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What’s Changing in the Bitcoin Options Market as Prices Fall? Bitcoin is down around 40% from its peak. Most people are focused on the price action, but I'm looking at how the Bitcoin options market has changed during this period. The Coinglass chart I'm sharing shows Total BTC Options Open Interest. The green bars represent the total USD value of outstanding Bitcoin options, while the yellow line tracks the price of Bitcoin. Looking at the chart from a broader perspective, we can see a significant change. As Bitcoin pulled back from its highs around $120,000, options open interest also dropped from roughly $65 billion to below $40 billion. The chart shows how much the dollar-denominated size of the options market has contracted. Bitcoin is now trading around the $74,000 area. At first glance, this may look like a major decline in the overall size of the Bitcoin options market. But there's an important detail here: open interest in this chart is measured in USD. When Bitcoin's price falls, the dollar value of outstanding options positions can also decline, even if the amount of open interest in BTC remains unchanged. So a drop in USD-denominated open interest doesn't necessarily mean positions have been closed at the same rate. That said, it doesn't prove that all those positions are still open either. To get a clearer picture of what's actually happening, we also need to look at open interest in BTC terms alongside the USD-denominated data. The longer-term view of the chart matters too. The Bitcoin options market was much smaller in previous years, but it expanded over time and eventually climbed above $60 billion. This shows just how much the Bitcoin derivatives market has grown over the years. What I'm focusing on here is the decline in the dollar value of the options market alongside the drop in Bitcoin's price. But these two metrics shouldn't be treated as if they mean exactly the same thing. Price tells us where Bitcoin is trading, while open interest shows the amount of outstanding options positions and their corresponding value. That's why I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that major investors have completely left the market based only on the decline in USD-denominated open interest. At this stage, I'm also tracking open interest in BTC terms and the Call-Put distribution alongside the price. That should give us a better understanding of whether positions are actually shrinking and how traders are positioning for the next move.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 When evaluating the growth of the crypto industry, we usually focus on market cap, trading volume and the number of users. But how much revenue the industry generates and where that revenue comes from are just as important. The 2026 Blockchain Revenue Report published by 1kx provides some useful data on this. According to the report, total blockchain industry revenue is expected to reach around $100 billion in 2026. That's a 28% decline compared to the approximately $140 billion generated in 2025. At first glance, these numbers might suggest that the industry is going through a serious contraction. However, the fact that the drop in revenue has moved in line with an approximately 30% decline in crypto asset prices means we also need to consider market conditions when looking at these figures. On top of that, total revenue as a share of the overall crypto market cap has remained flat year over year. One of the main things I took away from the report is where that revenue is coming from. Revenue from broader economic use cases such as tokenization, payments and prediction markets grew 58% year over year. What's more, in Q3 2026, revenue from these areas surpassed blockchain infrastructure revenue for the first time. A similar shift can be seen in institutional adoption. Revenue from institutional customers and broader economic use cases is expected to account for 30% of total industry revenue in 2026. The fact that publicly listed companies' share of revenue has also increased from 7% in 2022 to 16% in 2026 is another data point supporting this shift. For me, the important part here is that the blockchain industry is no longer relying solely on market movements to generate revenue. Stablecoin payments, tokenization and institutional solutions are among the areas that could bring blockchain technology further into real economic activity. Of course, time will tell how much of this growth turns into sustainable revenue models. But I no longer think looking only at total revenue figures is enough to evaluate the industry. Where that revenue comes from, how much of it is backed by real user demand, and how well it holds up when market conditions change all matter too. The main takeaway from this report, in my view, is that to understand where the blockchain industry is heading, we need to look beyond how much revenue it generates and pay attention to which use cases are driving it. 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦: 1𝘬𝘹, 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 2026 Note: The $100 billion revenue figure for 2026 is a year-end estimate based on data from the first three quarters.

One of the messages Vitalik Buterin shared at Devcon 8 was that, in the digital world of the future, privacy is not just a personal choice but also a fundamental part of security. As Vitalik emphasized, we shouldn't have to share all our personal information just to prove something. Technologies like Zero-Knowledge Proofs allow us to prove that certain information is true without exposing our personal data. This makes it possible to maintain verifiability while also protecting users' private information. But security in digital systems goes beyond protecting personal data. As AI continues to develop, software security and the resilience of the cryptographic systems we use today are also becoming more important. On one hand, AI makes it easier to find security vulnerabilities. On the other, it opens up new possibilities that could challenge existing cryptographic methods. Vitalik's point about AI accelerating mathematical research and potentially creating new risks for cryptography is connected to this. AI's impact may not be limited to security vulnerabilities either. It could also change how we interact with blockchain. The AI agents Vitalik mentioned could eventually become new interfaces that handle complex on-chain transactions on behalf of users. However, with systems carrying out transactions for users, it's also necessary to make sure that user instructions are understood correctly and every transaction can be reliably verified. This brings another aspect of security into the picture: hardware. Vitalik's phrase, "Not your silicon, not your life," points to the fact that digital security cannot be ensured through software and private keys alone. The hardware we use also needs to be trustworthy. For me, the common point across all these topics is that our understanding of security and privacy will also have to change as technology evolves. Faster transactions or more advanced tools alone are not enough. Users' privacy needs to be protected, systems must be openly auditable, and trust should not depend on a single company or authority. Taken together, these points also show why privacy, open source, verifiability and trustworthy AI need to be considered together in Ethereum's long-term vision.