‘Peanut’ the squirrel is dead, but the meme coin named after him is still mooning.

A late-night post from technocrat Elon Musk slamming U.S. authorities for euthanizing the viral squirrel while failing to charge anyone from Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged client list preceded a volume and price spike, data shows, showing speculative fervor is alive and well in the market.

(The «Epstein list» refers to high-profile individuals allegedly connected to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking network. No official, verified public list exists.)

“Government is deeply broken,” Musk wrote. “They arrested (and killed) Peanut, but have not even tried to file charges against anyone on the Epstein client list.”

Within minutes, Solana-based meme token PNUT spiked over 10% as traders piled in on the name-drop.

PNUT, which has no affiliation with the actual squirrel or Musk, saw trading volumes surge over 120% from $65 million to $214 million in a 24-hour period, according to CoinGecko. The token’s price briefly touched 23 cents before cooling.

With no protocol, no utility, and no roadmap, PNUT trades purely on cultural resonance and reflexive speculation. That makes it a favorite for momentum hunters, and a token to watch for when controversial topics do the rounds — at least on Musk’s X.

Read more: Elon Musk Says America Party Will Embrace BTC as ‘Fiat Is Hopeless’

Bitcoin (BTC) and XRP (XRP) are trading sideways, which is likely being driven by a hidden force that’s keeping both cryptocurrencies anchored to key price levels.

However, the same «price magnets» might add to the ether (ETH) market volatility.

We are talking about market makers – entities tasked with creating liquidity in an exchange’s order book. These entities are always on the opposite side of traders/investors and make money from the bid-ask spread, while constantly striving to maintain a price-neutral exposure. Their hedging strategies in futures/spot markets often add to or curb volatility in the market.

In BTC’s case, options market makers are «long gamma» at strikes $108,000 and $110,000, according to Deribit-listed options activity tracked by Amberdata. The position indicates that market makers hold long options (calls and puts), which stand to benefit from potential volatility.

As such, market makers are likely trading against market movements – selling high and buying low – to maintain the direction-neutral book, effectively keeping BTC pinned in the $108,000-$110,000 range. BTC’s price has mostly traded the said range this month, according to CoinDesk data.

A similar dynamic seems to be playing out in the XRP market, where a large positive market maker gamma build up is observed at the $2.30 strike price. That calls for maker makers to buy low and sell high around that level capping volatility.

Ether prone to volatility

Ethereum’s native token ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, hit a high of $2,647 early today, the level last seen on June 16.

The move has pushed ether into a «negative market maker gamma» zone of $2,650-$3,500. When dealers hold negative gamma, they tend to trade in the direction of the market, exacerbating bullish/bearish moves.

In other words, their hedging activities could add to ether’s bullish momentum, exacerbating volatility, assuming other things being equal.

Robinhood tokens offering equity in OpenAI technically aren’t equity, Vlad Tenev confirmed in a recent CNBC interview, but are backed by «Robinhood’s ownership stake in a special purpose vehicle.»

OpenAI warned earlier this month that the tokens being offered by Robinhood do not represent equity in the company, and any transfer of equity would require OpenAI’s approval which they haven’t given.

«In and of itself, I don’t think it’s entirely relevant that it’s not technically an equity instrument,» Tenev said on CNBC. «What’s important is that retail customers have an opportunity to get exposure to this asset.»

Robinhood isn’t the first platform to offer shares in pre-IPO companies with this model.

Linqto, which offered retail investors exposure via special purpose vehicles that bought up shares on the secondary market, recently filed for bankruptcy, raising questions about what exactly its customers, now creditors, owned.

Among the companies is Ripple (XRP), and its CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, has publicly distanced Ripple from Linqto.

«We stopped approving more Linqto purchases on secondary markets in late 2024 amid growing skepticism,» Garlinghouse tweeted earlier in July.

Read more: OpenAI Warns That Tokenized Equity Sale on Robinhood Is Unauthorized