BlackRock Nears Bitcoin Covered Call ETF Launch

‍Block Scholes is an FCA-regulated institutional crypto derivatives analytics platform. Live data, IV surfaces, and backtesting available via blockscholes.com.

‍

Recent Research from Block Scholes

• Tokenised Markets on Bitget UEX: How Traders Are Utilising 24/7 Real-World Assets For Real Time Macro Hedging
• Block Scholes x Panoptic: Bridging The Onchain Convexity Gap
• Volatility Report: February 2026
• 2026 – the year of RWA perps?

‍

In Today's Note

• US-Iran tensions escalated after fresh US strikes on Iranian targets, pushing oil near $93 as BTC traded between $61K and $62K and ETH struggled above $1,700.
• Bitmine acquired another 25,000 ETH from BitGo, while BlackRock filed an amendment for its proposed iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF with a 0.65% management fee.

Market Snapshot: Overnight Moves

‍

Macro & Markets

• A major escalation in the ongoing US-Iran conflict has increased geopolitical tensions, and threatened to derail the path towards a permanent ceasefire and full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. 
• Yesterday the US military launched strikes against “multiple” targets in Iran as President Trump accused leaders in Tehran of dragging out peace talks. 
• President Trump told reporters on Wednesday, "We're going to be attacking them very hard. We hit them hard yesterday, and we're going to hit them hard again today". The comments starkly contrasted previous signalling from the President where he had claimed an agreement was only a few days away. 

‍

• At 5pm New York time on Wednesday, the US Central Command posted on X that it had begun “additional self-defense strikes” on targeted surveillance systems, air defense sites and communications networks. Four hours later it posted that its operations had been completed. 
• The Central Command also said that “US Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy assets fired precision munitions on Iranian targets that posed a threat to US forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters”.
• The escalation in the attacks follow strikes launched by the US earlier in the week on Tuesday in retaliation for the downing of a US Apache helicopter. 
• In an interview with Fox News, President Trump claimed that top Iranian officials had asked him to stop the bombing on Wednesday. Trump responded that they would stop shortly, but would resume once more if Iran doesn’t sign an agreement with the US. 

‍

• The impact of the geopolitical flare-up was best seen on Wall Street. The selloff in US equities renewed once again, while crude oil prices were dragged higher to around $93 per barrel.
• The S&P 500 fell to a five-week low, ending the session down more than 1.6%, while other major benchmark indexes, including the Nasdaq-100 and the Dow Jones both fell close to 2%. The closely watched Philadelphia Semiconductor Sector index declined 3.6%. 
• After last week’s 20% selloff, BTC has mostly spent this week consolidating sideways. Over the past 24 hours it continued to trade rangebound between $61K and $62K. ETH has fared worse over the week, down more than 8% with the token struggling to hold up above $1,700. 

‍

• President Trump did try to offer comments to calm markets — though they were unsuccessful. On Truth Social he confirmed that the US military had helped support passage for “more than 200 commercial ships” through the Hormuz Strait, helping “more than 100 million barrels of oil” make it to the market — a move he claimed had aided in keeping oil prices relatively low.

‍

• Geopolitical concerns slightly overshadowed an in-line with expectations consumer prices report from the BLS. 
• Inflation accelerated once again in May, driven by higher energy prices and outpacing the increase in wages for a second straight month. 
• The headline consumer price index rose 4.2% from a year earlier, the highest level since April 2023, and 0.5% from a month earlier — both were in-line with market expectations. 
• Core CPI rose 0.2% from April, slightly below expectations of 0.3%, and came in at 2.9% from a year earlier. 
• According to the BLS, the energy index rose 3.9% in May, accounting for over 60% of the overall headline monthly increase. 

• Despite the slightly softer-than-expected reading, bond markets have maintained their bets on the Fed raising interest rates by the end of the year. 

‍

DeFi / Web3 / Altcoins / Crypto3

• Onchain data indicates that Bitmine acquired another 25,000 ETH (worth roughly $41M) from custody partner BitGo on Wednesday, bringing its estimated purchases over the past three days to 125,000 ETH valued at around $206M.

‍

• BlackRock has filed an amendment for its proposed iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BITA), a fund designed to combine spot bitcoin exposure with yield generated through covered call strategies linked primarily to shares of its IBIT bitcoin ETF.
• The latest filing disclosed a 0.65% management fee, and Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said he expects the product to launch “very soon,” noting that the fee is lower than competing bitcoin covered-call ETFs and that BlackRock appears to be racing to market ahead of similar offerings from rivals.

‍

• MNX, a decentralized futures exchange being built on MegaETH, raised $6.4M in a pre-seed round at a $40M valuation to develop trading markets focused on the AI economy, including AI company valuations, compute infrastructure, and prediction markets.
• The platform plans to launch on mainnet later this summer and will use MegaETH's low-latency infrastructure, while targeting traders seeking exposure to prediction markets on AI model benchmarks, product launches, company performance and geopolitical developments alongside futures and perpetual contracts designed for AI-related assets.

‍

• Figure Technology Solutions, a blockchain-based capital markets platform, has agreed to acquire real estate lending platform Kiavi in a $717M transaction, with a joint venture between Figure and Sixth Street purchasing Kiavi’s balance sheet assets.
• The deal is expected to add more than $7B in annual first-lien loan volume to Figure’s marketplace and bring residential transition loans and rental-property lending products onto its tokenized infrastructure, which the company says represents a roughly $200B annual addressable origination opportunity.
• Figure CEO Michael Tannenbaum said the acquisition is intended to accelerate the firm's push to move capital markets onto blockchain rails, while Kiavi CEO Arvind Mohan said combining Kiavi’s lending platform with Figure’s blockchain marketplace could create “an entirely new and unmatched standard of reach, reliability, and execution” for the asset class.

‍

• Japan's parliament is advancing legislation that would classify cryptocurrencies as financial instruments under the same framework as stocks, a move aimed at expanding institutional and retail participation in the country's digital asset market.
• The proposal would reduce capital gains taxes on crypto holdings from a maximum 55% rate to a 20% flat tax aligned with stocks and bonds, while introducing stricter insider trading and disclosure requirements and paving the way for products such as spot crypto ETFs.
• Japanese regulators say the changes are intended to support market growth while strengthening oversight, with industry participants expecting the new framework to attract more institutional capital.

This Week's Calendar

Charts of the Day

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍