Bitcoin’s It continues to underperform compared to gold, to which it is often compared, as its USD price lacks clear directional bias, trading back and forth between $86,000 and $90,000. It is currently up 1.2% against the US dollar since midnight UTC.
However, the Bitcoin-to-gold price ratio has fallen to 20.18, its lowest level since January 1, 2024, according to data source TradingView. The continued decline shows that investors still favor the precious metal as a safe-haven asset of choice amid what some see as fiscal imprudentity in developed countries and talk of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
The ratio could improve later on Thursday if U.S. inflation data comes in weaker than expected. This could increase interest rate cut expectations and stimulate risk-taking in financial markets.
Derivatives positions
- The downward trend in BTC’s 30-day implied volatility, represented by Volmex’s BVIV index, has stalled at around 50%. However, there are no signs of a new rally, meaning traders don’t currently expect volatility to increase.
- The MOVE index, equivalent to U.S. Treasuries, has fallen to 62.73, its lowest level since October. Decreased volatility in the Treasury market generally bodes well for risk assets.
- Among the major coins, SOL TRX and DOGE have seen an increase in open interest (OI) in the futures market.
- Funding rates for BNB, XRP, SOL, TRX, and DOGE have turned negative. The combination of an increase in OI and negative rates on DOGE and TRX indicates that short positions are increasing.
- On Deribit, risk reversals continue to show a bias towards BTC and ETH put options, indicating ongoing downside concerns.
- The block flow features call spreads and strangles for BTC and put spreads and strangles for ETH.
token talk
- Yearn Finance, one of DeFi’s oldest and most well-known yield aggregators, suffered another attack this week, with attackers stealing approximately $300,000 from legacy smart contracts.
- The vulnerability exists in a contract related to iEarn, an earlier version of the protocol that dates back nearly six years. Security firm PeckShield flagged the flaw, noting that the attackers exchanged the stolen funds for 103 ETH, worth approximately $290,000.
- Yearn responded shortly after, clarifying that the attack did not affect current vaults or contracts. “This issue is unique to iEarn and does not affect current Yearn contracts or vaults,” the team posted on X.
- This is the second attack Yearn has suffered in the past month. In early December, attackers stole $9 million through a separate vulnerability.
- Yearn’s YFI token fell nearly 6% after being exploited, underperforming the broader market. Data shows that since the first exploit, the total value locked on the revenue aggregator has plummeted by more than $50 million to $560 million.
