding open interest with a notional value of $71 million. Deribit spoke about this data in a recent tweet, saying: “BTC: 74k BTC out of 138k total OI in BTC options has just expired or 53% with a notional value of approximately USD 675 million. ETH: 309k out of 717k total OI in ETH options has just expired or 43% with a notional value of approximately USD 71 million.” The reason why this is significant is that the options market’s growing popularity points to a maturing Bitcoin and crypto market. Options Expiry Fails to Spark Any Volatility Over the past couple of weeks, many investors and traders had been pointing to today’s expiry as a potential catalyst for volatility in the market. Despite this, Bitcoin has remained rather flat today. One explanation for why this was a non-event is because its effects may have already been priced in earlier this week when the crypto reeled down towards $9,000 from highs of $9,800. Bitcoinist reported about this possibility yesterday, citing one analyst who said: “It seems to me the volatility everyone expects for the June 26 options expiry already happened…” As the options market continues growing, its influence over Bitcoin’s price action will likely grow. Featured image from Shutterstock.

Brave Comes Under Fire For Binance Affiliate Link Autofill

Brave appears to have removed a controversial feature that was auto-filling the company’s affiliate link when a user attempted to access Binance.

Crypto-powered privacy-focused web browser Brave has come under fire for automatically filling an affiliate link into its address bar when a user attempts to access the website for leading crypto exchange Binance and its United States-based subsidiary Binance.US.

Brave’s co-founder and chief executive, Brendan Eich, has acknowledged the “mistake,” pledging that the error will soon be corrected to remove the automatic completion of its affiliate link after the situation gained traction on crypto Twitter.

“Brave default autocompletes verbatim Binance.us in the address bar to add an affiliate code. We are a Binance affiliate, we refer users via the opt-in trading widget on the new tab page, but autocomplete should not add any code,” tweeted Eich.

Brave embroiled in affiliate link controversy

After gaining controversy on Twitter, Brave has announced it will remove a function that forcefully inserts the company’s affiliate link into its address bar when users access Binance’s website.

Eich thanked members of the crypto community for identifying the issue and providing feedback to the company, and sought to assure the community that the error will quickly be fixed.

 Eich said:

“The autocomplete default was inspired by search query clientid attribution that all browsers do, but unlike keyword queries, a typed-in URL should go to the domain named, without any additions,”

“Sorry for this mistake — we are clearly not perfect, but we correct course quickly,” he added.

Prominent crypto analyst, Whale Panda, also posted that the browser has been similarly inserting affiliate links into the address of users seeking to access top U.S.-based exchange Coinbase, and leading hardware wallet manufacturers Ledger and Trezor.

Brave popularity grows

In recent days, Brave reported that its active monthly user base has exceeded 15 million — a more than 100% annual increase. Roughly one-third of Brave’s monthly users utilize the browser every day.

A recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast saw the host and guest Reggie Watts discuss internet-based operational security, with the pair advocating for Brave’s use.

Brave Comes Under Fire For Binance Affililiate Link Autofill

Brave appears to have removed a controversial feature that was auto-filling the company’s affiliate link when a user attempted to access Binance.

Crypto-powered privacy-focused web browser Brave has come under fire for automatically filling an affiliate link into its address bar when a user attempts to access the website for leading crypto exchange Binance and its United States-based subsidiary Binance.US.

Brave’s co-founder and chief executive, Brendan Eich, has acknowledged the “mistake,” pledging that the error will soon be corrected to remove the automatic completion of its affiliate link after the situation gained traction on crypto Twitter.

“Brave default autocompletes verbatim Binance.us in the address bar to add an affiliate code. We are a Binance affiliate, we refer users via the opt-in trading widget on the new tab page, but autocomplete should not add any code,” tweeted Eich.

Brave embroiled in affiliate link controversy

After gaining controversy on Twitter, Brave has announced it will remove a function that forcefully inserts the company’s affiliate link into its address bar when users access Binance’s website.

Eich thanked members of the crypto community for identifying the issue and providing feedback to the company, and sought to assure the community that the error will quickly be fixed.

 Eich said:

“The autocomplete default was inspired by search query clientid attribution that all browsers do, but unlike keyword queries, a typed-in URL should go to the domain named, without any additions,”

“Sorry for this mistake — we are clearly not perfect, but we correct course quickly,” he added.

Prominent crypto analyst, Whale Panda, also posted that the browser has been similarly inserting affiliate links into the address of users seeking to access top U.S.-based exchange Coinbase, and leading hardware wallet manufacturers Ledger and Trezor.

Brave popularity grows

In recent days, Brave reported that its active monthly user base has exceeded 15 million — a more than 100% annual increase. Roughly one-third of Brave’s monthly users utilize the browser every day.

A recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast saw the host and guest Reggie Watts discuss internet-based operational security, with the pair advocating for Brave’s use.

Bitcoin Braces for $11,000 On weaker Dollar Demand

Bitcoin rose above $10,000 in an overnight rally Monday for the first time since May 8, 2020. The gains surfaced as investors sold the US dollar for riskier assets amid optimism about economic recovery. Other factors, including the U.S.-China tensions and the stock market’s upside, also contributed to the rally. Bitcoin rose Monday in a surprising rally that took its price up by almost $1,000 in less than 12 hours. BTCUSD jumps $10,000 price level | Source: TradingView.com The benchmark cryptocurrency climbed 10.17 percent to $10,428 ahead of the UTC midnight close. The wild move uphill helped bitcoin break above crucial technical resistances defined by a long-term descending trendline and a $10,000 price level. It further indicated traders’ likelihood of testing $11,000 in the coming weeks. Weaker Dollar The moves in the bitcoin market took its cues from supportive macro fundamentals. On Monday, the WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against 16 other currencies, plunged 0.57 percent to 92. Observers noted that investors sold the dollar to buy riskier currencies, a sentiment that may have fueled the bitcoin price rally above $10,000. WSJ Dollar Index falls in three back-to-back sessions | Source: WSJ The index was trading at a new year-to-date high – near 97 – in March 2020. The month saw almost every risky asset falling to its record yearly lows amid a global market rout. The meltdown appeared as major economies entered a lockdown stage amid a fast-spreading virus pandemic. Investors sold other assets, including Bitcoin, to seek safety in the US dollar. But the situation is now flipping back towards normal. The number of infections and deaths caused by the virus dropped in the U.S. Europe, and China. It prompted governments to ease lockdown restrictions, leading to a modest rise in factory activity. Chris Turner, the head of the Forex strategy at ING Bank, said the confidence is slowly returning into the market, which is prompting investors to short the dollar and move into riskier alternatives. The fiat homecoming, overall, is leaving Bitcoin in a healthier state. The U.S.-China Rift Bitcoin’s tick above $10,000 also appeared against the backdrop of an escalating geopolitical rift between the U.S. and China. Traders pinned their sentiments on Donald Trump’s repeated warnings to Beijing over their controversial Hong Kong security law. While the U.S. president is yet to take substantial action against the mainland, investors have already started weighing in the possibilities of yet another trade war. The sentiment surfaced after China ordered its regional companies to temporarily stop the purchasing of U.S. farm products, including soybeans. “If it is true China will buy [fewer] soybeans, it will increase the chances of escalation with the U.S.,” Seema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Global Investors, told WSJ. Bitcoin tends to react positively against a trade war. The cryptocurrency rose by more than 200 percent against the one that started in 2019. Traders believe it would perform a similar upside stunt as worries over the new “cold war” between the U.S. and China rise.