The derivatives market just saw one of its largest settlement events on a major futures platform, with roughly $23–27 billion in Bitcoin options contracts and multi-billion dollar Ethereum positions expiring simultaneously. Meanwhile, spot markets remained compressed, as Bitcoin oscillated narrowly between $85,000 and $90,000 throughout December, finding itself trapped in that mid-$87k–$88k zone. Beyond crypto, traditional markets sent mixed signals: gold broke fresh records, climbing above $4,500 per ounce, while silver momentum carried prices past the $72–$75 range. The interplay between oversized derivatives settlements and constrained spot volatility painted an interesting picture of where market participants were hedging their bets.