May 18, 2023

Bitcoin is up on Thursday after gaining ground late Wednesday alongside a rally in U.S. equity markets on optimism that a debt-ceiling deal will be reached in the upcoming days. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value began its rise Wednesday after touching a weekly low of $26,500. At press time, BTC was trading at around $27,400, up 3% on the day. Following a meeting at the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden and Congressmen from both sides of the aisle emphasized their commitment to soon reach a deal to raise the federal government's debt ceiling. 

Ripple is starting a central bank digital currency (CBDC) platform which allows central banks, governments, and financial institutions to issue their own digital currency. Using Ripple's platform, government institutions can manage and customize the entire life cycle of the CBDC, which includes minting, distribution, redemption and token burning. Financial institutions would also be able to manage and participate in inter-institutional settlement and distribution functions using the CBDC. Central banks can issue both wholesale and retail CBDCs, which can make offline transactions as well. The platform is an enhanced version of Ripple's Private Ledger, which was started in 2021 for issuing CBDCs.

Bitcoin Frogs, the newly-launched non-fungible token (NFT) fashioned after frogs, has become the most-traded collection in the past 24 hours, surpassing even prominent collections such as Bored Apes. Bitcoin Frogs, which launched in late February on Bitcoin Ordinals, reached a trading volume of over $2.2 million, data from CryptoSlam show. The collection describes itself as “10,000 unique frog collectibles minted directly on the Bitcoin Blockchain.” At the time of writing, each NFT was selling for 0.12 bitcoin (BTC), or more than $3,200. Buyers and sellers are paying trading fees ranging from $50 to over $1,200 as of Thursday.

On Tuesday, a large ether (ETH) trade involving call options expiring in June and September crossed the tape on Deribit, sparking discussions in the trading community about the nature of the flow.

Per data tracked by Amberdata, a single entity booked a large block trade that involved the purchase of over 57,000 contracts of ether's June expiry call option at the $2,200 strike price and the sale of an equal amount of contracts of September expiry call at $2,200.

Singapore-based options trading giant QCP Capital was the market maker for the large trade executed over the counter and reported to Deribit. Block trades are large transactions negotiated outside of the open market to ensure minimum impact on prices and are considered a proxy for institutional activity.