Your day-ahead look for Oct. 2, 2026
By Omkar Godbole|Edited by Jamie CrawleyOct 2, 2026, 7:30 a.m. EDT4 min readMake preferred on ShareShare this articleCopy linkX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailMake preferred on (Chenyu Guan/Unsplash)SummaryShowThis is an excerpt from CoinDesk newsletter 'Daybook.' Sign up here, if you haven't already.
Perpetual futures, a concept introduced by economist Robert Shiller in 1993 and later adopted by the cryptocurrency sector, are now being considered by traditional finance for trading products like the VIX, known as the stock market's fear gauge.
Cboe is currently investigating the possibility of perpetual futures linked to the VIX, though details are still in the preliminary stages without any specific contract specifications or filings, Bloomberg reports.
The VIX Index gauges the anticipated 30-day volatility of the S&P 500, derived from options pricing. Investors tend to purchase options as a hedge against sudden market declines, leading to increased demand during downturns, which drives up the index. Thus, the VIX has earned the nickname "fear gauge" on Wall Street.
Currently, there is a robust derivatives market surrounding the VIX, encompassing futures, options, and exchange-traded products that mirror the index. However, traditional futures have expiration dates, which require traders to roll over their positions to the next available contract, incurring costs that can impact returns, similar to the issues faced by Bitcoin futures ETFs when they launched in late 2021.
On the other hand, perpetual swaps do not expire, employing a funding rate mechanism to align the contract price with the spot index, potentially providing investors with a more direct way to trade the actual VIX spot price.
“Traders don’t have to worry about expiries and decay and just focus on the direction of where they think the underlying is heading. The VIX is one of many more indexes, assets and metrics that will be perpified. We expect to see a strong wave of perp-ification to occur in the coming months,” stated Martin Lee, market insights lead at DWF Labs, in a conversation with CoinDesk.
Some cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Gate, already offer VIX/USDT perpetual swaps, but the market remains illiquid with minimal trading volume. Recently, Hyperliquid launched futures associated with Bitcoin’s VIX – Volmex’s bitcoin implied volatility index.
The introduction of VIX futures could attract more participants to volatility markets. Increased activity from both buyers and sellers, along with more hedging by market makers across VIX futures and other S&P 500 derivatives, could lead to greater alignment among various VIX products.
Nonetheless, there are still costs associated with funding payments. Additionally, the VIX is a purely mathematical construct and does not exist as a tangible asset like Bitcoin, posing challenges for market makers who cannot easily buy and sell the underlying “spot” to manage their risks, similar to the practices of Bitcoin market makers.
“For us, the interesting question is how funding would anchor an index that cannot be bought as a cash asset. Removing expiry does not eliminate hedge costs or basis risk. Until contract terms are established, this represents a potential new volatility market, rather than a more affordable alternative to options convexity,” analysts at Marex Solutions noted in an email.
At this point, Cboe's initiative signifies the rapid convergence of traditional and cryptocurrency market structures aimed at supporting innovative volatility products. Stay tuned!
Read more: For analysis of today's activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today. For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's Crypto Week Ahead.
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Crypto Daybook Americas - The latest moves in crypto markets, in contextMarket analysis for crypto traders and investors.PreviewSign upBy signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms & conditions and privacy policy.What’s trending
- U.S. job growth is expected to slow in September (Reuters): U.S. job growth likely slowed in September and the unemployment rate is forecast to have been around 4.1% for a third straight month, suggesting the labor market remained stable heading into the fourth quarter.
- Bitcoin open interest jumps $2.3 billion as traders pay more for bullish positions (CoinDesk): Bitcoin derivatives activity is picking up ahead of Friday’s U.S. jobs report, with traders adding positions as the price climbs above $86,000. Bitcoin has climbed from around $83,500 to $86,500 over the same period. A price increase coinciding with rising open interest suggests new positions are helping support the rally.
- Tether's USDT is 'coming home' to Bitcoin this month over a decade after debut there (CoinDesk): Tether’s USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin, is expected to return to Bitcoin this month through infrastructure developed by the Tether-backed project Utexo.
- U.S. urges Europe to ‘immediately’ release diesel reserves as Iran war fuels record prices (CNBC): The Trump administration has pushed for European countries to urgently release some of their diesel reserves, saying U.S. farmers, truckers and businesses should not be left carrying the burden for global supply disruptions.
Today’s signal
XRP's large bottoming pattern. (TradingView)The chart shows XRP’s price swings in candlestick format since late 2025.
The token’s price has formed a large inverse head-and-shoulders bottoming pattern. The pattern features three troughs, with the middle one the deepest, and brief recoveries between them connected by a trendline known as the neckline.
In XRP’s case, that neckline sits around $1.70. A break above that level would confirm the breakout and signal a bullish trend reversal.
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