In an astounding development within the crypto industry, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped its investigation into PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin. In a Tuesday filing, the SEC revealed its decision to close the investigation without pursuing any enforcement action.
Notably, this marks another major triumph for the crypto industry, building on its recent successes in multiple lawsuits.
SEC Closes Investigation into PayPal PYUSD
In an April 29 filing, payments giant PayPal revealed that the US SEC dropped its investigation into the US dollar-backed stablecoin, PYUSD. As noted by PayPal, the SEC confirmed its decision to end the case earlier this year.
Reportedly, PayPal received a subpoena from the SEC’s Division of Enforcement over its stablecoin in November 2023. In February 2025, the SEC informed the firm that they have decided to close the case “without enforcement action.”
After the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) minutes and the digital asset summit on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, approximately $2.09 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) options expire today.
The expiration may influence market conditions, with investors monitoring potential shifts.
Over $2 Billion in Options Expiry Today
According to Deribit, $1.826 billion in Bitcoin options expire today. The maximum pain point of these contracts stands at $85,000.
These options include 21,596 contracts, slightly fewer than last week’s 35,176. Despite recent volatility, the put-to-call ratio of 0.83 indicates a general bullish sentiment.
Ethereum has $264.46 million in options expiring, involving 133,447 contracts. This figure is also lower than the previous week’s 223,395 contracts. The maximum pain point for these options is $2,000, and the put-to-call ratio is 0.62.
As the options contracts near expiration at 8:00 UTC today, Bitcoin and Ethereum prices are expected to approach their respective maximum pain points. According to BeInCrypto data, BTC traded for $84,414, whereas ETH exchanged hands for $1,977.
This suggests a modest upside for Bitcoin and Ethereum towards the $85,000 and $2,000 strike prices, respectively. This surge is plausible given smart money’s Strategy in options trading, pushing prices toward the “max pain” level. Here, the highest number of contracts, both calls and puts, expire worthless.
“Will we see a volatility squeeze or a slow unwind?” Deribit posed in a post on X (Twitter).
Based on Bitcoin and Ethereum’s put-to-call ratios, both below 1, call options (purchases) have a higher prevalence than put options (sales).
Market Sentiment Ahead of Today’s Options Expiry
Analysts from crypto options trading tool Greeks.live provided insights on the current market sentiment, highlighting a divided trader community. On the one hand, some expect a price drop after the FOMC meeting, as policymakers rejected further interest rate cuts, effectively disappointing the crypto market.
On the other hand, some anticipate a temporary rise before choppy conditions. With this, the analysts note the range between $83,000 and $85,000 as the area of interest, with expected volatility around President Trump-related developments and potential MicroStrategy (now Strategy) purchases.
“Expect chop and drift lower before heading higher again on Monday, despite the current pump not being viewed as sustainable,” Greeks.live analysts observed.
Even as Bitget’s Chen remains optimistic, traders and investors should brace for short-term volatility. Historically, options expirations tend to cause temporary price movements. However, the market usually stabilizes shortly after.
Gradient Network’s recent $10 million seed round is the latest signal of accelerating capital deployment in decentralized AI infrastructure.
Backed by Pantera Capital, Multicoin Capital, and HSG, the funding will support the development of Gradient’s decentralized AI runtime stack.
The Shift from Centralized AI to Decentralized Alternatives
The project is launching two core protocols—Lattica and Parallax—to facilitate peer-to-peer data movement and distributed AI inference. This development is not isolated.
According to market data, the decentralized AI sector included 164 companies by the end of 2024. Of those, 104 secured funding. The total market cap is expected to reach $973.6 million by 2027.
Decentralized AI projects aim to challenge the dominance of hyperscalers like OpenAI, Google, and AWS. These firms control the vast majority of AI training, inference, and distribution infrastructure.
AI is rapidly becoming the evolutionary infrastructure of humanity.
But as it grows more indispensable, we’re becoming increasingly dependent on centralized systems.
Privacy erosion, access barriers, and the monopolization of intelligence are no longer hypothetical. They’re…
This distinguishes it from compute rental marketplaces and model repositories.
Why Gradient Network’s Funding Round Stands Out
Pantera and Multicoin have historically invested in infrastructure-level plays. Their participation in this round suggests increased institutional confidence in decentralized runtime models.
By backing protocols like Lattica (for data flow) and Parallax (for inference), investors are betting on infrastructure that enables AI agents—where models dynamically communicate, share context, and run across distributed systems.
Bandwidth, latency, and heterogeneous hardware environments remain complex to coordinate. Gradient’s use of Sentry Nodes attempts to address this, but adoption at scale remains unproven.
Security also raises concerns. Serving models across untrusted devices introduces risks around output manipulation, data leakage, and model poisoning.
While Gradient’s architecture promises privacy-preserving inference, independent audits and long-term resilience will be critical.
Overall, Gradient’s funding reinforces the idea that decentralized AI is not fringe. It joins a growing set of infrastructure projects aiming to make intelligence open, modular, and verifiable.
Deribit, one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency options and futures exchanges, has partnered with Sygnum Bank, a regulated digital asset financial institution, to bolster security for institutional crypto trading.
As part of the partnership, Deribit has now integrated Sygnum Protect, Sygnum Bank’s off-exchange custody platform, supported by Fireblocks’ Off-Exchange solution. This will allow investors to hold assets securely in a regulated bank trade without pre-funding. It is also set to reduce counterparty risks by providing automated settlement & collateral management.
Announced today, the collaboration aims to provide institutional investors with a secure, efficient, and capital-optimized trading experience by leveraging bank-grade custody and settlement solutions.
Strengthening Security in Institutional Crypto Trading
Institutional investors have long faced challenges in crypto trading, particularly concerning fund security and counterparty risk.
By partnering with Sygnum Bank, Deribit is aiming to enhance the safety and trustworthiness of its platform, enabling institutional traders to engage in derivatives trading with reduced risk exposure.
A key component of this partnership is the integration of Fireblocks’ “Off Exchange” service, which allows investors to trade on Deribit while keeping their assets securely custodied with Sygnum. This eliminates the need to pre-deposit funds on the exchange, significantly reducing exposure to exchange-related risks such as insolvency or security breaches.
Institutional traders can now access Deribit’s deep liquidity with bank-grade security.
We’re now integrated with Sygnum Protect, Sygnum Bank’s off-exchange custody platform—powered by Fireblocks’ Off-Exchange solution.
One of the primary barriers to institutional crypto adoption has been the requirement to transfer funds to exchanges before trading. This exposes investors to counterparty risk and potential loss in case of exchange failures. By leveraging Sygnum’s regulated custody services, institutional clients can now trade with confidence, knowing their funds remain within a bank-grade security framework.
Fireblocks’ secure Multi-Party Computation (MPC) technology plays a crucial role in facilitating this solution. It enables non-custodial settlement, ensuring that funds are only transferred when trades are executed, thereby improving capital efficiency and security for institutional market participants.
Strategic Growth for Deribit, Sygnum, and Fireblocks
This partnership is a significant milestone for Deribit as it seeks to expand its institutional client base. By offering a more secure trading environment, the exchange is positioning itself as a preferred choice for hedge funds, family offices, and other institutional investors looking to trade crypto derivatives.
For Sygnum, this collaboration reinforces its role as a trusted banking partner in the digital asset industry. The Swiss-regulated crypto bank continues to expand its range of institutional services, bridging the gap between traditional finance and the digital asset economy.
Fireblocks, a leading provider of digital asset security solutions, benefits from further adoption of its “Off Exchange” service. As more institutions prioritize security in crypto trading, Fireblocks’ infrastructure is becoming an industry standard for safe and efficient asset transfers.
Thus, as institutional interest in digital assets grows, ensuring secure and efficient trading solutions remains a top priority. The partnership between Deribit and Sygnum Bank, facilitated by Fireblocks’ technology, marks a significant advancement in institutional crypto trading security. By offering a regulated, bank-grade custody and settlement solution, this initiative paves the way for greater institutional participation in the crypto derivatives market while setting new security standards for the industry.
Hold assets securely in a regulated bank