First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Soars to Highest Level Since August
The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for Feb. 16, 2023.
This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.
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CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) 1,154 +77.1 ▲ 7.2%
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Bitcoin (BTC) surged more than 10% over the past 24 hours, moving to just shy of $25,000. The world’s largest crypto by market cap rose as high as $24,898 early Thursday, its strongest level since Aug. 15. It’s since retreated to just under $24,500. Bitcoin in recent days had dipped below $21,600 amid growing investor concern over regulatory risk teamed with ideas that the U.S. Federal Reserve still had a long way to go to tame inflation. Investors, for now, appear to be shrugging off those concerns.

As U.S. regulators continue to sniff around Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange is prepared to pay monetary penalties to “make amends” for past regulatory violations, according to The Wall Street Journal. The exchange grew quickly and was not initially aware of the myriad laws and regulations designed to prevent money laundering, sanctions evasion, and corruption, Binance Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillmann told the WSJ on Wednesday. Binance expects to face fines, said Hillman, and is “working with regulators to figure out what are the remediations we have to go through now to make amends for [past violations].”
FTX sent $7.7 billion in assets from the crypto company's Bahamian unit to its U.S. counterparts in the period leading up to its bankruptcy filing last year, a Delaware bankruptcy court was told during a Wednesday hearing. Court-appointed joint provisional liquidators in the Bahamas said that $5.6 billion was transferred from Bahamas unit FTX Digital's custodial accounts to U.S. entity FTX trading, while another $2.1 billion was transferred to FTX's U.S. trading arm, Alameda Research. FTX's new management reached a cooperation agreement in early January with court-appointed liquidators in the Bahamas to iron out disagreements and address the assets in dispute.
Chart of the Day

- The chart shows increased activity in bitcoin call options or bullish bets relative to puts or bearish options in the past 24 hours.
- Per Patrick Chu, director of institutional sales and trading at over-the-counter tech platform Paradigm, big call spreads, a bullish strategy, have been traded in the wake of Interactive Brokers' decision to roll out BTC, and ETH trading to professional investors in Hong Kong.
- "Animal spirits waking up in Asia," Chu tweeted while noting the bullish options market flows.
- Omkar Godbole
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Exchange Review - March 2025

CoinDesk Data's monthly Exchange Review captures the key developments within the cryptocurrency exchange market. The report includes analyses that relate to exchange volumes, crypto derivatives trading, market segmentation by fees, fiat trading, and more.
What to know:
Trading activity softened in March as market uncertainty grew amid escalating tariff tensions between the U.S. and global trading partners. Centralized exchanges recorded their lowest combined trading volume since October, declining 6.24% to $6.79tn. This marked the third consecutive monthly decline across both market segments, with spot trading volume falling 14.1% to $1.98tn and derivatives trading slipping 2.56% to $4.81tn.
- Trading Volumes Decline for Third Consecutive Month: Combined spot and derivatives trading volume on centralized exchanges fell by 6.24% to $6.79tn in March 2025, reaching the lowest level since October. Both spot and derivatives markets recorded their third consecutive monthly decline, falling 14.1% and 2.56% to $1.98tn and $4.81tn respectively.
- Institutional Crypto Trading Volume on CME Falls 23.5%: In March, total derivatives trading volume on the CME exchange fell by 23.5% to $175bn, the lowest monthly volume since October 2024. CME's market share among derivatives exchanges dropped from 4.63% to 3.64%, suggesting declining institutional interest amid current macroeconomic conditions.
- Bybit Spot Market Share Slides in March: Spot trading volume on Bybit fell by 52.1% to $81.1bn in March, coinciding with decreased trading activity following the hack of the exchange's cold wallets in February. Bybit's spot market share dropped from 7.35% to 4.10%, its lowest since July 2023.
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What to know:
- Ethena's USDe becomes fifth stablecoin to surpass $10 billion market cap in just 609 days, while Tether's dominance continues to slip.