Feb 3, 2025: Our weekly Institutional Insights explores the latest market developments — market performance, industry news, exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows, trending topics, upcoming events and token unlocks — to help you supercharge your crypto trading.

 explores the latest market developments — market performance, industry news, exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows, trending topics, upcoming events and token unlocks — to help you supercharge your crypto trading.

Weekly Highlight — PCE Muted in January 2025

The Federal Reserve's key inflation measure remained subdued in December 2024, with real incomes softening, potentially paving the way for interest rate cuts this year. Meanwhile, the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increased by 0.2% from November 2024 and 2.8% year-over-year, while real disposable income saw minimal growth for a second consecutive month, leading to a drop in the savings rate to a two-year low of 3.8% that could put consumers at risk if incomes decline, according to LPL Financial's chief economist.

On a three-month annualized basis, the core PCE rose 2.2%, the slowest since July, alleviating some inflation concerns. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated that further rate cuts depend upon progress toward the 2% inflation target amid uncertainties surrounding president Trump's policies.

In related data, labor cost growth slowed and consumer spending rose by 0.4% in December 2024, driven by strong demand for durable goods. Fed officials remain cautious about rate adjustments, influenced by a resilient labor market and upcoming revisions to job growth data. Additionally, the economy's GDP grew by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, supported by a significant increase in personal spending.

Weekly Crypto Highlight — Crypto Forgets DeepSeek Crash

On Jan 27, 2025, Bitcoin prices dropped 6% as markets reacted to the launch of DeepSeek, a new open-source AI model from China, which investor Marc Andreessen describes as "AI's Sputnik moment." Developed for under $6 million using less advanced NVIDIA hardware, DeepSeek emerged as a competitor to U.S. firms like OpenAI, unsettling investors and leading to significant losses in tech stocks, including a nearly 17% drop for NVIDIA.

The cheaper, more efficient AI model also negatively impacted energy utility stocks that expected revenue from power-intensive U.S. models. Major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ether, fell 6% and 7% respectively, reflecting a broader market sentiment, rather than a direct correlation to DeepSeek.

Despite the volatility, some analysts remain optimistic, noting Bitcoin's stabilization amid ongoing Nasdaq-100 declines. The open-source nature of DeepSeek may foster innovation in AI development, with industry figures suggesting it could enhance cheaper, faster AI systems.

However, privacy concerns surround DeepSeek, with regulatory scrutiny emerging in the U.S. and EU over its data policies. Critics warn it may serve as a Trojan horse for data collection, echoing past controversies with Chinese tech. 

Overall, while DeepSeek's immediate impact on crypto appears limited, its long-term effects on the AI landscape and market dynamics have yet to be fully realized.

Advanced

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Weekly Institutional Insights: DeepSeek in the Past as Macro Seems to Favor Risk Assets

Tether is integrating its USDT stablecoin into the Bitcoin Lightning Network using the Taproot Assets protocol.

The S&P 500 rose 0.53% on Thursday and is up 3.2% for the month, driven by positive tech earnings despite ongoing market volatility. Gold prices surged to a record high on Thursday due to safe-haven demand amid U.S. tariff threats. Spot gold rose 1.4% to $2,796.15 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures increased by 2% to $2,824. Coindesk Indices, an index measuring broader cryptocurrency market performance was up by 1.01%, with Bitcoin and Ether rising by 0.65% and 3.31%, respectively in the past 24 hours. Trade these markets and more with up to 500x leverage on Bybit MT5 using this 

Today's top performer is AR, which surged nearly 20.9% following KYVE's archiving of 10TB of Web3 historical data on Arweave.

Arweave (AR), launched in June 2018, is a decentralized platform for permanent data storage. It uses its AR cryptocurrency to ensure data permanence, offers easy web access, and partners with the Internet Archive to secure data preservation. KYVE has 

 over 10TB of compressed, trustless data onto Arweave, including historical chain data from Ethereum, Osmosis, Celestia, and Archway, making Web3 history easily accessible.

Check Out the Latest Prices, Charts, and Data of 

 its USDT stablecoin into the Bitcoin Lightning Network using the Taproot Assets protocol. This partnership, announced at the Plan B conference, aims to expand Bitcoin's functionality and allow USDT payments on Lightning. Tether, with a market cap of $139.4 billion, processed $10 trillion in transactions in 2024 and operates across multiple blockchains. The integration is expected to benefit users in emerging markets and support future transactions between AI agents and autonomous vehicles.

Yesterday, the BTC Spot ETF saw a total flow of $266.6 million, all from non-GBTC sources.

D3 is developing a DomainFi network on the Doma Protocol and has raised $25M from top VCs. They are partnering with projects like Solana Foundation and Avalanche. To potentially qualify for an airdrop, you can buy a domain for $10/year. Payments can be made with Ethereum or the domain's respective chain. Participation carries some risk.

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Tether Brings USDT to Bitcoin Lightning Network

Our weekly crypto derivatives analytics report delves into macro events, the current state of crypto and trading signals from spot trading volume, as well as futures, options and perpetual contracts.

Markets faced a significant risk-off event early this week as DeepSeek's LLM announcement coincided with sharp declines in major indices and crypto markets. Despite the volatile sell-off in spot markets, open interest in perpetual swaps remained stable, with funding rates briefly turning negative before recovering. 

Options markets saw an increase in trading volume during the sell-off, although forward-looking volatility expectations declined. The period of positive funding rates for perpetuals ended due to bearish spot price action on Monday. In the options space, realized volatility fell below implied volatility, reflecting a small-scale repeat of the pre-inauguration term structure inversion. Notably, ETH options maintained a volatility premium over BTC options, while longer-dated volatility smiles exhibited a bullish skew toward out-of-the-money (OTM) calls.

Please check out the report’s highlights.

Options open interest data shows minimal change over the past week, except for the expiration and reopening of short-dated options. Despite the largest single-day trading volumes in call options this month — nearly $250M during the spot price sell-off — trade volume did not significantly impact volatility, which has declined for both realized and implied metrics. Positioning has split between short- and longer-tenor volatility smiles. Short-tenor options are exhibiting lower volatility and a neutral skew, while longer-dated volatility smiles are reflecting increased volatility expectations and a persistent bullish skew toward OTM calls, as has been the case since the election.

ETH options trading volume has surged over the past week, marking its strongest levels in a month. While late December 2024 and early January 2025 saw robust activity, recent data indicates a more active calls market, with open interest remaining heavily weighted toward calls. The early-week global market sell-off briefly shifted short-tenor ETH volatility smiles away from calls, reminiscent of the volatility term structure inversion seen before the inauguration. Despite ETH's spot recovery being weaker than BTC's, its options have maintained higher volatility levels.

Following last week's rally in spot price due to the launch of two presidential meme coins, Solana's price has retreated with the broader crypto market. However, positioning from the rally remains largely unchanged, with open interest in puts and calls remaining elevated and trading activity surpassing pre-rally levels. The stable levels of newly opened put options likely reflect protective buying intended to hedge profitable long positions in other instruments.

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Bybit X Block Scholes Crypto Derivatives Analytics Report (Jan 29, 2025): Options Market Recovers From Monday’s Sell-Off

Phantom wallet has officially integrated Sui, making it the first Move-based blockchain and third Layer 1 supported on the platform. 

The S&P 500 fell 0.47% amid Fed rate pause and mixed tech earnings. Gold fell 0.4% as the dollar and Treasury yields rose after the Fed held rates steady, offering little clarity on future cuts. Coindesk Indices, an index measuring broader cryptocurrency market performance was up by 2.07%, with Bitcoin and Ether rising by 2.99% and 2.90%, respectively in the past 24 hours. Trade these markets and more with up to 500x leverage on Bybit MT5 using this 

Today's top performer is TAI, which surged nearly 38.6% following the unveiling of the Sona framework by TARS AI for cost-efficient AI computation.

TARS AI (TAI), launched in 2022, is a decentralized, multichain platform offering AI-powered tools to help web3 projects launch and manage tokens efficiently. Rebranded in 2023, it supports eight blockchains, including Ethereum and BNB Chain, with plans for expansion. TARS AI is set to 

 two custom frameworks in V1 of its AI Market, including Sona, a proprietary framework compatible with DeepSeek AI for efficient, low-cost computations. More details will be revealed in February.

, making it the first Move-based blockchain and third Layer 1 supported on the platform. This gives Phantom’s 15 million users access to SUI, enabling them to send, receive, swap, and interact with Sui-based tokens and dApps. Sui has rapidly grown, reaching over $2 billion in TVL and becoming a major destination for Ethereum outflows. Phantom's CEO praised Sui’s scalability and user experience, aligning with their multichain vision. The integration marks a significant step in expanding Sui’s adoption and accessibility.

Yesterday, BTC Spot ETFs recorded $120.4M in inflows, entirely from non-GBTC funds.

 tasks to boost Grass points, offering up to 30% in bonuses. Users can earn boosts by swapping $10K on Lifinity, trading meme coins on Fighthorse, or betting $1K on Skate x Polymarket. These points may play a key role in the Eclipse airdrop.

Phantom Wallet Integrates Sui, Expanding Access for 15 Million Users

Blockchain

Bitgert (BRISE) is a crypto platform with almost zero gas fees and high transaction speeds of 100, 000 TPS, aiming to provide an affordable and highly scalable environment for DApps.

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Among the myriad blockchain projects launched over the past few years, Bitgert (BRISE) is certainly an attention magnet, due to its bold claims of zero fees and excellent scalability as well as some controversy surrounding the project. In this article, we take a closer look at a blockchain and cryptocurrency that either seems poised to challenge the dominant market players — or harbors the possibility of being a money-sucking fraud.

Bitgert (BRISE) is a crypto platform that aims to provide an affordable and highly scalable environment for projects of various kinds

(DeFi). Bitgert was originally launched as an app on 

 in July 2021. Initially, the project was called Bitrise, with its native token bearing the ticker BRISE. In December 2021, Bitrise rebranded to Bitgert. The rebranding didn’t affect the token or its ticker, and the platform’s operations remain on BNB Chain.

In February 2022, Bitgert launched its own blockchain network, which utilizes a 

 (PoA) validation mechanism. The new network is commonly referred to as Bitgert Chain or Brise Chain.

 Bitgert Chain advertises itself as a platform with zero gas fees and the technical capacity to process up to 100,000 transactions per second (TPS).

 This places Bitgert close to the top of the rankings by speed among blockchains. Indeed, among the currently operational chains, only 

Top Blockchains by Maximum Transactions per Second (TPS) Capacity

Although Bitgert promotes itself as a “zero gas fee” chain, in reality, there are some, albeit tiny, transaction fees involved in using the blockchain. Typical gas fees on Bitgert Chain are small fractions of a cent.

Bitgert supports smart contracts and is an 

 (EVM) compatible chain, which ensures a great level of interoperability with the world’s largest smart contract platform — the 

BRISE is Bitgert Chain’s native cryptocurrency. Originally, BRISE was launched as a token on BNB Chain when Bitgert, then known as Bitrise, was an app based on that chain. The project still maintains an address on BNB Chain for the token.

When Bitgert Chain was launched, BRISE was issued on it as the chain’s native crypto coin. Bitgert has initiated a buyback mechanism under which it buys the BNB BRISE tokens and burns them. BNB Chain charges 12% for each token sale. The buyback program is likely driven by the project team’s intent to eventually replace the entire supply of the BNB-based BRISE with the BRISE natively issued on Bitgert Chain.

 and payment of Bitgert’s minuscule gas fees. It may also be used within 

 (DApps) linked to the platform. For example, Bitgert’s own decentralized exchange (DEX) uses BRISE as one of the cryptos available for swaps.

Staking BRISE is possible via BNB Chain and Bitgert Chain. In both cases, you can earn 

 rewards for staking your BRISE. Staking is available for fixed periods of 30, 60, 90 and 180 days. The longer your stake, the higher the 

 (APY) rate you earn. The current APY rates (as of November 19, 2022) are shown below.

While the principal staked amount is locked for the selected staking period, accrued interest rewards may be harvested at any time. A great feature of the platform’s staking rules is the absence of any minimum staking requirements, i.e., you may start staking with the smallest of amounts.

BRISE has a max supply of 1,000,000,000,000,000 (1 quadrillion). This gargantuan supply number does sound extreme, though it should be noted that as of November 24, 2022, BRISE is worth only $0.00000032 per unit, giving it a 

BRISE’s supply distribution shares have been specified by the project team as follows:

Bitgert’s recommended wallet is Nabox, a multi-chain wallet featuring support for a large number of blockchain platforms. Meanwhile, Brise Wallet, the native wallet developed by the Bitgert project team, has 

Since its launch as a fully-fledged blockchain, the Bitgert project has added a limited number of features, services and apps to expand its operations.

, a project designed to help promising crypto startups raise investor capital on Bitgert through smart contract–driven token sales.

The DEX on Bitgert may also be used for token swaps, with ten cryptos — BRISE, BNB and another eight tokens based on BNB Chain — currently supported.

Bitgert Chain is still a small blockchain with a rudimentary ecosystem. In order to link the Bitgert ecosystem with other larger blockchain environments, the project team is in the process of 

 app. In the meantime, platform users are advised to use the following bridges that support BRISE: Multichain Bridge, IcecreamSwap Bridge and Sphynx Bridge.

The claims of (near) zero fees and speeds of up to 100,000 TPS were bound to attract the attention of blockchain analysts and investors. At the end of the day, with such stellar parameters, Bitgert is destined to become a leading blockchain network, isn’t it?

Unfortunately, some of the project’s characteristics unambiguously 

. There’s a great deal of online controversy and speculation concerning Bitgert at the moment, primarily related to the Bitgert founders’ identities, audits on the platform, and charity announcements made by the project team.

More than a year after the project’s birth on BNB — and nine months after the launch of Bitgert Chain — we still don’t know the true identities of Bitgert’s founders. There’s been speculation in some online sources that the team behind the project uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) software to fake their identities.

Bitgert’s website previously featured an 

 page, with names that couldn’t be cross-referenced on LinkedIn. The page has now been removed from the website. Amid the controversy, the person(s) behind Bitgert have stubbornly refused to reveal their identities, despite this point being one of the most damaging issues for the project’s reputation and brand image. The founder(s) still regularly appear in the project’s online communications and various publications, and are referred to as “the Bitgert founder.”

Another controversial point involves Bitgert’s platform audits. Audits have become a commonly used tool in the crypto industry to ascertain a blockchain platform’s transparency, and to rule out any malicious code in its smart contracts. Bitgert did conduct an audit, and has widely promoted its 98% achieved score. However, it quickly became obvious that the audit was carried out by the Bitgert team themselves. This raised further suspicion about the platform’s operations.

In addition to the disquieting controversies above, Bitgert has also claimed plans to contribute to an unspecified charitable cause. However, neither the actual charity involved nor any other specific details have been released by the project.

BRISE Cryptocurrency and On-Chain Services

Another vague point in the project’s communication material relates to BRISE and the on-chain services offered on Bitgert Chain. Most of the functionality promoted by the platform, e.g., staking and token swaps, seems to be based on the BNB blockchain. It remains unclear to what degree Bitgert Chain’s apps make use of the actual Bitgert Chain and its native crypto coin.

Some online observers have opined that the platform’s widely promoted own chain and crypto coin remain virtually unused, with nearly all of the promoted functionality being based on BNB Chain and the BNB-based BRISE token. For instance, the leading crypto data portals (such as 

) only have details such as prices, supply numbers and contract addresses for the BRISE token on BNB Chain, while data on the Bitgert Chain’s BRISE coin is markedly absent.

The BRISE token was launched in July 2021 at a minuscule price point of around $0.000000008 (that is, $8 for one billion BRISE). The token’s price experienced few changes until October 2021, when it began to rapidly rise, eventually climbing to an all-time high of $0.00000184 ($1,840 per one billion BRISE) in early March 2022. 

Within the period covering this rise, in February 2022 Bitgert announced the launch of its own chain and crypto coin. However, leading price tracking portals have yet to add Bitgert Chain’s BRISE coin to their websites.

By mid-June 2022, the BRISE token’s value had declined to $0.00000029 ($290 per one billion BRISE), remaining relatively stable until August. As Bitgert celebrated six months since the launch of its own blockchain, details about the controversies surrounding the project started to attract wider public attention.

Against the backdrop of increasing online notoriety, Bitgert doubled down on its marketing and promotional activities to project an image of a legitimate crypto with great potential. It seems that these efforts did have a considerably positive effect on BRISE, with the token’s price rising to $0.0000012 ($1,200 per one billion BRISE) by the end of August. This spike was short-lived, however, with BRISE’s price trending downward from early September. As of November 24, 2022, the token trades at $0.00000032 ($320 per one billion BRISE), and is still trending down.

Despite the controversies surrounding the project, Brise price predictions on the leading crypto forecasting portals points to moderate long-term growth for the token. DigitalCoinPrice.com 

 to reach $0.00000127 by 2025 and $0.00000455 by 2030. Meanwhile, PricePrediction 

 will grow to $0.00000115 by 2025 and $0.00000708 by 2030.

If Bitgert is a legitimate project, its near-zero transaction fees and outstanding TPS capacity might help it to eventually challenge the leading blockchains in the industry. However, there remains too much controversy and suspicion linked to it. For now, the BRISE token seems to have weathered this controversy well with the recent spikes. However, these were of a very short-term nature.

Some observers believe that the spikes might have been the beginning stage of the notorious 

 typical of so many failed cryptocurrencies. Ultimately, your appetite for risk — and possibly thrill — will determine if the BRISE token, the current king of controversy, is worth your attention.

What Is Bitgert: Next Big Thing, or a Scam?

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