TL;DR

🚀 April Highlights:

• Paradex: Paradex hits $7.3B Volume and launched 10 new markets
• Paradigm: Paradigm records $12 billion in trades amidst April's volatile market shifts and declining volatility levels

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Bitcoin's April Rollercoaster: Paradex and Paradigm Navigate Market Maelstrom

This April, Bitcoin exhibited a dramatic sequence of events, initially climbing to $73,000 levels before settling down to close the month at $60,000. Volatility levels reached new lows as the market stabilized, meandering after an initial dip to $56,000. Enthusiasm sparked by increased ETF inflows was short-lived, as broader economic indicators suggested a potential delay in anticipated rate cuts and the latter half of April showing stronger ETF outflows. Amidst these developments, Paradigm traded an impressive 12.6 billion and Paradex traded $7.3 billion in April 2024. The Bitcoin halvening event took place, subtly influencing market dynamics. Let's dive into the details of this eventful month in our market’s section!

Rollercoaster of Returns

April ended Bitcoin’s 7 months of consecutive positive returns and closed -15% versus March (MoM). ETF inflows on the month began in the red with -85.7 million in outflows (See Chart 1). Besides the April 8th outflows, other inflows leaned positive leading up to the release of the March Consumer Price Report. The release was expected to support the claim that inflation is moderating but that did not come as expected and at the same time, the latter half of the month’s ETF outflows were leaning negative. (See Chart 2)

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After observing the ETF flows and the broader market reactions to the economic indicators, lets dive into the behavior of implied volatility in Bitcoin options. Implied at-the-money volatility has declined since the middle of April and is also when the term structure entered backwardation or front-end implieds: ATM 2, 3, and 7 day were trading at a higher level compared to their later expiries: ATM 90, 60, 30.

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As April came to a close, implied volatility continued to sell off. May-2024 closing at 52.6V and Jun-2024 closing at 55.5v (See Chart 4). These tenors were trading around 70-72v in the middle of the month. Largest flows of April consisted of buys of May outrights, put skew sell before the first rally, and rolling strategies as optionality in middle and backend expiries declined. BTC Trades below:

1. 1150x 31-May-24 69000 Call bought
2. 1000x 26-Apr-24 64000/71000 Bear Risk Reversal sold
3. 799x Custom Strategy:
   -1.00 Call 31-May-24 110000
   +1.00 Call 28-Jun-24 110000
   -1.00 Call 28-Jun-24 160000 bought
4. 612x 28-Jun-24 75000 27-Dec-24 80000 Call Calendar bought
5. 600x 31-May-24 57000 Put bought

April’s ETH flows were circling around call buyers and call sell vs put spread buyers. ETH’s 30d skew sold off and traded 13 handles under puts (See Chart 5). As calls saw a bid, call skew continuously sold back off and round tripping back down towards the end of the month.

Largest ETH trades below:

1. 13750x BUY 26 Apr 24 3400 Call
2. 13250x 26-Apr-24 3100 Call sold
3. 12750x Custom Strategy: -1.00 Call 26-Apr-24 3600
   -1.00 Put 28-Jun-24 2500
   +1.00 Put 28-Jun-24 3000 bought
4. 10250x Custom Strategy: -1.00 Call 26-Apr-24 3500
   -1.00 Put 28-Jun-24 2400
   +1.00 Put 28-Jun-24 2900 bought

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Paradex Key Performance Metrics

In the past month, Paradex recorded a Monthly ADV of $250M, with a Monthly Total Volume of $7.3B. Total fees paid amounted to $1.8M, while we maintained 352 active users. The Total Open Interest reached $6.5M, contributing to a Monthly TVL of $12M. Additionally, traders earned a total of 4.2M points.

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New Market Listings

Our journey to reach 100 market listings by year-end is well underway, and this April, we added 10 new perpetual markets to our platform, a 2x from the start of the month! Here’s a snapshot of our latest additions:

• AEVO-USD-PERP
• ARB-USD-PERP
• BNB-USD-PERP
• FET-USD-PERP
• PYTH-USD-PERP
• RNDR-USD-PERP
• SUI-USD-PERP
• TAO-USD-PERP
• TON-USD-PERP
• WLD-USD-PERP

SOL, XRP, and MATIC Options on RFQ

🚀 We are launching SOL, XRP, and MATIC Options on RFQ.

🔹 Create an RFQ when you meet a Minimum Gross Premium (MGP) of $3,000 USDC

🔹 MGP is calculated by sum of the Premium transacted on all option legs within a block trade.

👉 Refer to our website for the contract specifications

RFQ on Paradigm, settled on Deribit.

Stay informed and engaged with us through "Paradigm Edge" and "Paradex" Telegram channels — your go-to resources for navigating this ever-changing crypto derivatives landscape.

Thanks for reading our Monthly Brief!

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Sincerely,
The Paradigm Team 💜