Our weekly crypto derivatives analytics report delves into macro events; the current state of crypto and trading signals from spot trading volume; and futures, options and perpetual contracts.

The latest Middle East conflict has had an impact on trading volumes for perpetual swap contracts, and has driven funding rates negative for several tokens. Market-wide de-risking — due to fears of an escalating Iran-Israel conflict — has led to significant declines in crypto assets, with Bitcoin (BTC) down over 4%, Ethereum (ETH) over 8%, and Solana (SOL) by 10%. However, ETH options markets are displaying a less bearish sentiment toward out-of-the-money (OTM) puts as compared to BTC's short-term options, with a positive put-call skew for expirations beyond 30 days. Meanwhile, open interest in perpetuals has decreased from June highs but remains stable above $9 billion, while short-tenor implied volatility for BTC options is nearly half of that for ETH options. Additionally, 7-day realized volatility stands at 30% for BTC and 70% for ETH.

Please check out the report’s highlights.

Funding rates for most of the nine tracked crypto tokens turned negative, following reports on Jun 13, 2025 of Israel's preemptive strike against Iran, highlighting that geopolitical factors beyond President Trump’s trade war are influencing crypto markets. While funding rates for ETH, SOL, XRP and DOGE fell negative, Bitcoin (BTC) only experienced one negative rate at the conflict's onset, demonstrating its relative resilience. Over the past week, funding rates for most tokens have fluctuated between positive and negative, but remain lower than the levels observed from late May to early June.

Volatility smiles for Ethereum (ETH) indicate bullish sentiment for horizons beyond 30 days. For expirations under 30 days, ETH options show a 2-percentage-point premium toward out-of-the-money (OTM) puts, down significantly from 9.5 percentage points on June 14. In contrast, Bitcoin (BTC) options exhibit a more bearish outlook, with 90-day options showing a slight 0.45% skew toward OTM calls, while shorter tenors remain put-skewed, particularly with 7-day options assigning a 3-point volume premium toward puts. Despite this, BTC's funding rates have been more stable over the past week as compared to ETH's.

Over the past week, Bitcoin (BTC) has traded between $110K, near its all-time high, and $103K, which has largely acted as a floor in June. The 7-day realized volatility for BTC has remained steady at 30%, significantly lower than Ethereum's (ETH) equivalent, contributing to the nearly 2x ratio in their 7-day implied volatilities.

Recently, put volumes in BTC options have surged past calls, with a divergence of up to $100 million on Jun 13, 2025. Open interest in BTC options has also been predominantly in puts. Overall, BTC options markets are reflecting bearish sentiment, with short-tenor volatility smiles skewed toward OTM puts, and higher put volume and open interest.

Advanced

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Bybit x Block Scholes Crypto Derivatives Analytics Report (Jun 19, 2025): ETH sees less bearish sentiment than BTC; BTC price movements are range-bound

This article explores Metaplanet, the Japanese firm's strategic pivot to a Bitcoin-first model, its ambitious accumulation goals and the stock's price performance.

Despite increased institutional appetite for BTC, it's uncommon to hear about a publicly traded company going all-in on Bitcoin in the corporate world. While 

 (formerly known as MicroStrategy) pioneered this tactic in the US, a Japanese firm is now making significant waves in Asia. Metaplanet Inc., once a hotel operator, has transformed itself into Japan's first and only publicly listed Bitcoin treasury company, and is capturing the attention of global investors.

This article explores Metaplanet, its strategic pivot to a Bitcoin-first model, its ambitious accumulation goals and the risks involved in its aggressive approach.

's journey is one of dramatic transformation. The company was founded by CEO Simon Gerovich, a former Goldman Sachs derivatives trader, and initially operated as Red Planet Japan, a budget hotel business. The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the travel industry, prompting the company to pivot toward 

 consulting and blockchain infrastructure in 2020.

 (formerly MicroStrategy), Gerovich initiated another strategic shift: Metaplanet began selling off its hotel assets, retaining only one property in Tokyo for a planned rebranding as "The Bitcoin Hotel." The company then went all-in on a new mission: to use Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset.

Metaplanet has set an ambitious goal to hold 210,000 BTC by the end of 2027. This target, if achieved, would represent approximately 1% of Bitcoin's total possible supply, positioning the Japanese company as one of the largest corporate holders in the world.

Metaplanet reaches 10,000 BTC in holdings

The company has pursued its goal with remarkable speed. Following its 

 on Jun 16, 2025, Metaplanet successfully reached its first major milestone of 10,000 BTC in its treasury. This move propelled it past Coinbase to become the 

, and the current value of its Bitcoin holdings is $1.07 billion, giving the company an unrealized gain of 12.6%.

Metaplanet uses sophisticated financial instruments to fund its Bitcoin purchases. A key part of its strategy is to issue zero-interest bonds, which allows the company to raise capital without incurring regular interest payments. Additionally, it has explored options strategies, such as 

, in order to acquire BTC at favorable prices while generating income from options premiums.

Metaplanet's $210 million zero-interest bonds

To accelerate its acquisitions, Metaplanet announced on Jun 16, 2025, that it would issue 

. The funds raised from this issuance are designated entirely for purchasing more Bitcoin, underscoring the company's aggressive and focused strategy.

Metaplanet's pivot to a Bitcoin-centric strategy has had a dramatic effect on its stock performance. As of Jun 17, 2025, Metaplanet (3350.T)

, with a year-to-date performance of 426.15% and a one-month return of 193.90%. The company's one-year return of 1,957.30% on investment is even more significant.

The surge began in April 2024 after the firm announced its 

 for ¥1 billion (worth $6.25 million at the time). This upward trend was further fueled by its massive BTC accumulation between April 2024 and June 2025, which increased its Bitcoin treasury to 10,000 BTC, worth over $1 billion by June 17, 2025.

This aggressive strategy is not without significant risks. Metaplanet's value is now almost entirely tied to the price of Bitcoin. A prolonged bear market could severely impact its balance sheet and stock price. Unlike Strategy, which maintains a substantial software business, Metaplanet has a much smaller underlying operational business, making it a more direct — and therefore riskier — bet on BTC's long-term success.

Metaplanet's transformation from a struggling hotel operator into a leading Bitcoin treasury company is a compelling case study in corporate reinvention. By adopting an aggressive accumulation strategy funded by innovative financial tools, the company has provided a new way for Japanese investors to gain exposure to BTC and has set a bold precedent in Asia. While the high-risk, high-reward approach ties its success directly to Bitcoin's performance, Metaplanet is a key player to watch in the evolving world of corporate finance.

Beginner

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‘Asia's MicroStrategy’: An introduction to Metaplanet

Discover how Bondex (BDXN) is transforming professional networking with decentralized identity, AI tools, and tokenized career opportunities.

Web 2.0 professional social media networks have been around for over two decades, with the leading network, LinkedIn, having launched in 2003. Over the past decade, LinkedIn has become pervasive in the business world as the world's dominant social platform for professional connections. Yet, LinkedIn and smaller, similar recent platforms are centralized entities whose users are essentially treated as products. 

Advertisers and platform owners profile users relentlessly, leading to manipulated visibility and erosion of privacy. Your professional data on these Web 2.0 social networks is easily sold to third parties for targeted advertising, 

 (AI) algorithm training and other activities — to which few users would willingly consent.

Moreover, your user profile is owned by the corporate entities running these social networks. At any moment, LinkedIn might decide to lock your profile for whatever reasons it deems fit, leaving your professional visibility in tatters. 

 professional social networks have emerged to address these issues by leveraging blockchain technology. Thanks to their decentralized nature, these platforms have you control your profile, placing you firmly in control of your user data. Unfortunately, most web3 professional networks don't focus on universal, cross-platform 

, often limiting you to specific wallets and a small set of basic features. Many simply act as messaging platforms, with basic avatars and profile descriptions the most they can offer.

Bondex is a new web3 professional networking platform with a more comprehensive approach to decentralized social connections. On Bondex, user profiles are multifaceted digital identities that reflect users' on-chain activities and off-chain achievements. By combining 

 data sources and functionalities, Bondex has created a hybrid web 2.5 professional social network. 

 (BDXN), a decentralized professional social network that combines on-chain and off-chain data sources, offers comprehensive digital identity-based user profiles. 

It helps professionals, recruiters and other parties tp connect, find jobs and contract opportunities, earn incentives by referring others and effectively build professional reputations. 

Launched in July 2023, Bondex had notched 5 million downloads by early June 2025, when its native token, BDXN, debuted on leading 

Bondex aims to create an environment in which users can build their reputations via decentralized validations, find suitable web3 opportunities, monetize their connections and establish professional identities.

The platform combines on-chain data, such as trading activities and governance participation, with off-chain metrics (e.g., Web 2.0 social profiles and attestations) in order to create rich user profiles. The blend of web3 and Web 2.0 sources gives rise to new, comprehensive user identities under a hybrid framework that the project has dubbed web2.5.

Every platform user has a Bondex Reputation Score that reflects their standing, activities and network size. Users improve their Reputation Scores by adding more connections; each new connection has a different weighting on the score. Adding influencers with impactful networks or connections with verified credentials helps scores carry a higher weight.

As their Reputation Scores grow, users qualify for various rewards and perks on the platform. Typical rewards for developing and maintaining a high score include better visibility on Bondex, special badges and higher Bond Point (BP) earning ratios. 

Bondex uses a dual-token economy featuring the BDXN on-chain token, and off-chain Bond Points (BPs), which are reward points users earn for various activities on the platform, such as engaging with the network or making in-app purchases. Earned points are twice as valuable as purchased points. BPs cannot be directly exchanged for the platform's native crypto, BDXN. 

However, they can be staked to initiate actions, such as job applications, referrals and endorsements. If the action results in positive outcomes, the points are returned, while unsuccessful engagement results in losing the points. Using this system, Bondex aims to encourage healthful, positive interactions and reduce the likelihood of spam and manipulative actions. 

Bondex has both a mobile app and a web version. The web version currently serves as a talent marketplace, while the mobile app is the main platform for users to build their profiles and reputations, expand their network, earn BPs and engage with the broader Bondex ecosystem. 

The app is fully integrated with the underlying Bondex platform, encouraging gamified reputation-building and networking. 

Bondex isn’t just a social networking environment: the platform has a dedicated Jobs Portal that allows companies and recruiters to advertise employment opportunities in order to find top talent. It also features a referral system whereby users can earn rewards for successful candidate referrals.

The portal facilitates efficient and low-cost hiring processes. It also features AI-driven filtering and candidate matching. AI solutions help the platform achieve more accurate matching from its user base, thus satisfying the requirements of both candidates and recruiters. 

The concept of Bondex Reputation Score is bolstered through the use of Bondex IDs, which reflect users' on-chain activities and interactions. By recording all on-chain attestations and achievements of users, Bondex ID facilitates a transparent and verifiable system, a major consideration for brands and recruiters. 

Quality candidates also benefit from the transparent ID system by building social proof and a history of verified achievements, in contrast to traditional Web 2.0 professional networking websites on which validating credentials is often a challenge.

Bondex AI provides a set of tools for efficient AI-driven job applications. One of these is AI Job match, an interface that helps users specify their preferences for a job in order to have the best matches available on the job market delivered to them. AI algorithms built into the Job match function analyze profiles and jobs across the network to provide optimal matches.

Another useful tool is AI Auto-Apply, which uses AI-driven algorithms to let users quickly apply for job opportunities. AI Auto-Apply automatically extracts relevant content from job posts and matches it with the job seeker’s profile in order to facilitate quality applications that take seconds to submit.

Bondex launched the BDXN token on Jun 3, 2025, as an 

 (ETH) blockchain, marking a significant milestone in the project's history. BDXN is a supply-capped crypto, with a maximum and total supply of 1 billion. 

BDXN powers the entire Bondex ecosystem. It serves as the payment token for various services, such as job postings and subscription fees, and as a reward mechanism (via 

) for active platform participation. It also functions as the platform's 

, allowing holders to participate in votes to determine the protocol’s future direction and rules. By 

 BDXN, you also earn a share of the platform's revenues and qualify for seasonal airdrops.

As the Bondex ecosystem grows, the BDXN token helps redistribute value to the community. Driven by Bondex's token buyback system, a portion of the revenue is used to buy back more BDXN from the market, thus reducing the token’s supply and potentially increasing its value. As more users join and engage with the Bondex platform, more revenue is generated. Ultimately, this revenue flows back to BDXN holders, creating a self-reinforcing flywheel effect.

The BDXN token is available on Bybit as a 

 to earn BDXN rewards by registering for the event and trading eligible assets. This opportunity is valid through Jun 20, 2025, 10AM UTC.

As of Jun 19, 2025, the BDXN token has been on the market for just two weeks. It currently trades at $0.03437, which is a 91.9% drop from its all-time high of $0.4231 on Jun 3, 2025, and a 11.4% increase from its all-time low of $0.03091 on Jun 13, 2025.

BDXN’s long-term price outlook is bullish.CoinCodex 

 to trade at $0.044 in 2027 and $0.089 in 2030, whileDigitalCoinPrice is 

 and digital assets, Bondex aims to create a truly superior networking experience for participants in the talent ecosystem, thus helping to enhance career advancement and job search experiences.

Bondex’s points system encourages active participation in its network, incentivizing participants to earn rewards and find exciting opportunities that are often difficult to uncover on traditional platforms. The future of work and of next-generation professional interactions are shaping up right in front of our eyes on a young but promising decentralized platform called Bondex.

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Bondex (BDXN): Redefining careers for the web3 era

Petra is a self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet, specifically designed for the Aptos blockchain. Learn more about how it works in this article.

Entering the cryptocurrency world can be daunting for newcomers, and even experienced users struggle with clunky wallet interfaces and fragmented functionality. The transformative potential of next-generation blockchains such as Aptos, with its sub-second transaction speeds and fraction-of-a-cent fees, cannot be realized until these issues are addressed.

 emerges as the solution, combining enterprise-grade security with intuitive design to make 

 accessible to everyone. This article examines Petra's innovative features, multisig capabilities and DeFi integrations, which establish it as the essential gateway to the Aptos ecosystem.

 is a self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet specifically designed for the Aptos blockchain. It enables its users to securely store, send and receive digital assets while interacting with 

Built by Aptos Labs as the flagship wallet for the Aptos ecosystem, Petra introduces seamless transaction processing, hardware wallet integration and comprehensive 

 access. The wallet leverages Aptos's sub-second transaction speeds to process transfers instantly, while maintaining security through industry-leading audits and self-custodial architecture.

Petra was created by Aptos Labs, the company behind the Aptos blockchain. Aptos Labs was founded in 2021 by Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, former employees of Facebook who leveraged their experience from Meta's disbanded Diem project.

The team recognized the unique opportunities presented by the Move programming language and Aptos's innovative 

. Traditional wallet platforms often struggle with user experience complexity, security vulnerabilities and limited ecosystem integration.

, the Petra team has implemented advanced features that previously proved challenging to execute securely. This development process involved collaboration with design experts to create an intuitive interface that prioritizes both newcomers and experienced crypto users.

Petra aims to solve several critical challenges that have limited the growth and mainstream adoption of 

. Its primary focus involves eliminating the barrier of complexity by transforming intimidating blockchain interactions into familiar, app-like experiences that everyday users can confidently navigate.

The Petra wallet addresses the security/usability trade-off that forces users to choose between convenience and asset protection. Through self-custodial architecture and intuitive design, Petra enables users to maintain complete control over their assets while enjoying an effortless experience that rivals traditional financial apps.

Petra also aims to tackle ecosystem fragmentation by consolidating DeFi protocols, 

 marketplaces and DApps into a unified platform. This approach eliminates the need to navigate multiple interfaces, and showcases Aptos's superior transaction speeds and cost efficiency for users across all 

 that gives users complete control over their 

 and digital assets. The wallet generates cryptographic key pairs locally on the user's device, ensuring that only the user has access to their funds at all times.

When creating a new wallet, Petra generates a 12-word recovery phrase that serves as the master key to all accounts. This mnemonic is encrypted with a user-chosen password and stored locally, and is never transmitted to external servers or accessible to the Aptos Labs team.

Transaction processing harnesses Aptos's parallel execution capabilities in order to deliver exceptional performance. The network processes transactions in under a second with fees of just fractions of a cent, enabling instant transfers and DApp interactions without the delays common on other blockchains.

Petra enhances security through transaction simulation that previews the effects of any action before execution. Because this is combined with hardware wallet support and Move's built-in security features, users can interact with web3 applications confidently while maintaining complete control over their assets.

Petra combines core wallet functionality with advanced features to deliver a complete web3 experience.

 is an advanced security solution that implements 

 functionality for users requiring enhanced asset protection. Unlike traditional wallets, which are controlled by a single private key, multisig wallets require multiple signatures from different parties before any transaction can be executed.

Transaction management follows a straightforward workflow. Any vault member can propose a transaction, which then enters a voting period during which other members decide whether to approve or reject the proposal.

Approved transactions become executable once they meet the predetermined signature requirements, while rejected proposals are removed from consideration. The system maintains complete transparency by recording all proposals, votes and executions on the Aptos blockchain.

Users configure vault security according to their specific needs by setting signature thresholds during the vault creation process. These requirements determine the number of approvals necessary from the total vault membership, ranging from a majority consensus to full unanimity.

 to enable USDT yield generation through DeFi lending protocols. Users can deposit their USDT holdings into lending pools and earn interest plus additional APT rewards through streamlined, one-click operations.

Automated smart contract interactions handle all technical complexity behind the scenes. This eliminates the need to navigate external platforms or manually manage multiple transactions, making DeFi participation accessible to users of all experience levels.

Petra Earn’s structure provides dual income streams: base interest payments in USDT from lending activities, and additional APT reward tokens distributed by Aries Markets. Users can claim and redeploy these earnings through the Petra app, enabling compound growth strategies without leaving the wallet’s ecosystem..

Petra has established itself as the leading wallet on Aptos through consistent development and a security-first approach. The platform launched with core wallet functionality and has systematically expanded capabilities, while simultaneously maintaining the simplicity that attracts mainstream users.

Multiple security audits by Halborn have validated Petra's smart contract integrity, and formal verification processes leverage Move's built-in safety features. This rigorous security foundation has enabled the wallet to serve over 500,000 users without experiencing major incidents.

Future development focuses on expanding DeFi partnerships to provide users with diverse earning opportunities across the Aptos ecosystem. The project’s team is developing social recovery mechanisms and enhanced hardware wallet integration to strengthen security while preserving the intuitive experience that drives adoption.

Petra combines the high-speed infrastructure of Aptos with sophisticated wallet mechanics to eliminate the frustrations associated with daily crypto use. The wallet’s self-custodial security, multisig capabilities and seamless DeFi integration create an optimized user experience that works across the entire DeFi ecosystem.

Intermediate

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Petra: Your everyday wallet for the Aptos ecosystem

Trading

Stop hunting can be frustrating for the average trader. Learn how to effectively avoid it and protect your virtual assets.

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(ATR).png

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Stop hunting is a technique implemented by large traders who use the mechanics of the 

 to help propel their position to profit. Additionally, stop hunting forces smaller traders out of a position and gives larger traders momentum behind their trades.

Stop hunting requires the use of stop-loss orders, which are converted to market order when triggered. The eventual market orders can create fast-moving markets, giving the crypto whales a quick win.

There are three strategies a trader can follow when they fear being stop hunted. These strategies require the use of a stop-loss order in conservatively placed spots on the chart. 

Stop hunting is a trading strategy that involves large traders pushing the market to trigger the stop-loss orders of other traders. The stop-loss orders force those traders out of their positions. Once those orders are cleared, the market reverses.

Stop hunting is a strategy that large (or “whale”) traders employ in financial markets like forex and crypto. When these whales see a cluster of stop-loss orders resting near the same price location, they push the market through the orders, forcing the participants out of their positions. This strategy becomes even more effective when leverage is involved, as the size of the market trades is magnified.

After an effective stop hunt is completed, the whales then begin to close out their position and the trend reverses. This is especially aggravating to retail traders, who are forced out of their positions — only to see the market reverse and trend in the direction they had initially analyzed.

The Correlation of Stop Hunting and Stop-Loss Orders

The key ingredients for a successful stop hunt include a cluster of stop-loss orders resting together, plus large whale traders.

Stop-loss hunting starts with the cluster of stop-loss orders resting together near the same market price.

For example, if we look at the Bitcoin chart above, we’ll see the downtrend in May 2021 stopped at $29,800. Traders might see the bounce higher, go long, and place their stop-loss just below support around $29,750–$30,000. Then, a couple of days later, the price twice retraces back to near $31,000. These traders are likely to buy and place their stop-loss orders in the same $29,750–$30,000 price zone.

A cluster of stop-loss orders is now building in a similar price zone of $29,750–$30,000. A large whale could enter the picture and push the price down to $29,000–$30,000, triggering the stop-loss orders. Those stop-loss orders would then force the traders out of the market, and the whale would close their short position, after which they need to buy back the asset. That buying pressure in turn begins to fuel the next rally. The retail trader’s stop-loss is triggered, and the market rallies — in the direction the trader had originally anticipated.

How a Stop-Loss Order Works — and Its Importance to Stop Hunting

Stop hunting works due to the mechanics of how stop-loss orders operate. Let’s assume a trader places a stop-loss order for a long Bitcoin position at $30,000. When the market hits $30,000, the order will trigger and convert into an order to sell at the current market price (market order).

The potential problem with market orders is the market might be moving so fast that the price changes before execution. We’re talking about fractions of a second, but by the time the stop-loss order converts and is sent off to sell at the market, the pricing could change. In a fast-moving market, the market order may be at a worse price than expected.

It would be like going to Walmart to buy a television, and by the time you haul the TV to the checkout counter, the price has increased. A similar thing happens within live markets: the price can be moving so fast that it falls further before an order can be executed.

To exacerbate the situation, when you have a cluster of stop-loss orders in a similar price zone, they become a future supply of sellers. As a result, there is an abundance of sellers — and very few buyers. Therefore, when these selling orders hit the market, there aren’t any buyers present to soak up the selling orders, and the market quickly readjusts to lower prices.

Once the stop-loss orders are absorbed, the balance of buyers and sellers begins to shift, resulting in a reduced number of sellers with a lot of buy orders nearby. The market then rallies swiftly. The whole scenario creates a volatile trading environment as prices adjust and seek out their equilibrium. 

As with so many things, you won’t know for sure that you’ve been stop hunted until after the fact. The 

evidence of stop-loss hunting becomes apparent when you have a false breakout of support or resistance, only to see prices swiftly reverse.

In addition to the false break, you’ll likely see an increase in trading volume. First, you have the whale adding a lot of volume to push the market. Second, loads of stop losses get triggered, converting into market orders to sell. Then, on the reversal of prices, the whales are closing out their short positions, which is adding more buying pressure to the market.

These types of conditions are volatile and quick. It’s very difficult for a small trader to successfully navigate these whale-infested waters — unless the trader has anticipated the setup and traded accordingly.

How to Use Stop-Loss to Avoid Stop Hunting

The good news is that when you know how a stop hunt works, you can employ strategies to prevent being hunted in the first place.

Remember, one of the key ingredients to stop hunting is a cluster of stop-loss orders near a similar price. Stop-loss orders might be clustered together for two reasons:

The market’s price history and patterns may drive many traders to view the market from a similar perspective.

Take, for example, Bitcoin. On the 2-hour chart above, Bitcoin trades sideways, with clearly defined support and resistance levels, between March and April 2021. Traders who have spotted this pattern would use the range to buy at the bottom of it, and then sell at the top.

As the price approaches the support zone near $56,500–$57,500, traders would buy and place their stop-losses just below this zone. On April 7, 2021, Bitcoin’s price pushes through the buy zone, triggering the stop-loss orders. After the selling stops a few hours later, Bitcoin’s price rallies higher.

This stop-hunting scenario has been created due to the market’s pattern.

Secondly, when the market’s structure and patterns appear near round price numbers, that leads to stop hunting, too. In May 2021, support for Bitcoin emerged near $30,000. Therefore, traders who were long may have set a stop-loss near $30,000 simply because it was easier to remember.

Let’s go over three strategies to lessen the risk of your crypto trade being stop hunted.

Look for areas on the chart where stop-losses tend to be clustered. The market’s patterns will help you identify these potential victims. Stand back from your chart and look for the most obvious pattern that comes to mind. Patterns which involve horizontal support and resistance are where you’ll typically find the hunted.

On the Ethereum chart above, we see a mini-downtrend developing after a huge rise of 2,200% over the preceding 12 months. Traders are anxious to jump into Ethereum, and this mini-downtrend opens the door. After a quick rally higher, traders would be eager to jump into this powerful trend and likely would place their stop-losses near the recent low at support.

Ethereum prices then come back to retest the lows. As the price approaches the lows, whales sell, pushing the price down through support — and ringing all of the stop-losses. Once the stop-losses are cleared out, the whales close their short position. Ethereum then continues its rally to new all-time highs.

The first strategy to avoid the stop hunt is to know where others are most likely to place their stop-losses. Armed with this information, you want to make sure you place your stop-loss BELOW where most traders would in a stop hunt. When placing the stop-loss appropriately, the market doesn’t move far enough to hit your level.

Strategy 2: Avoid Round Number Prices for Stop Losses

Earlier, we saw how traders like to place their stop-losses on round numbers. They do this so they can easily remember where their risk is set as they glance at prices later on in the day.

Knowing that round numbers may psychologically be a breeding ground for stop hunting, place your stop-loss far enough away to prevent stop hunting from affecting you.

For example, if you’re looking to buy Bitcoin near the $30,000 support, place your stop-loss far enough away that you’re protected — but not so far that you’ll be knocked out during a false break lower. Bitcoin has been known to move 5% and even 10% or more on a given day.

As an example, if we look further left on the chart, we can see additional support just below the round number of $30,000. This is a clue that our stop-loss needs to be much lower than the round number.

Therefore, place the stop-loss about 10% away, and not on a round number. A stop-loss around 27,360, for example, is about 10% away, and doesn’t invite another “round number” stop hunt.

Strategy 3: Give Your Trade Enough Room to Breathe

Pause, and watch your breathing for a moment. Do you notice how much your belly and/or chest move in and out while you breathe?

Well, the market has its rhythms as well. If you place your stop-loss too close, then the normal market rhythms and attempts at stop hunting will catch you.

The easiest way to determine the market’s rhythms is with the 

Apply this indicator to the bottom of your chart on a 14-period input setting to gain a sense of the average movements for the last 14 periods. The output of the indicator will be a number in units of price. If you’re trading a large-cap cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Ethereum, then 1× the ATR output is how far you would want to place your stop below support.

If you’re trading a small-cap cryptocurrency, then the risk of a stop hunt is greater. Therefore, you’ll want to consider your stop placement 2× below support.

Using LINK as an example, above, if you’re interested in buying where the arrow is, ATR is at $1.80. Since LINK is a smaller cryptocurrency, consider twice that amount, or $3.60, of stop-loss below recent lows. This would place the suggested stop-loss far enough away to prevent it from being hunted.

Stop hunting is a strategy utilized by crypto whales to pick up short-term gains. The whales use their financial backing to push the market to a cluster of stop-losses, forcing smaller traders out of their positions. Additionally, the cluster of stop-losses is a future pool of sellers, which then helps these whales in their short positions.

There are several strategies, described above, that you can deploy to help protect you from stop hunting. Using ATR to place your stop-loss far enough away from support so that the whales can’t reach you is the most conservative approach.

Stop Hunting: How to Avoid Being Stop Hunted by “Whales”

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Stop Hunting: How to Avoid Being Stop Hunted by “Whales”

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