BTC and ETH Volatility Term Structures Normalise as Front-End IV Falls

Find out our latest reports, listed below:

• Tokenised Markets on Bitget UEX: How Traders Are Utilising 24/7 Real-World Assets For Real Time Macro Hedging
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• Volatility Report: February 2026

• 2026 – the year of RWA perps?
  

Market Snapshot: Overnight Moves

Daily Updates:

• As we have seen a number of times over the past week, BTC was once more rejected at the $79K level yesterday and is currently trading around $77K. 
• In options markets, at-the-money implied volatility has continued to drop lower across the curve, driven by the front-end with 7-day IV now trading around 36%. As such, the term structure of implied volatility has normalised for BTC and ETH after a period in mid-April where the structure was flat. 
• US equities held up at their record high levels, with the S&P 500 closing 0.12% higher, while Brent crude oil is extending its rally into a seventh straight day as the US-Iran impasse in the Hormuz Strait continues. 

• The subdued moves in US equities came amidst little clarity around the prospects of a permanent peace deal between the US and Iran. 
• According to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, President Trump convened national security officials to review Iran’s most recent interim proposal to bring an end to the war. 
• Leavitt said “His red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear” including preventing Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon. She added that Trump would address the proposal “very soon.”
• Tehran’s proposal involves reopening the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the US ending its blockade of Iranian ports, while delaying negotiations around nuclear weapons to a later date. 
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio was more skeptical around the prospects of Trump accepting Iran’s proposal. 
• Speaking on Fox News on Monday he said, "If what they mean by opening the straits is, ’yes, the straits are opened, as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission, or we will blow you up and you pay us,’ that’s not opening the straits.”
• Foreign leaders have however expressed their frustration around the longevity of the war. 
• Yesterday German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the US has been “humiliated” by Iranian leaders as it started a war it appears unable to end.
• Merz added that “This war against Iran has a direct impact on our economic performance and must therefore be brought to an end as soon as possible”. 
• While the Fed, ECB and Bank of Canada are still yet to convene on monetary policy this week, the Bank of Japan voted 6-3 earlier today to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.75%. 
• The 6-3 vote was the most split decision since Kazuo Ueda’s term as Governor began, with three members calling for a 25bps hike to 1%. 
• The BoJ warned against inflationary pressures as a result of the Middle East War, increasing its forecast for core inflation this year to 2.8% from a previous 1.9%, and revising down economic growth to 0.5%, from the previous 1% forecast.  
  

• Aven, a fintech company that reshapes consumer credit by offering home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) through a credit card, is expanding bitcoin’s role as collateral with the launch of its Bitcoin Visa Card, offering BTC-backed credit lines of up to $1M.
• The product brings a more traditional lending structure to bitcoin-backed borrowing - fixed-rate, fixed-term loans of up to 10 years at a 7.99% APR.
• Borrowers will deposit bitcoin collateral with BitGo, while the card itself will be issued by Coastal Community Bank.
  

• DeFi United, a coalition of DeFi ecosystem participants, has outlined a coordinated plan to restore full backing for Kelp DAO’s rsETH following the $292M exploit earlier this month.
• The recovery effort stands out for both its scale and the level of coordination across the DeFi ecosystem.
• Led by Aave and supported by multiple protocols, the initiative has secured more than $300M in ETH commitments to help stabilise affected markets and avoid socialising losses across users.
• The proposed process will convert committed ETH into rsETH in tranches, transfer it to the affected lockbox contract, and gradually restore bridge operations.
• In parallel, affected lending positions on Aave and Compound are expected to be unwound through controlled liquidations, with recovered collateral used to repay market deficits.
• The plan remains subject to governance approvals, legal agreements, and careful execution. It also carries residual risk, particularly while new security measures remain untested in live conditions.
  

• On-chain data shows Bitmine has staked an additional 112,656 ETH (around $260M), bringing total staked holdings to 3,814,245 ETH (around $8.8B), or 75.11% of its total ETH supply.
  

• ZetaChain has paused cross-chain transactions on its mainnet after detecting an attack on its GatewayEVM smart contract, which facilitates interoperability with external EVM chains. 
• The exploit has affected only internal team wallets, with no user funds impacted, and the team has contained the vulnerability to prevent further losses. 
• The investigation remains ongoing, with around $300,000 reportedly affected, and a full post-mortem is expected once analysis is complete.
  

• Ondo Finance has partnered with Broadridge to integrate proxy voting into tokenized equities and ETFs, using a Web3-enabled extension of Broadridge’s ProxyVote infrastructure that supports wallet-based authentication and on-chain verification of investor actions.
• The system enables holders of 250+ tokenized securities to access issuer communications, prospectuses, and regulatory disclosures, while linking blockchain-based ownership records with traditional shareholder voting workflows and corporate action systems.
• The integration effectively bridges on-chain tokenized assets with off-chain market infrastructure, allowing real-time trading (24/7) while maintaining compliance with governance, reporting, and investor participation standards used in traditional capital markets.

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