Bitcoin News Today TheBitTimes.com

The Cardano (ADA) network continues to experience growth in the deployment of smart contracts on its blockchain, a significant factor driving the platform towards its goal of competing with established entities like Ethereum (ETH). As of January 24, the cumulative number of V1 and V2 Plutus smart contracts on Cardano reached 24,050. This figure reflects a 9,671 or 67% growth from January 1, 2024, with a count of 14,379, according to data retrieved from Cardano Blockchain Insights. Number of ADA smart contracts as of Jan 22. Source: Cardano Blockchain Insights Notably, the growth in smart contracts builds upon the 2023 expansion, where the platform added almost 10,000 contracts in alignment with increased development activity.  Cardano increased development activity  The surge in smart contracts also coincides with a previous report indicating that the team working on the Plutus Core language executed common subexpression elimination (CSE) for Untyped Plutus Core. ...

Financial market investors are increasingly turning to risk-defined derivative instruments, as evidenced by the surge in demand for bitcoin options contracts , with open interest nearing its all-time high. On-chain data reveals distinct bitcoin market signatures According to Glassnode, an on-chain data provider, the demand for bitcoin (BTC) options contracts has witnessed a remarkable surge, with open interest reaching $13.8 billion, coming close to its all-time high of $15.1 billion.  This remarkable increase suggests investors actively seek risk-defined derivative instruments to expand their investment exposure . On-chain data is crucial in analyzing market sentiment and trends within the cryptocurrency space.  #Bitcoin Options Contracts have experienced an increase in demand as Open Interest recently soared to a value of $13.8B, just $1.3B shy of the ATH of $15.1B. This suggests market investors are increasing their exposure to risk-defined derivative instruments. pic.t...