The U.S. Treasury has said it has seized nearly $1 billion in cryptocurrency 
linked to Iran as Washington expands its financial campaign against Tehran. 
The U.S. Treasury has said it has seized nearly $1 billion in cryptocurrency 
linked to Iran…

The U.S. Treasury has said it has seized nearly $1 billion in cryptocurrency linked to Iran as Washington expands its financial campaign against Tehran. The U.S. Treasury has said it has seized nearly $1 billion in cryptocurrency linked to Iran…

Iran crypto crackdown deepens as US targets IRGC wallets

Anchorage Digital says Bitcoin covered-call strategies can generate synthetic 
yield for BTC holders, but only when managed with strict discipline. The 
firm’s new research warns that selling upside on Bitcoin can cushion drawdowns 
in weaker markets, yet cap gains sharply when BTC enters one of its violent 
bull-market phases. The analysis, written by Anchorage Digital Head of 
Research David Lawant, examines systematic covered-call writing on Bitcoin 
using hourly simulations across the Deribit implied-volatility surface. 
Anchorage said the study includes more than 37,000 individual backtests across 
every possible entry point in its October 2021 to April 2026 dataset, making 
it one of the more detailed attempts to define where BTC options income works 
and where it breaks. Anchorage Puts Bitcoin Yield Strategy To The Test 
Anchorage argues that Bitcoin options have moved from a niche derivatives 
segment into an institutionally relevant market. Notional BTC options open 
interest has grown roughly ten-fold over the past five years, briefly rising 
above $100 billion at the end of 2025 before sitting around $60 billion in the 
study. That level, the paper notes, is above the open interest of the entire 
BTC futures market. Related Reading: Bitcoin’s Famous CME Gap Playbook May Be 
Nearing Its End IBIT options have also changed the structure of the market. 
Launched in late 2024, they have grown quickly enough to rival Deribit as a 
leading venue for BTC options open interest and trading activity. For 
Anchorage, that means the market institutions are evaluating today is deeper, 
more accessible and materially different from the one that existed 18 months 
earlier. The research centers on Bitcoin’s volatility risk premium. Anchorage 
compares 25-delta call implied volatility with subsequent realized upside 
volatility over the next 21 trading days for BTC, SPY and QQQ. BTC’s upside 
volatility risk premium, according to the paper, has averaged roughly two to 
three times what the equity benchmarks delivered, with the gap persisting for 
most of the post-2024 period. That premium is the attraction. Covered calls 
allow BTC holders to collect option income while keeping exposure to the 
underlying asset up to a defined strike. The cost is just as important: if 
Bitcoin rallies through the strike, upside participation is capped. Anchorage 
frames this as the central tension in the strategy, not a footnote. A simple 
20-delta, 30-day covered-call strategy performed well in the most recent 
12-month window tested. From April 30, 2025 to April 30, 2026, it generated a 
net yield of 5.5% on the underlying BTC position while spot BTC fell 19.4%. In 
Anchorage’s simulation, the overlay offset almost a third of the BTC drawdown. 
The blended portfolio’s annualized volatility also fell from 40.6% to 35.0%, 
while maximum drawdown improved from 49.7% to 44.5%. But the full-cycle 
results were much less flattering. When the same unfiltered strategy was 
extended across the entire October 2021 to April 2026 period, it produced a 
negative yield of 0.5%, or minus 0.1% annualized. That happened despite a 
favorable win/loss ratio of 4.38 to 1, with 57 winning trades against 13 
losing ones. Anchorage describes the problem as “picking up pennies in front 
of a steamroller.” The steamroller is Bitcoin’s tendency to stage sustained, 
autocorrelated rallies. During the late 2021 cycle peak, the 2023–2024 move 
from roughly $16,000 to more than $70,000, and the 2025 bull market that 
briefly pushed BTC above $100,000, short calls were repeatedly overrun as spot 
moved through strike prices. That is why the paper argues covered-call writing 
is an “active management strategy,” not a passive yield overlay. The 
unfiltered version sold calls regardless of regime. The disciplined version 
waited for better conditions. Anchorage tested a filter requiring BTC’s trend 
not to be strongly bullish, based on a 10-day, 30-day and 50-day moving- 
average stack, and requiring implied volatility to sit above its 90-day 
rolling average. On exit, the model used a 75% take-profit threshold, a delta 
stop-loss and a two-day buffer before expiry to reduce gamma risk. Related 
Reading: Cathie Wood Doubles Down On $1.25 Million Bitcoin Target The results 
changed materially. With those simple regime and implied-volatility filters, 
the covered-call contribution rose to 23.7% over the full period, or 5.2% 
annualized. The blended portfolio Sharpe improved from 0.20 to 0.30, but the 
strategy was in the market only 44% of the time. Anchorage’s parameter work 
also narrows the viable range. Deltas below 10 were consistent but too thin 
for many institutional mandates. Above 25-delta, directional exposure 
overwhelmed the strategy during BTC bull markets. Seven-day and 14-day 
expiries were structurally disadvantaged because BTC’s intraday volatility 
created stop-loss events before theta decay could do enough work. The paper 
identifies the productive corridor as 10- to 25-delta calls with expiries of 
at least 21 days. The strongest evidence came from the rolling-window 
analysis. At the one-year horizon, positive-yield rates across the productive 
corridor ranged from roughly 55% to 85%, showing meaningful regime 
sensitivity. At the three-year horizon, eleven of twelve configurations 
produced positive yield in at least 91% of rolling windows, with five reaching 
100%. Median annualized yields clustered between 4% and 6%. For BTC investors, 
the takeaway is not that covered calls are broken. It is that the strategy is 
highly path-dependent. In slow or falling markets, it can generate meaningful 
income. In powerful upside regimes, the same trade can leave holders watching 
Bitcoin rally while their upside has already been sold. At press time, BTC 
traded at $73,113. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from 
TradingView.com

Anchorage Digital says Bitcoin covered-call strategies can generate synthetic yield for BTC holders, but only when managed with strict discipline. The firm’s new research warns that selling upside on Bitcoin can cushion drawdowns in weaker markets, yet cap gains sharply when BTC enters one of its violent bull-market phases. The analysis, written by Anchorage Digital &#8230;

Anchorage Warns Bitcoin Yield Trade Could Cap Gains If BTC Rips Higher

Britain&#8217;s political climate reveals a growing disconnect between reality and 
public discourse, urging urgent institutional reform.
The post Frank Wright: Political dissenters are labeled extremists, mainstream media excludes ordinary voices, and societal institutions are in decline | The Peter McCormack Show appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Britain&#8217;s political climate reveals a growing disconnect between reality and public discourse, urging urgent institutional reform. The post Frank Wright: Political dissenters are labeled extremists, mainstream media excludes ordinary voices, and societal institutions are in decline | The Peter McCormack Show appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Frank Wright: Political dissenters are labeled extremists, mainstream media excludes ordinary voices, and societal institutions are in decline | The Peter McCormack Show

Ancient texts reveal a pre-flood world of giants, advanced technology, and 
shared mythologies across cultures.
The post Stephen De Young: The nephilim refer to giants in biblical texts, ancient cultures share flood narratives, and pre-flood civilizations had advanced technology | Tucker Carlson appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Ancient texts reveal a pre-flood world of giants, advanced technology, and shared mythologies across cultures. The post Stephen De Young: The nephilim refer to giants in biblical texts, ancient cultures share flood narratives, and pre-flood civilizations had advanced technology | Tucker Carlson appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Stephen De Young: The nephilim refer to giants in biblical texts, ancient cultures share flood narratives, and pre-flood civilizations had advanced technology | Tucker Carlson

Human errors, not code flaws, are the biggest threat to DeFi security, says 
crypto expert.
The post Isaac Patka: DeFi requires error correction mechanisms, operational security failures are often preventable, and user vulnerabilities pose significant risks | Unchained appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Human errors, not code flaws, are the biggest threat to DeFi security, says crypto expert. The post Isaac Patka: DeFi requires error correction mechanisms, operational security failures are often preventable, and user vulnerabilities pose significant risks | Unchained appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Isaac Patka: DeFi requires error correction mechanisms, operational security failures are often preventable, and user vulnerabilities pose significant risks | Unchained

SpaceX&#8217;s upcoming IPO could redefine financial markets with its unprecedented 
scale and transformative potential.
The post Morgan Brennan: SpaceX&#8217;s IPO could be the largest in history, the total addressable market is projected at $28.5 trillion, and space manufacturing will revolutionize healthcare | The Pomp Podcast appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

SpaceX&#8217;s upcoming IPO could redefine financial markets with its unprecedented scale and transformative potential. The post Morgan Brennan: SpaceX&#8217;s IPO could be the largest in history, the total addressable market is projected at $28.5 trillion, and space manufacturing will revolutionize healthcare | The Pomp Podcast appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Morgan Brennan: SpaceX’s IPO could be the largest in history, the total addressable market is projected at $28.5 trillion, and space manufacturing will revolutionize healthcare | The Pomp Podcast

Iran crypto crackdown deepens as US targets IRGC wallets

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