Honeymoons and luxury vacations could soon be outpaced by crypto as the main draw for the island nation of Maldives.

A Dubai-based family office plans to invest up to $8.8 billion in a blockchain-focused financial hub in the Maldives, part of an effort by the island nation to expand beyond its reliance on tourism and fisheries and address mounting debt obligations.

The investment, led by MBS Global Investments, will be deployed over five years and is structured around a new joint venture with the Maldives government.

The planned capital outlay exceeds the country’s GDP of around $7 billion. It will be funded through equity and debt, with preliminary commitments already exceeding $4 billion.

Finance Minister Moosa Zameer described the initiative as a step toward economic diversification in an FT interview. Zameer said the Maldives faces “the biggest challenge” in repaying external debt maturing over the next two years and that the project “could help ease some of the financial pressures we are facing.”

Under the proposed masterplan, the Maldives International Financial Centre will span 830,000 square meters, accommodate 6,500 residents, and generate employment for up to 16,000 people. It is being pitched as a global financial free zone centered on blockchain and digital asset services.

MBS Global Investments manages $14 billion in assets and is the family office of Qatari royal Sheikh Nayef bin Eid Al Thani. The hub is one of the first major forays of the island-nation into the crypto and blockchain ecosystem.

Bitcoin (BTC) opened the trading week flat above $94,000 as traders waited for news from Beijing on the progress of a trade deal with the U.S.

The CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a measure of the performance of major digital assets, was down 1.5%, trading below 2,700.

Major markets in Asia were closed on Monday, with Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan, and Korea closed, leading to thin liquidity and trading volumes.

A potential thaw in U.S.–China trade relations dominated macro headlines. Over the weekend, China’s Commerce Ministry said it was reviewing a U.S. proposal to resume negotiations, while President Trump hinted Beijing “wanted to do a deal.”

Polymarket bettors are skeptical, however, with prediction markets giving a 21% chance that a trade deal will be reached by June, and a 47% chance the White House will lower tariffs by the end of May.

Although details were vague on this potential trade deal, markets took notice. The Chinese yuan strengthened to a six-month high near ¥7.19, while regional currencies rallied.

The standout mover was the New Taiwan Dollar (NTD), which surged to a two-year high around NT$29.6 per U.S. dollar as last week ended.

The spike was driven by $1.4 billion (NT$42.9 billion) in foreign equity inflows and surging confidence in Taiwan’s tech sector after TSMC reported a 60% jump in quarterly profits. Taiwan’s central bank intervened to curb volatility but denied political pressure, calling the move market-driven.

BTC range bound?

Further compounding BTC’s relative stagnation is that its encountering significant resistance as it tests key technical and on-chain levels, according to a recent report by Glassnode.

Bitcoin is struggling to break through the $93,000–$95,000 range, an area aligned with both the short-term holder cost basis and the 111-day moving average, marking a crucial battleground for market momentum, the report argues.

«These levels represent a critical inflection point that must be upheld. Failure to stabilize above these levels would push the price back into the consolidation range, and return many investors to a state of meaningful unrealized loss,» the report reads.

However, above $100,000 there is less sell-side pressure due to a smaller volume of coins in that range. If bitcoin can overcome the resistance around $95,000-$98,000 it could enter a relatively clear path toward new price discovery and possibly a new all-time high, the report added.

In the crypto market, bold predictions aren’t just talk — they’re backed by real dollars, often through option plays that resemble lottery tickets offering outsized upside for relatively small costs.

The stand-out as of writing is the Deribit-listed $300,000 strike bitcoin call option expiring on June 26. Theoretically, this call is a bet that BTC’s spot price will triple to over $300,000 by the end of the first half of the year.

Over 5,000 contracts were active in the June $300K call at press time, with a notional open interest of $484 million. That makes it the second-most popular option bet in the crucial June expiry, trailing only the $110K call.

Deribit is the world’s leading crypto options exchange, accounting for over 75% of the global options activity. On Deribit, one options contract represents 1 BTC. Quarterly expiries, such as the one due on June 26, drive heightened market activity and volatility, with traders using these deadlines to hedge positions, lock in gains, or speculate on the next price moves.

«Perhaps, people like buying lottery tickets. As evidenced by the call skew, there are always folks that want the hyperinflation hedge,» Spencer Hallarn, a derivatives trader at crypto market maker GSR, said, explaining the high open interest in the so-called out-of-the-money (OTM) call at the $300K strike.

Deep OTM calls, also called wings, require a large move in the underlying asset’s price to become profitable and, hence, are significantly cheaper compared to those closer to or below the asset’s going market rate. However, the payoff is huge if the market rallies, which makes them similar to buying lottery tickets with slim odds but potential for a big payout.

Deribit’s BTC options market has experienced similar flows during previous bull cycles, but those bets rarely gained enough popularity to rank as the second-most preferred play in quarterly expiries.

The chart shows that the June 26 expiry is the largest among all settlements due this year, and the $300K call has the second-highest open interest buildup in the June expiry options.

Explaining the chunky notional open interest in the $300K call, GSR’s Trader Simranjeet Singh said, «I suspect this is mostly an accumulation of relatively cheap wings betting on broader U.S. reg narrative being pro-crypto and the ‘wingy possibility’ (no pun intended) of a BTC strategic reserve that was punted around at the start of the administration.»

On Friday, Senator Cynthia Lummis said in a speech that she’s «particularly pleased with President Trump’s support of her BITCOIN Act.

«The BITCOIN Act is the only solution to our nation’s $36T debt. I’m grateful for a forward-thinking president who not only recognizes this, but acts on it,» Lummis said on X.

Who sold $300K calls?

According to Amberdata’s Director of Derivatives, notable selling in the $300K call expiring on June 26 occurred in April as part of the covered call strategy, which traders use to generate additional yield on top of their spot market holdings.

«My thought is that the selling volume on April 23 came from traders generating income against a long position,» Magadini told CoinDesk. «Each option sold for about $60 at 100% implied volatility.»

Selling higher strike OTM call options and collecting premium while holding a long position in the spot market is a popular yield-generating strategy in both crypto and traditional markets.

Read more: Bitcoin May Evolve Into Low-Beta Equity Play Reflexively, BlackRock’s Mitchnik Says