Before a dollar can become a bitcoin, and before big funds dare to hold digital assets, the money has to pass through a trusted "gateway" and get locked in a "vault." This is the business that sells picks and shovels to the gold miners: the exchange that's the way in and out, and the custody provider that's the institutional safe. After 2024, when US law flipped from enemy to friend, institutional money started flowing in for real — and the game changed.
SEC Unveils Trading Framework for Tokenized Stocks, S&P Acquires OpenZeppelin, DeFi Market Cap Hits $80 Billion
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission introduced a provisional, conditional exemption allowing certain tokenized U.S.-listed equities to trade on-chain under specified conditions, while S&P Global agreed to acquire OpenZeppelin, a firm specializing in smart contract security infrastructure. The SEC measure, set out in a "Statement on Innovation Exemptions" signed by Commissioner Mark T. Ueda, guarantees holders of equity tokens the same rights as holders of conventional shares and requires third parties to notify the issuer of the underlying stock in writing before dealing in tokenized shares. According to S&P Global, OpenZeppelin's technology has supported the transfer of more than $37 trillion in value cumulatively, including major stablecoins and tokenized funds. Following these announcements, the market capitalization of DeFi-related tokens rose about $7 billion on Friday, climbing 8.8% to $79.8 billion, while the total market capitalization of the broader crypto market rose 4% to $2.7 trillion. Hyperliquid's HYPE jumped 10.8% to an all-time high of about $90.46, giving it a market capitalization of $20.12 billion; Uniswap's UNI rose 29.1% over 24 hours to about $9.00, for a market capitalization of $5.59 billion; and Aave's AAVE gained 9.5% to about $135.28. Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said the SEC is trying to put in place as much of a crypto regulatory framework as it can under its existing authority, and described tokenization as a massive tide.
CFTC Submits New Crypto Regulation Proposal to White House
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission submitted a regulatory proposal on crypto asset trading and markets to the White House for review on September 17. According to review records published by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which operates under the Office of Management and Budget, the item is under review at the "pre-rule stage" and is titled "Regulation of Crypto Asset Trading and Crypto Asset Markets." The public record does not indicate specific draft rules or which entities would be covered, and the submission does not mean a new rule has been finalized. To establish oversight rules for the crypto asset market, the CFTC and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made Project Crypto a joint effort in January 2026, and in March they published interpretations and guidance on applying federal securities law to crypto assets; this submission is the CFTC's follow-on move toward rulemaking. Meanwhile, the CLARITY Act, which would set the SEC's and CFTC's supervisory scopes in law, has stalled, and the U.S. Senate on September 15 rejected a cloture motion to begin debate by a vote of 49 in favor to 50 against.
SEC Grants Five-Year Innovation Exemption for Tokenized U.S. Equities, Lifting Robinhood and Coinbase
The SEC announced a five-year conditional Innovation Exemption allowing eligible platforms to trade tokenized U.S. equities without standard exchange registration, sending shares of Robinhood up 7.6% and Coinbase up 10.5%. According to Reuters, the temporary framework lets digital asset brokerages and trading platforms support tokenized equity trading while the agency solicits public comments to shape permanent regulatory policies for on-chain securities. Tokenized equities represent traditional corporate shares as digital tokens on a blockchain, potentially enabling 24/7 trading, fractional ownership, and more efficient settlement. The move reduces compliance hurdles and waives full exchange registration requirements for qualifying participants, opening the door for platforms like Coinbase and Robinhood to launch new asset offerings and capture additional trading volume. The rally was further supported by a rebound in the broader cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin trading up roughly 2% near $78,000. Coinbase remains down 17.7% since the start of the year and trades at $194.63 per share, 49.7% below its 52-week high of $387.27 from October 2025.
Grayscale announced on the 18th, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, that it will carry out a 3-for-1 stock split of its Zcash spot ETF, ZCSH. ZCSH began trading on August 25, meaning the split comes less than a month after its launch. The record date for the split is the close of trading on September 28, and eligible shareholders will receive two new shares for each share they hold after the close of trading on September 29, with trading at split-adjusted prices beginning on September 30. Since it began trading, ZCSH has attracted cumulative inflows of more than 233 million dollars, and Zcash's ZEC rose as high as 1,521 dollars in early trading on the 18th, apparently reaching a de facto all-time high. The price surge has concentrated mining computing power, with the estimated solrate climbing about 28 percent from roughly 25 GSol/s in late August to nearly 32 GSol/s in mid-September, while mining difficulty also hit a record high of about 291 million. U.S.-based Fortitude Mining Holdings, which mines Zcash under the Digital Currency Group umbrella, announced that its revenue for the April-to-June 2026 quarter reached 20.9 million dollars, up about 8.9 percent from the previous quarter, and together with Nasdaq-listed Cipherpunk Technologies it accounts for more than a quarter of the network's total computing power.
Bitcoin's Bull Market Is Cooling, Watch US Demand Slowdown and Altcoin Selling Pressure
In a weekly report published on September 16, CryptoQuant assessed the current Bitcoin market as a "cooling bull market." After its recent rally, Bitcoin entered a range of $76,000 to $82,000 and is now trading near the lower end of that band, while its bullish score index fell from 80 during the uptrend to 60. Weakness in US investor demand is also clear: the Coinbase Premium has slipped back into negative territory as Bitcoin corrects from around $80,000, and a recovery in spot demand is seen as essential for a sustained advance. Ethereum exchange inflows surged in late August and around September 10, briefly reaching 1.6 million to 1.7 million ETH, while altcoin exchange inflow transactions hit 56,000 on September 8, the highest level in about nine months. Bitcoin exchange inflows, by contrast, have been calm; they briefly rose to about 53,000 BTC when prices climbed to $82,000 but have since declined, indicating that large-scale selling is not continuing. The key price level ahead is around $70,000, where the 200-day moving average sits; a break below that would bring $62,000 to $65,000 into focus as the next major support.
Solana Jumps to $112 as BSOL Trading Volume Reaches $85 Million
Solana climbed to $112 on Thursday, gaining about 11% on the day and touching its highest level since January. The move came as trading volume in BSOL hit $85 million. It was not immediately clear from the report what drove the surge beyond the heavy activity in BSOL.
Coinbase Trades at 80.17X Forward P/E, Zacks Rates Stock a Sell
Coinbase Global Inc. shares are trading at a 12-month forward price-to-earnings of 80.17X, a steep premium to the industry average of 15.56X, the broader sector's 16.29X and the Zacks S&P 500 composite's 19.54X, and Zacks Investment Research says investors should avoid the stock given its stretched valuation. The firm assigns Coinbase a Value Score of D and a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), citing softer market volatility, weaker digital asset prices, near-term revenue and earnings pressures, and below-average return on equity. Coinbase shares have gained 6.6% over the past three months, outperforming a 6.4% decline for its industry, a 1.4% gain for the sector and a 0.1% gain for the Zacks S&P 500 composite, a move Zacks attributes to Bitcoin momentum, institutional inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs for which Coinbase serves as custodian, and improving regulatory clarity. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 now stands at a loss of 21 cents per share, an improvement from a loss of 37 cents expected seven days ago, while the 2027 consensus estimate has moved 13.7% higher over the past seven days. Coinbase is pursuing CEO Brian Armstrong's vision of an "everything exchange," with recent initiatives including regulated derivatives in Canada, an expanded Webull partnership, a collaboration with Moov on stablecoin payment and custody infrastructure for community banks and credit unions, and a nationwide conforming mortgage product backed by crypto assets introduced with Better Mortgage.
Fold Holdings Fair Value Cut to US$2.46 as Analysts Trim Price Targets
Fold Holdings saw its fair value estimate lowered to about US$2.46 from about US$3.20 after analysts cut their price targets on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced its target to US$0.70 from US$1.70, while Northland lowered its target to US$2.50 from about US$3.50, though both firms kept positive ratings, with Cantor at Overweight and Northland at Outperform. The analysts tied the lower targets to execution risk around the Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card, which has ramped more slowly than expected, and to a softer crypto trading backdrop. Alongside the fair value change, revenue growth was revised to about 33.51% from about 55.91%, the net profit margin was adjusted to about 25.20% from about 24.69%, the future P/E moved to about 12.5x from about 8.8x, and the discount rate shifted to about 8.76% from about 10.22%.
SEC Clears Path for Tokenized US Stocks Under Five-Year Innovation Exemption
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has cleared a path for tokenized US stocks, bringing the market closer to 24/7 trading under a five-year innovation exemption that lets eligible platforms trade tokenized US equities through blockchain-based liquidity pools. No platform has been individually approved, and the framework is not yet operational, though trading could start as soon as 30 days out. The exemption covers secondary trading only, not IPOs or issuance of new shares, and tokens must be tied to existing publicly traded equities rather than price trackers, with holders receiving the same economic interest, dividends, voting rights, liquidation rights and shareholder communications as conventional shareholders. Issuing companies get a veto: if an unaffiliated third party such as an exchange wants to tokenize a company's stock, the company receives 30 days to object. Smart contracts must be public and auditable on a public permissionless blockchain, not walled-garden private chains, while traders and wallets are verified and whitelisted for sanctions and AML compliance, and tokenized stocks can trade in crypto-style pairs, including tokenized stock against tokenized stock, a permitted stablecoin, another non-security crypto asset, or tokenized money market funds. The deliberately small pilot has multiple tiers: for the largest Tier one stocks each venue is limited to 75 symbols and 0.25% of each stock's prior month average daily volume, Tier two allows 250 symbols and 2.5% of volume, and repeatedly exceeding a limit triggers a three-month trading pause in that stock. Around-the-clock trading and self-custody are possible but not guaranteed and will be up to the exchange, and the relief exempts only two narrow requirements: venues from registering as conventional exchanges, and qualifying AMM liquidity providers from dealer registration and anti-fraud and market manipulation rules.
Coinbase Files With SEC to List Perpetual Futures on U.S. Stocks
Coinbase Global has filed for regulatory approval to list perpetual futures tied to individual large-cap U.S. stocks, opening the door to 24/7 leveraged trading of shares such as Apple, Microsoft, Tesla and Nvidia on a regulated U.S. platform. The exchange plans to offer contracts linked to roughly 50 to 60 major stocks, with trading potentially starting later this year if regulators approve the products, according to The Wall Street Journal. Coinbase submitted a Form 1-N to the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month, a filing that allows Coinbase Derivatives to register with the SEC as a national securities exchange for security futures products. The move follows Coinbase's push to expand perpetual futures beyond crypto; the exchange launched stock perps for eligible customers outside the U.S. in March, and earlier this month launched regulated crypto derivatives for eligible Canadian traders, offering 23 crypto futures tied to assets including Bitcoin, Ether and Solana, alongside futures for gold, silver, oil and the COIN50 index. U.S. regulators have also taken steps this year to open the market to perpetual contracts, with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission approving a bitcoin perpetual futures contract submitted by Kalshi on May 29 and saying market participants could seek approval for other perpetual products. Coinbase is not alone in seeking to bring the products into the U.S. regulated market, as Kalshi has also moved toward offering single-stock perpetual futures.
Sam Altman's Worldcoin Launches World Money Stablecoin Super App in 150 Countries
World, the crypto network co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, launched a global stablecoin super app called World Money. The self-custody app combines stablecoin balances, payments, trading, investing and yield, and is set to be available in 150 countries. It integrates with Stripe, Bridge and Kalshi, among others. The app's novel approach ties World's proof-of-human verification, the iris-scanning system that gives users free tokens for proving they are human, to a full suite of crypto-powered financial services. World was previously known as Worldcoin.
CFTC Sends Crypto Rulemaking to White House After Senate Rejects CLARITY Act
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission submitted its crypto market rulemaking to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on September 17, 2026, just two days after the Senate rejected the CLARITY Act by a narrow vote of 49 to 50. The filing, identified on Reginfo.gov as RIN 3038-AF80 and titled Regulation of Crypto Asset Transactions and Crypto Asset Markets, sits at the prerule stage, meaning it is an advance notice of a proposed rule rather than a rule exchanges can currently comply with, and its contents remain confidential while under review. Chairman Michael Selig, confirmed as the agency's 15th chairman on December 18, 2025, said on the day of the Senate vote that the agency was locked in and ready to ship rules, and his plan would create a new designated contract market category, a crypto asset market, allowing both current registrants and non-registrant crypto exchanges to offer leveraged or margined crypto trading under CFTC oversight without Congressional action. The process still requires two comment periods and two OIRA reviews, with Executive Order 12866 giving the White House up to 90 days plus a one-time 30-day extension, so publication could come in November or December 2026, a proposed rule in 2027, and a final binding rule potentially not in effect until late 2027. JPMorgan analysts noted on September 16 that agency rules are less durable than legislation because a future Commission could revise them and anyone with standing can challenge them in court under the Administrative Procedure Act, a concern relevant to XRP, which was among 18 digital assets classified as digital commodities in the March 17 joint interpretation by the SEC and CFTC, while Bitcoin's market structure rather than its status would change. The rule cannot grant the CFTC full authority over the spot market for digital commodities, which was central to the CLARITY Act and would require an act of Congress.
JPMorgan Says Bitcoin Could Outperform Gold as Hedges Unwind
JPMorgan analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said Bitcoin could receive more support than gold if investors begin unwinding defensive positions around Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, according to a Wednesday note. The analysts said Bitcoin investors remain more heavily hedged than gold investors, leaving room for the cryptocurrency to benefit disproportionately if that caution fades. Gold ETFs have already recovered all of their earlier 2026 outflows, while Bitcoin ETFs have recovered only about half, and short interest in BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, or IBIT, remains near its highest level this year, while short interest in the SPDR Gold Shares ETF is below its historical average. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $450.4 million in net outflows on Sept. 15 and another $295.9 million on Sept. 16, before reversing to $159.5 million of inflows on Sept. 17, with IBIT alone bringing in $183.7 million that day. The call comes despite a difficult backdrop: on Sept. 15 the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, falling short of the 60 votes needed for cloture, and a day later the Federal Reserve unanimously raised interest rates by 25 basis points to a range of 3.75%-4%, its first increase since 2023.
Strategy Jumps 12%, Coinbase Climbs 11% as Bitcoin Tops $80,000
Bitcoin traded at $80,888.81, up 5.5% over 24 hours, pushing crypto-linked equities sharply higher Friday morning. Strategy stock rose 12% to $148.55 and Coinbase Global shares climbed 11% to $192.43, both outpacing the coin itself, while the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF gained 6% and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust slipped 0.1%. Nic Puckrin, founder of Coin Bureau, said short positions were liquidated once Bitcoin broke past its resistance level, and crypto derivatives traders had been heavily positioned in call options heading into the move. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday it is granting a five-year exemption allowing U.S. trading venues to offer tokenized stocks, a direct tailwind for Coinbase, which earns fees on every listed venue it operates. Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong said he now assumes the CLARITY Act is dead and that another path exists through the regulators, naming the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, while a House of Representatives committee advanced the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill on Thursday, a measure that still requires approval from the full House and the Senate. Strategy remains a leveraged treasury vehicle for Bitcoin, funded largely with issued equity, and its stock is still down 3% year to date even after this month's rebound.
Canary Staked TRX ETF TRXS Offers Wrapped TRX Staking in Brokerage and IRA Accounts
The Canary Staked TRX ETF, trading on Nasdaq under the ticker TRXS, has launched as one of the first U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds designed to hold TRON's TRX token directly and pass through on-chain staking rewards, giving investors a way to gain single-asset crypto exposure inside a brokerage or IRA account without opening a crypto exchange account or managing self-custody. The fund's return engine combines TRX spot price appreciation with a staking reward stream earned by delegating a portion of holdings to validators on the TRON network, though that reward stream is reduced by the fund's expense ratio before reaching shareholders. With only 7 trading days of history and a settled close of $24.75 on September 17, 2026, TRXS is too young for a track record to matter, and the fund is positioned as a satellite holding sized at low single-digit weight at most within a diversified portfolio. Because the fund's operating fee is subtracted from staking rewards, TRXS will structurally deliver slightly less yield than buying and staking TRX directly, a tradeoff the fund offers in exchange for convenience and account eligibility. The fund also carries concentration and governance risk tied to TRON founder Justin Sun, whose active role in the network's development means the token faces headline risk that broader multi-asset crypto ETFs naturally dilute, and its tax treatment of pass-through staking distributions remains unsettled.
Ripple Links XRP to Stripe's AI Agent Payments in Beta
Ripple has integrated the XRP Ledger into Stripe's agent payment flow through the Machine Payments Protocol, or MPP, a standard Stripe co-authored with the payments blockchain Tempo. The integration, announced September 17, 2026, arrives via version 1.1 of Ripple's XRPL AI Starter Kit, which adds MPP and Open Wallet Standard support, and it runs on XRP rather than Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin because RLUSD is an issued token that cannot yet support payment channels, the mechanism that lets an agent stream more than 100,000 off-chain vouchers per second and settle with just two on-chain transactions. Extending channels to issued tokens would require a future XRPL upgrade that Ripple has not scheduled. The kit remains in beta with no live commercial volume, and no merchants on Stripe's platform have routed a session through it, while Circle launched its own payments blockchain, Arc, the day before Ripple's announcement. As of September 18, XRP traded at $1.32, up 16.97% over the past month but down 4.66% over the past week.
Bitcoin Tops $80,000 as $445 Million in Shorts Liquidate
Bitcoin surged past $80,000 as a fresh short squeeze liquidated more than $445 million in short positions across the crypto market, with Bitcoin alone accounting for $230 million of that total. The world's largest cryptocurrency is up 5.88% on the day, trading at $80,846 after opening at $76,355 and tagging an intraday high of $80,857 against a low of $76,236. The rally follows a Federal Reserve rate hike of 25 basis points on Wednesday, its first since 2023, paired with a dot plot projecting a median policy rate of just 4.1% through the end of 2027, implying only one more move rather than a sustained tightening cycle. Crypto had extra ground to make up after the failure of the Clarity Act to clear a Senate procedural vote earlier in the week knocked Bitcoin below $75,000, and the relief rally has compounded through the week. Technically, Bitcoin's Average Directional Index sits at 40.6, above the 25 threshold, with the positive directional line above the negative one, while the 50-day exponential moving average trades above the 200-day EMA after a golden cross last Saturday; the Relative Strength Index reads 63.3. Immediate resistance sits at $82,281, with support at $75,569 and then $68,858.
CFTC Eases Broker Registration Rules for Prediction Market Apps
CFTC staff on Thursday issued a no-action letter making it easier for apps to offer prediction markets without registering as brokers, expanding a model already used by Phantom. The relief lets qualifying "passive software" providers offer access to regulated derivatives, including prediction markets, while receiving a share of trading revenue or charging users transaction-based fees, provided they do not hold customer assets, generate buy or sell signals or control how trades are executed. The relief is temporary and lasts until the CFTC issues a rule or other guidance on broker registration for software developers. The agency first tested the model with crypto wallet Phantom, which offers prediction markets powered by Kalshi to its more than 20 million users and received individual no-action relief in March; Thursday's letter makes similar relief broadly available to other software providers that meet the agency's conditions. Robinhood generated $156 million from event contracts in the second quarter, more than its $129 million from equities or $100 million from cryptocurrency trading, and its Robinhood Derivatives unit can hold customer funds for derivatives trading, while Rothera, its exchange and clearinghouse joint venture with Susquehanna International Group, contributed $17 million of second-quarter event-contract revenue. Coinbase Global occupies a similar position, with its Coinbase Financial Markets subsidiary operating the brokerage behind Coinbase's U.S. prediction-market offering.
XRP Whale Inflows to Binance Hit Six-Month High, CryptoQuant Says
Onchain data indicates a notable rise in XRP "whale" inflows to Binance, now reaching a six-month high as of date according to CryptoQuant. The shift involves 1.6 billion tokens moved into the exchange. CryptoQuant's onchain reading points to the largest such inflow in six months.
Hyperliquid's HYPE Hits All-Time High, Enters Crypto Top 10
Hyperliquid's native token HYPE has set a new all-time high and officially entered the top 10 largest cryptocurrencies in the world, according to CoinMarketCap. The move marks a fresh record for the decentralized exchange's token and lifts it into the ranks of the market's largest digital assets by valuation. One top analyst cited in coverage of the milestone predicts HYPE will reach a three-digit price tag of $100. No further figures on the token's market capitalization or the timing of the record were provided.
SEC Opens U.S. Path for Tokenized Stocks Under Five-Year Exemption
The Securities and Exchange Commission's Sept. 17 Innovation Exemption creates a five-year, conditional pathway for certain tokenized U.S. stocks to trade on blockchain-based Tokenized Securities Venues, a framework that could benefit Robinhood Markets. The exemption permits trading through permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools, but requires tokenized shares to give holders the same rights and privileges as conventional shares, including dividends and voting rights, while issuers can block third-party tokenization by objecting within 30 days of receiving notice from the trading venue. Robinhood cannot simply bring its existing Stock Tokens to the United States, since the company describes them as tokenized debt securities backed 1:1 by underlying shares that provide economic exposure rather than legal or beneficial ownership and are unavailable to U.S. residents. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has said the company plans to add one-for-one share redemption and voting rights after AMC CEO Adam Aron criticized the Stock Tokens for lacking traditional shareholder rights, though the SEC's allowance for issuer objections diverges from Tenev's stance. Coinbase Global is the most direct rival given its U.S. stock-trading business and international tokenized-equity efforts, while Intercontinental Exchange is developing a 24/7 digital venue for tokenized equities through the NYSE. Robinhood's first-half 2026 revenues climbed 24% year over year to $2.38 billion, earnings rose 23% to $1.00, and the company ended August with 28.6 million funded customers and $384 billion in total platform assets, up 26% year over year.
Celsius bankruptcy estate sues BitMEX for return of 6,360 BTC
The bankruptcy estate of Celsius Network, the crypto lending giant that went bankrupt in 2022, filed suit on September 12 against BitMEX's operating company and four other firms, seeking the return of Bitcoin lost in past transactions. It alleges the coins were improperly liquidated during the March 2020 market crash and is demanding the return of 6,360.1666 Bitcoin, worth roughly 77.5 billion yen, or payment of an equivalent amount. According to the complaint, the dispute concerns two forced liquidations during the March 2020 Bitcoin plunge, in which Celsius says it lost 1,325.8385 BTC of its own and 5,034.3281 BTC belonging to the fund it invested in, JST, which later assigned its right to seek repayment to Celsius. Celsius argues that BitMEX controlled the prices used to decide on liquidations and the handling of the sales, and that the mass liquidations drove prices down further. BitMEX, for its part, has said the trading halt at the time resulted from an external DDoS attack, and in a July 23 announcement it stated it would shut down its exchange services on September 23.
Alchemy Integrates AgentCard With Mastercard Agent Pay for AI Agent Identity
Alchemy has integrated AgentCard with Mastercard Agent Pay, establishing a dedicated identity layer that gives each autonomous AI agent its own email address, phone number, stablecoin wallet, and tokenized payment credentials. The integration adds Verifiable Intent, a standard co-developed with Google that provides tamper-resistant cryptographic proof linking a consumer's specific instructions to a transaction outcome, with selective disclosure of only the minimum required information at checkout. AgentCard originally launched in June 2026 with Visa Intelligent Commerce, and setup now takes a single command-line instruction and under one minute, with credentials encrypted at rest and granular controls including merchant category restrictions, geographic limits, and instant freeze-or-revoke. Alchemy CEO Nikil Viswanathan said AI agents are moving from simple assistants to software that can take action, while Mastercard EVP of Digital Commercialization Sherri Haymond said the future of commerce is about agents that can be trusted to act on your behalf. The infrastructure push comes as only 3% of transactions involve agents and developers face integration costs of $5,000 to $500,000 per protocol, while Visa completed hundreds of secure agent transactions in a closed beta and projects millions by holiday 2026. Structural obstacles remain: only 23% of consumers trust AI to handle payments and 85% demand transparency on data use, 90% of executives express confidence in their visibility over AI usage while only 11% of applications are visible to IT departments, and 93% of merchants believe the AI provider should bear the financial risk of transactions.
Bitget Says Bitcoin Holds Above $75,000 as Dollar-Divestment Trend Builds
Bitget, a global cryptocurrency exchange platform and Web3 company, said Bitcoin has continued to hold above support at $75,000, even after the US Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC, voted to raise interest rates for the first time in three years, by 0.25%, and signalled further hikes this year. Meanwhile, the CLARITY Act failed to win approval in the US Senate. Ms. Gracie Chen, Managing Director of Bitget, said that Donald Trump's move to direct the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission to issue crypto regulations on their own without relying on congressional mechanisms has helped ease disappointment over the CLARITY Act to some degree. The trend of divesting dollar holdings remains the main factor driving investors worldwide toward both gold and Bitcoin. AI-related technology stocks continued to deliver strong returns this week, after the market's concerns eased over major AI model providers SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic slowing development of new models. Marking its eighth anniversary, Bitget is preparing a full-scale push into the institutional client market. In the second quarter of 2026, the net asset value of its institutional clients grew 45% compared with the previous year, and it has most recently become the first crypto trading platform to bring official market data from the Nasdaq stock exchange directly into its US equities-related infrastructure.
Bitcoin Seeks Lower Ground as US Rate Hike Shift Weighs, $70,000–$80,000 Range Eyed
This week, Bitcoin strengthened its downward trend following the US FOMC rate hike, military tensions between the United States and Iran, and the rejection of the US CLARITY Act's move to deliberation, with the price falling to around $75,000, or roughly 11.7 million yen. Next week, a stock market correction triggered by the US rate hike shift and the US-Iran situation are expected to remain a drag, with the market likely probing lower levels. On the other hand, expectations for large AI-related IPOs and practical progress in crypto asset regulation could help support the market. For the near-term price range, the upside is seen at $80,000, or about 12.48 million yen, while the downside is seen at $70,000, or about 10.92 million yen.
Coinbase Partners With Stablecore to Bring Stablecoins to 3,000-Plus Community Banks
Coinbase announced a partnership with Stablecore on September 16, 2026, embedding digital asset capabilities into the core banking systems used by more than 3,000 community banks and credit unions. The deal plugs Coinbase into existing core banking providers such as Q2 and Jack Henry, letting legacy institutions offer tokenized deposits, digital asset accounts, and collateralized loans without overhauling their technology stacks. It is Coinbase's second major distribution play in September alone: six days earlier, on September 10, the exchange partnered with Moov to bring stablecoin payments and real-time funding to another 1,000-plus institutions. Together the two deals reach into a US long tail of more than 4,700 community banks and 4,700 credit unions. Coinbase's Alec Lovett said community banks and credit unions should not have to choose between staying local and staying current, while Stablecore's Alex Treece said banks should not have to migrate to entirely new platforms to support digital assets. The push comes as the OCC's November deadline looms as a potential catalyst for federal clarity; PYMNTS Intelligence data shows 77% of consumers would open a stablecoin wallet through their existing banking or fintech application, but if the OCC deadline slips or the final rule narrows eligibility, the new integrations stay dormant.
Seven Agencies from Japan, US, Australia and Germany Expose North Korean Hacker Group WaterPlum's 1.7 Billion Yen Cryptocurrency Theft
Seven agencies from Japan, the United States, Australia and Germany — the National Police Agency, the National Cyber Security Center, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center, the Australian Cyber Security Centre, Germany's Federal Intelligence Service and Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution — jointly announced on the 18th the details of cryptocurrency theft by the North Korea-linked cyberattack group WaterPlum. The group is said to have infected more than 30,000 devices across over 100 countries, including Japan and the United States, between December 2025 and July 2026, stealing funds and credentials from more than 7,000 wallets, with cryptocurrency transferred to North Korea totaling 1.7 billion yen, equivalent to 10.71 million dollars. The National Police Agency and the FBI believe that WaterPlum's attackers and some North Korean IT workers operate under the 313th General Bureau of the Munitions Industry Department, part of the Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee. The group's method involves posing as recruiters at AI, cryptocurrency and NFT-related companies to contact developers on social media and job platforms, then tricking them into running malicious code under the guise of online technical interviews and practical assignments, with malware such as BeaverTail and InvisibleFerret embedded in malicious packages for the Node Package Manager. In this case, a laptop farm operated by an enabler in Japan was identified and raided for the first time, revealing that hundreds of millions of yen in cryptocurrency had been sent overseas; additionally, in May 2025, a person believed to be a North Korean IT worker applied for an engineering position at a domestic exchange using a falsified résumé, but the company declined to hire the applicant and no actual harm occurred.
NEAR Partners with Hyperliquid to Launch First Confidential Perps Trading, Price Jumps 21%
Near Protocol has launched the industry's first "confidential by default" perpetual contract trading on near.com, partnering with Hyperliquid, which serves as the core layer for execution and liquidity. Users can access more than 50 perpetual markets with leverage of up to 40x. The feature conceals all contract positions, including asset type, size, entry time, and trading direction, helping reduce the risks of front-running, strategy copying, and forced liquidations. This Perps trading runs on a multi-chain Confidential Intents pipeline, which has just reached a milestone of 70 million dollars in total locked asset value, and the network's USDC integration also enables payments between AI agents using stablecoins. However, this confidential Perps trading remains restricted in the United States and Canada for regulatory reasons. After the launch, NEAR surged 21.36% intraday, pulling back to trade at 3.21 dollars, while HYPE rose 10.82%, pulling back to trade at 86.72 dollars, after Payward, the parent company of Kraken, announced plans to bring Hyperliquid into the US market.
Bitget Celebrates 8 Years, Moves Into Institutional Market to Back UEX Strategy
Bitget, a leading global cryptocurrency exchange and Web3 company, has announced a full-scale push into the institutional client market on the occasion of its 8th anniversary, while continuing to focus on its Universal Exchange, or UEX, strategy to bring traditional finance investment products onto the platform for trading. Ms. Gracy Chen, the company's Managing Director, said this step marks a shift from challenger to innovator in the cryptocurrency world. Most recently, the company became the first cryptocurrency platform to bring official market data from the Nasdaq stock exchange directly into its infrastructure related to US equities, enabling institutional investors to use the data as input for high-volume trading, automated strategy development, and efficient risk management. This reflects success from institutional client net asset value in the second quarter of 2026, which grew by 45% compared with the same period a year earlier.
US sanctions BitBank, Iranian crypto exchange, over Bitcoin transfers supporting IRGC
The US Treasury Department announced sanctions on BitBank, an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange, accusing the platform of facilitating the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, and several other governments. The Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, also sanctioned BitBank's software developer, Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, as well as three associates of Babak Zanjani, an Iranian financier: Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein, and Seyed Adel Heidari. The Treasury Department said BitBank is a top-priority digital asset project controlled by Zanjani, who was previously sanctioned by OFAC over a network of companies accused of helping launder money and evade Iran sanctions. Between June and July, Zanjani used BitBank to move hundreds of millions of dollars to the IRGC in the form of Bitcoin, while Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority is also accused of using the exchange since June to transfer payments to the Iranian regime. The sanctions announcement is the latest step in a continuing campaign against Economic Fury called Operation Economic Outcast, launched on August 24, following OFAC's June sanctions on Nobitex, Iran's largest crypto exchange, along with Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex, and its August sanctions on Shelbit and Aban Tether.
JPYC President Okabe Explains Price Divergence After Upbit Listing, Cites Inventory Shortage and Overnight Work
Regarding the issue of the Japanese yen stablecoin JPYC's price diverging from its roughly 1 yen peg, JPYC President Noritaka Okabe responded to an interview with NADA NEWS on September 18. JPYC was listed on the South Korean crypto exchange Upbit on September 17, and immediately afterward 1 JPYC rose to a level exceeding 2 yen. Arbitrage trades, in which coins issued at 1 yen were sold in the higher-priced market, occurred one after another, and the circulating supply swelled to approximately 4.26 billion JPYC as of 9 a.m. on the 18th, about 2.2 times the previous day's level. Okabe revealed that issuance surged and inventory ran short in the middle of the night, and that employees took on overnight work due to a sharp increase in account applications, and he expressed his gratitude to the employees. He also said he had no knowledge at all of the Upbit listing and had not thought the first day's trading volume would exceed 30 billion yen. Noting that although it is a stablecoin compliant with Japanese regulations, not a single domestic electronic payment method operator has yet begun trading it, he expressed hope for trading to start at an early date. He explained that because JPYC Inc. always receives 1 yen at the time of issuance, it can be redeemed regardless of the secondary market price, and he called on users to use it with peace of mind.
World launches World Money super app in 150 countries, linking Stripe and Apple Pay
World, the identity-focused cryptocurrency project formerly known as Worldcoin, is launching a self-custodial financial app in more than 150 countries under the name World Money, combining stablecoin payments, trading, earnings and a virtual account in a single app. The app supports balances in 8 currencies and connects with Stripe, Kalshi and Morpho. Stripe will power a new top-up system in the United States that lets users convert funds from Apple Pay into stablecoins, typically completing within a few minutes. World ID verification is integrated into the app, including to earn higher returns in the participating Earn program. Features and asset availability vary by jurisdiction. World is a project under Tools for Humanity, a company co-founded by Alex Blania and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The company began moving toward super-app functionality in March 2025, when it added crypto payments and chat to the app, and later that summer Circle launched native USDC on World, replacing bridged USDC in the World App wallet.
JPYC price briefly diverges to 2.2 yen on Upbit listing, circulating supply up 2.2x day-on-day to over 4.2 billion yen
The total circulating supply of JPYC, a Japanese yen-pegged stablecoin, has surpassed 4 billion JPYC, reaching approximately 4.26 billion JPYC, according to the latest data from JPYC info, which compiles on-chain data. That marks an increase of about 2.36 billion JPYC from roughly 1.89963 billion JPYC as of 10:23 on September 17, a 2.2x rise day-on-day. The trigger was the start of JPYC trading on September 17 on the South Korean crypto exchange Upbit, which opened three markets for the token: Korean won, Bitcoin, and Tether, marking the first time a Korean won-denominated trading pair has been offered for JPYC. Immediately after trading began, the price diverged sharply from its baseline level of around 1 yen, with CoinMarketCap recording a temporary high of about 2.2 yen per JPYC. At the start of trading, the only network Upbit supported for deposits and withdrawals was Ethereum, and JPYC on Ethereum accounted for only about 7 percent of the total at the time, which is seen as one reason the available supply was limited. The price gap drew a rush of funds from investors seeking arbitrage, and reports proliferated on X of users who issued JPYC at 1 yen and swapped it for USDC on DEXs such as Uniswap to turn a profit. As of September 18, Polygon ranked first in circulating supply by chain, followed by Ethereum in second and Kaia in third, and after trading began Upbit also began supporting deposits from Kaia and Polygon.
Ethereum After Hawkish Fed Signal: Three Whale Buying Levels
With the Federal Reserve deciding on September 16 to raise rates by 25 basis points and signaling further tightening, Ethereum plunged 5% on Tuesday to a two-week low of $2,358, then rebounded about 2% on Wednesday to roughly $2,400 to $2,450. The FOMC voted 12-0 to raise the target range for the policy rate by 25bp to 3.75%-4.00%, and in its summary of economic projections, a majority of 12 of the 18 participating policymakers forecast another 25bp hike by the end of 2026, while the median core inflation forecast was raised to 3.4%. According to Polymarket data, the probability of a second 25bp hike has risen to 66% from 43% just 24 hours before the September 16 FOMC meeting. Three price levels where past large whale trades clustered are cited: 8,077 trades on August 21 at a median price of about $2,434, 8,814 trades on June 5 at an average price of about $1,635, and 7,644 trades on May 6 at an average price of about $2,293. A clear break below $2,434 would expose the next whale activity zone. Prediction markets put the probability of reaching a $2,750 target at 69% and the $3,000 psychological threshold at 48%, while the probability of falling below $2,000 stands at just 18%.
S&P Global to acquire blockchain security firm OpenZeppelin
S&P Global announced on September 17 that it has agreed to acquire blockchain security firm OpenZeppelin. The purchase price was not disclosed, and the deal is subject to customary conditions. S&P Global said the acquisition complements its risk assessment and ecosystem development capabilities in the digital asset market, with President Yann Le Pallec stating that OpenZeppelin's technology and expertise complement the company's ability to assess risks in on-chain technology. Founded in 2015, OpenZeppelin runs an open-source smart contract library regarded as the de facto industry standard, along with security audit services. More than 37 trillion dollars in value has been transferred through the library, which has over 900 audits to its name and has detected more than 10,000 vulnerabilities. After the acquisition, OpenZeppelin will continue as an independent business unit, with Demian Brener remaining as CEO, and the library will continue to be freely available on GitHub. S&P Global also led an investment in crypto market data firm Kaiko on September 14, while rival Moody's began providing ratings data on Solana in June, underscoring intensifying competition among the major ratings agencies over on-chain services.
South Korean Police Book 26 Polymarket Users, Refer 18 for Prosecution
South Korean police have booked 26 domestic users of the prediction market platform Polymarket on suspicion of illegal gambling, and referred 18 of them to prosecutors, local newspaper Asia Economy reported on September 17. According to documents from the Korean National Police Agency submitted to lawmaker Yoon Gun-young, the investigation was conducted by the cyber investigation unit of the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency, and the figures for those referred and others are as of September 15. The cumulative betting amount of the 26 booked individuals was about 17.6 billion won, with the highest single amount at about 5.7 billion won. Police authorities take the position that wagering assets on outcomes one cannot control falls under the gambling offense of Article 246 of South Korea's Criminal Act, and that judgment should be based on the actual content of transactions rather than names or forms. The booked users, meanwhile, argue that because probability contracts can be bought and sold on an order book and settled before maturity, the platform should be regarded not as gambling but as a cryptocurrency-based derivatives market.
CFTC Publishes No-Action Policy for Passive Software Providers
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced on September 17 a "no-action position" stating that it will not recommend enforcement action against providers of qualifying "passive software" on the grounds that they are not registered as an Introducing Broker (IB) or similar under the Commodity Exchange Act. The move makes broadly available to qualifying software providers a form of relief similar to the no-action position the CFTC issued in March to Phantom Technologies, the developer of the crypto asset wallet Phantom. It covers businesses that provide and market software enabling users to transact with registered futures commission merchants (FCMs), IBs, and designated contract markets (DCMs). The announcement came on the same day, the 17th, that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a temporary, conditional "innovation exemption" allowing on-chain trading of tokenized equities. With the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, the crypto market structure bill, unable to advance past a procedural vote in the Senate, the SEC and CFTC are pressing ahead with measures that use their existing legal authority. The measure is not a formal rulemaking, however, but a staff-level policy under which the CFTC's Market Participants Division (MPD) will decline to recommend enforcement action under certain conditions.
Goldman Sachs Flips Fed Call Twice in Four Days, Now Sees October Rate Hike
Goldman Sachs reversed its Federal Reserve rate forecast twice in four days, telling clients on the morning of September 15, 2026 that it expected a hike the next day but not another one as its baseline, then shifting within hours of the September 16 decision to call for another 25-basis-point increase in October. The second change followed the Fed's updated rate projections, higher inflation forecasts, and Chair Kevin Warsh's comments on financial conditions. The Federal Open Market Committee voted 12-0 to raise its target range by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4.00%, the first hike since 2023, and the dot plot showed 16 of 18 officials expecting at least one more hike this year while four projected two additional increases. The Fed also raised its 2026 headline Personal Consumption Expenditures inflation forecast to 3.7% and lifted its core inflation forecast. Bitcoin is trading near $76,300, up roughly 18% over the past month but about 34% below its level a year ago, while XRP is near $1.29 after gaining roughly 28% over the past month and remains about 56% lower year over year. An October hike would reach markets with less time to adjust than after September's fully priced move, and the 10-year Treasury yield crossed 5% this week for the first time since 2007.
Saylor Says Banks Can Lend Against Bitcoin Without Congress as Deutsche Bank Awaits BaFin Approval
Michael Saylor, Chairman of MicroStrategy, said banks will expand Bitcoin custody and lending without new legislation from Congress, arguing the SEC and CFTC can advance crypto rules under existing law while the CLARITY Act stalls. Saylor's case rests on Bitcoin's settled status as a CFTC-regulated commodity with SEC-approved spot ETFs, plus a series of interpretive letters the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has issued since March 2025 confirming national banks may custody crypto assets and execute trades at customer direction. Deutsche Bank announced this week that it plans to launch regulated custody for Bitcoin, Ethereum and select stablecoins for institutional and corporate clients by the end of 2026, and that launch is awaiting sign-off from BaFin, Germany's financial regulator, under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, whose transition period ended on July 1. The bank, which reported $2.217 trillion in assets under management as of June 30, holds a German crypto-custody authorization but still needs BaFin's approval for the specific service it announced, and that custody approval is the first piece any bank needs before it can lend against Bitcoin at all. Saylor's argument runs thin in one respect: OCC interpretive letters are guidance rather than statute and can be revoked by a future administration or a court challenge without a vote in Congress, whereas the CLARITY Act would lock Bitcoin's commodity status and banks' lending authority into law. Bitcoin-backed lending would let large holders borrow at bank rates instead of triggering a taxable sale, but the same structure works in reverse when prices fall, as happened in 2022 when Celsius, BlockFi and Voyager collapsed under forced selling, and the shift remains early since Deutsche Bank has not launched custody yet, let alone lending.
Coinbase CEO Says AI Agents Will Need Their Own Financial Infrastructure
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said AI agents will need their own financial infrastructure, telling Scott Melker that the company has built a set of tools for the agentic economy. Armstrong said the existing payment rails are sometimes not sufficient for AI because agents want to move very fast, make payments globally, and in some cases transact in very small amounts. The stack includes the Base blockchain, the USDC stablecoin that Coinbase co-created with Circle, and the X402 protocol, which Coinbase created and which is now under the Linux Foundation in collaboration with Google, AWS, CloudFlare and others. He said X402 allows agents to pay each other in real time instantly all over the world, even in very small transaction amounts like a couple of cents at a time, which traditional payment rails do not really support. Armstrong also said Coinbase has been able to bring perpetual futures products to the US under this administration, calling them a pretty killer app in the trading world, and that he expects a future not too far off in which more agents transact in the economy than humans.