Spot bitcoin ETF investors are still waiting for one major trading tool missing in action — options, Crystal writes.

Why it matters: The stakes are high for the entire complex — exchanges, issuers, and service providers — because the ETF options market is just as hot as the market on which it is derived.

• It's big business. Average daily volume for ETF options last year was roughly 18 million, compared to 23.5 million for equity options, according to the Options Clearing Corp.

Yes, but: There are multiple regulatory hurdles, including those from the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, standing between investors and the launch of options on the various spot bitcoin ETFs.

• It's described as a "multipronged" process with timing left at the discretion of the regulators involved, experts tell Axios.

Context: Not all ETFs get options. Their demand is implied by how useful they are.

• 🤓 An option gives its buyer the right to buy (referred to as a "call") or sell (a "put") the underlying asset at a certain price on or before a certain date.

Zoom in: "Options have long been tools that investors can utilize to both help enhance the returns and manage the risk of their portfolios, [among other things]," Dave LaValle, global head of ETFs at Grayscale Investments, said.

How it works: ETF investors could use a covered call strategy to generate income, and/or reduce risk.

• Another might use a bull call spread.
• "When you look at the bitcoin ETF options — they're not here yet — but you can see they would have the exact same utility as the other options on the other ETFs," Cathy Clay, global head of derivatives at Cboe, said.

The bottom line: The early success of the January-launched crop of BTC ETFs implies options on them would be a hit.

The U.S. dollar played second fiddle to the South Korean won on crypto exchanges for the first three months of the year, Crystal writes.

What's happening: Cumulative trading volume denominated in won exceeded U.S. dollar-based activity in the first quarter, according to Kaiko.

• Of note 👉: A Kaiko report yesterday said trading volume on Korean markets hit its highest level in more than two years in early March.

📬 Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Grassley wrote to CFTC chairman Rostin Behnam asking for details on his meetings with disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. (CoinDesk)

🇳🇴 Norway passed a law, placing new requirements on data centers to curb bitcoin mining activity. (Decrypt)

👤 Former New York Federal Reserve compliance chief joins Binance US board. (The Block)

The winner of the 2023 A.M. Turing Award, or the Nobel Prize of computing, is a blockchain man, or, mathematician Avi Wigderson.

• It's a top honor, that comes with $1 million, Crystal writes.

Zoom in: Wigderson, the only person to have won the Turing and Abel prize (for scientific achievements in mathematics), was recognized for his contribution to the theory of computation and for shaping the modern-day understanding of the role of randomness in computing.

Flashback: In the 1980s, he explored the relationship between randomness and algorithms — introducing or removing randomness, he found, could help in arriving at solutions, faster and more easily.

• His work in zero-knowledge interactive proofs then, was turned into real-world application.

Case in point: It's hard to operate in cryptography or blockchain development today without running into a Wigderson concept or discovery.

• Fun fact: He's a scientific adviser to StarkWare Industries.