We're excited to announce our new format "Crypto Daybook Americas" will replace "First Mover" on Feb. 24. "Crypto Daybook Americas" is your new morning briefing on what happened in crypto markets overnight to equip you with what you'll need to know about during the coming day. It will arrive in your inbox at 7 a.m. ET to kickstart your morning with comprehensive insights and analysis. If you want a preview, "Crypto Daybook Americas" is already being published on the CoinDesk website, so hop over and take a look. You don't need to do anything to sign up, you'll start receiving "Crypto Daybook Americas" automatically when it starts coming out.

CoinDesk 20 Index: 3,266.93 -1.07%
Bitcoin (BTC): $96,293.45 -0.92%
Ether (ETH): $2,762.88 +2.14%
S&P 500: 6,114.63 -0.01%
Gold: 2910.5 +0.93%
Nikkei 225: 39,174.25 +0.06%

A message from Hex Trust

Bitcoin is in stasis, moving sideways around $96,000 on Monday. Most members of the CoinDesk 20 Index fell slightly through the weekend. Solana was a notable underperformer, dropping to $180 from $205 on Friday, perhaps pressured by the LIBRA token launch on the network and the forthcoming $2 billion SOL token unlock due March 1. "BTC has proven to be relatively unfazed by the recent macro data and open interest has not recovered significantly after the January month-end expiry," hedge fund QCP said in a Monday note. "This suggests that the crypto options market is just waiting on the sidelines for concrete policy changes rather than just pro-crypto rhetoric.”

Argentina's President Javier Milei faces a potential lawsuit and impeachment for supporting a botched token launch. It's another day in the pump-and-dump trenches: On Friday, Milei endorsed Libra, a privately run project designed to raise money for small and medium-sized Argentinian companies. The token's price surged, insiders apparently cashed out, Milei withdrew support claiming he wasn't aware of the project's details and prices spiraled down. Now, opposition politicians say Milei embarrassed the country and threaten to impeach him, while the Associated Press reported that lawyers filed a lawsuit accusing the president of committing fraud.

The U.S. crypto task force will focus on starting up a national bitcoin (BTC) reserve, broker Bernstein said in a Monday report. The move could trigger similar efforts worldwide, though questions about the structure of the reserve abound, Bernstein said. The report also noted the announcement to create a sovereign wealth fund (SWF), which could invest in key U.S. crypto companies and market leaders deemed as "strategic," kickstarting the next leg up for crypto equities.

Bitcoin (BTC) has been relatively listless this month, hunching below $100,000. This hasn't deterred traders from continuing to bet bullishly on the largest cryptocurrency.

This month's most preferred options play has been the $110,000 call expiring on March 28, with buyers paying a cumulative net premium of over $6 million for the bullish exposure, according to the Deribit options flow tracked by Amberdata.

"Looking at the month-to-date flows for on-screen traders … buying March $110K calls has been the most active trade," Greg Magadini, director of derivatives at Amberdata, said in a note shared with CoinDesk.

Bitcoin has mostly traded between $95,000 and $100,000 this month. The bulls have had some positive developments to chew on, like the continued accumulation by MicroStrategy and Abu Dhabi's recent reveal of a $436 million investment into bitcoin ETFs.

However, renewed macroeconomic headwinds, highlighted by last week's hotter-than-forecast U.S. inflation data and frequent liquidity drains caused by the boom-bust cycles of memecoins and other small-cap tokens, appear to be capping the upside potential.

- Krisztian Sandor