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(Adds dropped word "followers" in paragraph 13) By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) -Following the largest crypto liquidation in history last Friday, options market investors are bracing for more volatility and further declines in bitcoin and ether, aggressively positioning in trades that offer protection against another potential freefall. Market participants said the crypto sector on Friday saw more than $19 billion in liquidations across leveraged positions as panic selling and low liquidity triggered sharp swings. The plunge came after U.S. President Donald Trump announced late on Friday a 100% tariff on Chinese imports and threatened export controls on critical software.  Crypto analysts said this was the largest wipeout in a 24-hour period in the market's history, nine times larger than the February 2025 crash and 19 times bigger than the March 2020 meltdown and the FTX collapse in November 2022. Bitcoin fell as low as $104,782.88 during the October 10-11 period, down more than 14% from its high of $122,574.46 on Friday. It was last up 0.6% at $115,718.13. The world's largest cryptocurrency hit a record high above $126,000 on October 6. Ether, the second biggest digital currency, dropped 12.2% to a low of $3,436.29 on Friday. It last changed hands at $4,254, up 2.4% on the day.  Altcoins took an even bigger hit as HYPE (-54%), DOGE (-62%), and AVAX (-70%) all experienced steep drawdowns before recovering to post more modest losses. Trump over the weekend softened his rhetoric on China, however, noting that "it will all be fine" and the U.S. did not want to "hurt" China. That helped the crypto recovery. China on Sunday blamed the U.S. for the escalation, but did not roll out further countermeasures. "Last Friday, you saw volatility just jump across the board, not only for short-dated, but also for long-dated maturities. The sentiment around short-dated volatility is that more people are worried about downward turns," said Sean Dawson, head of research at Derive.xyz in Canberra. Data from Derive.xyz, a crypto options trading platform, showed heavy "put" buying from traders in bitcoin and ether, which suggested hedging against potential downside risks. In bitcoin, there were hefty purchases of puts conferring the right to sell bitcoin at strike prices of $115,000 and $95,000 for the October 31 expiry, according to Dawson. There was also a sharp reversal from call buying to call selling at the $125,000 strike for the October 17 expiry, suggesting a bearish short-term view.  Calls in the options market reflect expectations that the price will increase. For ether, Nick Forster, Derive.xyz co-founder, said traders focused on the $4,000 strike for the October 31 expiry and $3,600 strike for the October 17 expiry. He also noted substantial buying of $2,600 puts for the December 26 expiry. Those strikes, he said, are indicative of growing bearish sentiment through year-end. Despite the meltdown, Willy Woo, a leading onchain crypto analyst with more than a million followers on X, noted that bitcoin investor flows have been holding up well and may be the reason it fared better than expected against a sharp decline in stocks. In contrast, Woo said he saw a large drop in ether flows while Solana continued a decline. He believes that capital in altcoins is likely rotating into bitcoin rather than leaving the system. Altcoins, also known as alternative coins, refer to cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin, which are often treated as high-risk, high-reward investments. Some altcoins deliver massive returns, but many fail or lose liquidity. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is widely viewed as a "blue-chip" crypto asset, widely-held by institutions. "The good news is that this (crash) has cleaned out the excessive leverage and reset the risk in the market, for now," said Nic Puckrin, crypto analyst and co-founder of The Coin Bureau.  "However, bitcoin now faces another uphill battle to break past key resistance levels that will allow it to reach a meaningful new all-time high this year." ​ (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reportinng by Michelle Price; Editing by Alden Bentley)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) -Following the largest crypto liquidation in history last Friday, options market investors are bracing for more volatility and further declines in bitcoin and ether, aggressively positioning in trades that offer protection against another potential freefall. Market participants said the crypto sector on Friday saw more than $19 billion in liquidations across leveraged positions as panic selling and low liquidity triggered sharp swings. The plunge came after U.S. President Donald Trump announced late on Friday a 100% tariff on Chinese imports and threatened export controls on critical software.  Crypto analysts said this was the largest wipeout in a 24-hour period in the market's history, nine times larger than the February 2025 crash and 19 times bigger than the March 2020 meltdown and the FTX collapse in November 2022. Bitcoin fell as low as $104,782.88 during the October 10-11 period, down more than 14% from its high of $122,574.46 on Friday. It was last up 0.6% at $115,718.13. The world's largest cryptocurrency hit a record high above $126,000 on October 6. Ether, the second biggest digital currency, dropped 12.2% to a low of $3,436.29 on Friday. It last changed hands at $4,254, up 2.4% on the day.  Altcoins took an even bigger hit as HYPE (-54%), DOGE (-62%), and AVAX (-70%) all experienced steep drawdowns before recovering to post more modest losses. Trump over the weekend softened his rhetoric on China, however, noting that "it will all be fine" and the U.S. did not want to "hurt" China. That helped the crypto recovery. China on Sunday blamed the U.S. for the escalation, but did not roll out further countermeasures. "Last Friday, you saw volatility just jump across the board, not only for short-dated, but also for long-dated maturities. The sentiment around short-dated volatility is that more people are worried about downward turns," said Sean Dawson, head of research at Derive.xyz in Canberra. Data from Derive.xyz, a crypto options trading platform, showed heavy "put" buying from traders in bitcoin and ether, which suggested hedging against potential downside risks. In bitcoin, there were hefty purchases of puts conferring the right to sell bitcoin at strike prices of $115,000 and $95,000 for the October 31 expiry, according to Dawson. There was also a sharp reversal from call buying to call selling at the $125,000 strike for the October 17 expiry, suggesting a bearish short-term view.  Calls in the options market reflect expectations that the price will increase. For ether, Nick Forster, Derive.xyz co-founder, said traders focused on the $4,000 strike for the October 31 expiry and $3,600 strike for the October 17 expiry. He also noted substantial buying of $2,600 puts for the December 26 expiry. Those strikes, he said, are indicative of growing bearish sentiment through year-end. Despite the meltdown, Willy Woo, a leading onchain crypto analyst with more than a million on X, noted that bitcoin investor flows have been holding up well and may be the reason it fared better than expected against a sharp decline in stocks. In contrast, Woo said he saw a large drop in ether flows while Solana continued a decline. He believes that capital in altcoins is likely rotating into bitcoin rather than leaving the system. Altcoins, also known as alternative coins, refer to cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin, which are often treated as high-risk, high-reward investments. Some altcoins deliver massive returns, but many fail or lose liquidity. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is widely viewed as a "blue-chip" crypto asset, widely-held by institutions. "The good news is that this (crash) has cleaned out the excessive leverage and reset the risk in the market, for now," said Nic Puckrin, crypto analyst and co-founder of The Coin Bureau.  "However, bitcoin now faces another uphill battle to break past key resistance levels that will allow it to reach a meaningful new all-time high this year." ​ (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reportinng by Michelle Price; Editing by Alden Bentley)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

BERLIN (Reuters) -German investigators and banking watchdog BaFin have shut down over 1,400 illegal domains in Eastern Europe that were involved in cybertrading fraud, officials said in a joint statement on Monday. Dubbed Operation Heracles, the probe was conducted by Baden Wuerttemberg state criminal police and BaFin, Europol and Bulgarian authorities in an effort to crack down on those facilitating the use of fraudulent trading accounts. Users of the websites were directed to brokers operating from call centres abroad who would encourage them to invest large sums. For many it took months to notice that their money was not being invested, the authorities said. "The perpetrators are becoming increasingly professional," said Birgit Rodolphe of BaFin. "They use artificial intelligence to churn out illegal websites and use them to lure investors into traps." This operation follows a previous shutdown of 800 illegal domains in June of this year. There have since been 20 million attempts to access them. "The measures significantly weakened the criminal actors by specifically disabling their technical infrastructure," the authorities said. (Reporting by Alexander Huebner and Natascha Koch, Editing by Friederike Heine)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Countries around the world lack the regulatory and ethical foundation to deal with the rapid advent of artificial intelligence, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said on Monday, urging civil society groups to "ring the alarm bells." Georgieva said the rapidly advancing technological revolution unleashed by AI was dominated by advanced economies, with the U.S. having the lion's share. Some emerging markets also had capability in the sector, including China, but developing countries were lagging far behind and less able to tap into the potential of the technological revolution. Speaking with civil society groups on the first day of the annual IMF and World Bank meetings, Georgieva said the IMF was "quite worried" that the gap between advanced economies and low-income countries on readiness for AI was growing and making it harder and harder for developing countries to catch up. Georgieva's comments came days after she warned that financial market valuations were heading toward levels last seen during the internet-related bullishness 25 years ago, based on AI hopes, but an abrupt shift in sentiment could drag down world growth, making life especially tough for developing countries. She said the IMF was urging developing countries and emerging markets to focus on the first prerequisite for success, which was expanding digital infrastructure and skills. She said the IMF had developed an AI preparedness index that assessed countries' readiness for the new technology in four areas – infrastructure, labor and skills, innovation, and regulation and ethics. "Where the world is falling shortest is on regulation and ethics," she said. "The regulatory ethical foundation for AI for our future is still to come into place." She urged civil society groups to "ring the alarm bells in your countries that staying still is falling behind." (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Mark Porter and Andrea Ricci)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)