Jan. 20, 2025

CoinDesk 20 Index: 4,038.21  +4.38%
Bitcoin (BTC): $105,738.89   +2.23%
Ether (ETH): $3,290.33  +2.62%
S&P 500: 5,996.66  +1%
Gold: $2,708.11  +0.18%
Nikkei 225: 38,902.50  -1.17%

Bitcoin surged to a record high $109,000 ahead of President Trump's inauguration later in the day. BTC has climbed over 4% from Friday and is over 14% higher in the last seven days. Bitcoin's dominance of the crypto market nudged above 59%, the highest since Dec. 20. "As the main bellwether for the industry, Bitcoin's surge was expected and is likely to continue through the week," Jeff Mei, COO at BTSE, said in a Telegram message. "The forward momentum has been further accelerated by … hopes that Trump will prioritize and reaffirm his commitment to the crypto industry," Ben El-Baz, managing director of HashKey Global, told CoinDesk. 

The Solana blockchain bagged its highest ever daily fees after the issuance of Donald Trump's official token, TRUMP, which fueled higher trading volumes over the weekend. The network generated fees of more than $35 million and revenue of at least $14 million over the two days, DeFiLlama data shows. SOL trading volumes rocketed from Thursday’s $3 billion to over $26 billion in the past 24 hours, with Saturday’s moves bringing weekly gains to over 46%. SOL surged from around $183 to over $285 in the last week, though it has seen a slight correction in the past 24 hours, dropping nearly 10% to $259.

Ether slumped to its lowest level against bitcoin since March 2021 on Sunday, dropping to 0.03 BTC, which is almost 50% lower than a year ago. The ETH-BTC ratio peaked at over 0.08 at the end of 2021 and has been in a steady decline since. “Ethereum has notably underperformed this cycle, particularly as Solana gains traction through the memecoin frenzy and events like Trump's official memecoin launch on Solana instead of Ethereum,” Min Jung, an investment analyst at Presto Research, told CoinDesk. “That said … as the only cryptocurrency besides BTC with an ETF, ETH is well-positioned to be the next focal point after bitcoin."

Bitcoin's ascent to a record high above $109,000 sent both implied volatility and realized volatility to the highest levels since August.

Realized volatility is the historical price fluctuations of bitcoin over the past 30 days. It hit 67 on the Bitcoin Volatility Index on Deribit. The Bitcoin Volmex Implied Volatility index hit a high of 71. Implied volatility is the market's expectation for future price fluctuations derived from options pricing. Both indexes are up around 2% on the day.

"The positive correlation between bitcoin's price and implied volatility remains intact. It’s a sign traders are chasing options, particularly calls, as risk reversals show calls are trading at a premium relative to puts that offer downside protection," said Omkar Godbole, a markets analyst at CoinDesk.

In addition, short-duration calls are priced higher than longer-duration ones, a rare occurrence that indicates strong short-term bullish sentiment, according to Andre Dragosch, the European head of research at Bitwise. Open interest in options has increased by 44,000 BTC, reflecting heightened speculative activity, Dragosch noted.

- Omkar Godbole