First Mover Americas: Stacks' Token Starts March With a Bang

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STX, the native token for Stacks, which is the Bitcoin blockchain's layer-2 chain for smart contracts, outperformed the rest of the crypto market on Wednesday, surging 15% on the day. The token, which gained over 200% in February, is said to be climbing on the back of strong growth for Bitcoin-based non-fungible tokens. In the past 24 hours, bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, and ether each rose about 1.5%.

Former FTX Director of Engineering Nishad Singh pleaded guilty to six criminal charges in a New York court on Tuesday, becoming the third former executive from the FTX web of entities to do so. Singh, who worked with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried at the defunct crypto exchange, was reported to have been looking for a plea deal with prosecutors last month. Singh pleaded guilty to charges including fraud and conspiracy. Reuters reported the news on Tuesday. Bankman-Fried has been charged with 12 different counts, ranging from bank fraud to securities and commodities fraud to conspiracy to commit money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty and faces a trial this fall.

Deribit, the world's largest crypto options exchange by volume, will soon launch bitcoin volatility futures, offering digital-asset investors a simpler way than options to hedge against market volatility. Futures tied to Deribit's forward-looking bitcoin volatility index will be available to Deribit under the ticker BTCDVOL at the end of March, Luuk Strijers, the exchange’s chief commercial officer, told CoinDesk. DVOL, which was released early 2021, measures bitcoin's 30-day implied volatility calculated using Deribit's options order book. Implied volatility refers to the options market's expectation for price turbulence over a specific period of time.

- Omkar Godbole