XRP price surged to $1.54 during a wider market rebound, leaving the token roughly 10% higher over the week.
Bitcoin price held above $84,000, while Ether traded near $2,680. The moves came as regulators offered fresh crypto guidance.
CLARITY Act failure shifts attention to SEC The Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act earlier this month, leaving its proposed market rules stalled. 2nd Session On September 25, SEC staff published answers addressing token buybacks, staking receipts, network maintenance, and promotional claims.
Staff said buybacks involving nonsecurity tokens on functional networks do not necessarily signal promised managerial work.
BREAKING: 🇺🇸 The SEC starts bringing crypto clarity after the CLARITY Act failed to pass.
Details include:
• Token buybacks on working protocols aren’t seen as management
• Liquid staking tokens are digital commodities, not securities
Certain staking receipts may qualify as digital tools or commodities, depending on how they are issued. Routine upgrades and promotion of existing uses may also fall outside investment contract analysis. The staff guidance carries no legal force and does not directly classify XRP.
Kalshi Traders Forecast XRP Could Reach $1.70 in September The XRP forecast shown by Kalshi stands at $1.70 for September, up $0.10 from its previous reading. The figure reflects traders’ positions on how high XRP could climb before September ends.
Kalshi data Kalshi lists a separate contract for XRP rising above $1.70 by September 30. kalshi.com. That outcome remains uncertain because market odds shift as new trades arrive. The forecast signals interest in further gains, but it does not guarantee a rally.
XRP ETFs Attract $22.65 Million as Bitwise Leads Inflows The five U.S. spot XRP ETFs recorded $22.65 million in net inflows on September 25, according to SoSoValue. Bitwise led with $18.39 million, accounting for about 81% of the daily total. Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ followed with $4.26 million, while three other products recorded no net movement.
XRP ETF The additions lifted cumulative net inflows to $1.79 billion and combined net assets to $1.77 billion. Total assets represented 1.80% of XRP’s market capitalization. Trading value across the five products reached $57.75 million, including $37.07 million from Bitwise.
Will XRP Price Hold $1.50 Support Level? The XRP Price surged to $1.60 this week before easing to $1.5535 by 08:41 UTC Saturday.
The four-hour chart places immediate resistance at $1.60, where recent advances stalled. A sustained break above that level could bring $1.65 into view, followed by $1.70.
Support sits near $1.50, which steadied the pullback after September 23. A close below $1.50 could expose $1.45 and weaken the recovery from mid-September.
XRP/USDT The four-hour RSI stood at 52, above its neutral midpoint of 50. The MACD line, however, was below the signal line, which indicates that the market momentum is weakening in the short term.
Analysis: As global debt continues to rise, Bitcoin benefits from the declining purchasing power of fiat currencies.
According to Forbes, Bitcoin briefly neared $90,000 earlier this month. Meanwhile, global debt continues to climb, and "currency devaluation trades" focused on the declining purchasing power of fiat currencies have emerged as one of the factors driving up assets like Bitcoin and gold. Data from the Institute of International Finance (IIF) shows global debt rose by $10 trillion in the first half of this year, pushing the total above $365 trillion. U.S. debt has exceeded $40 trillion, with annual interest payments hitting $1.27 trillion—surpassing spending on defense and Medicaid, and trailing only Social Security expenditures. The IIF warns interest costs will rise further as benchmark rates increase. Nic Puckrin, founder and cross-asset analyst at The Coin Bureau, said the current environment favors "devaluation assets" such as Bitcoin and gold, which is part of the reason for Bitcoin’s recent rally. The larger major economies’ debt loads, the more likely they are to suppress real borrowing costs and let inflation erode debt’s real value, boosting the appeal of such trades. Analysts at The Kobeissi Letter point out the U.S. dollar’s purchasing power has fallen 23% since 2020; if assets have only risen 30% over the same period, investors are essentially breaking even when adjusted for real purchasing power. U.S. inflation has stayed above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target for 60 consecutive months.
10 minutes ago
CZ: Does not oppose Hyperliquid, welcomes more DEXes to compete.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) told the "When Shift Happens" podcast that he does not oppose Hyperliquid and welcomes more centralized and decentralized exchanges to pursue innovation, noting the crypto industry is far from saturated. Zhao estimated that roughly 5% to 15% of the global population holds some crypto asset, but when measured as a share of individual wealth, crypto penetration is less than 1%, meaning the sector remains in its early stages. CZ added that some Hyperliquid community members are attempting to build their own communities by criticizing centralized exchanges and Binance, but he views this as normal competition and has no objections to the project. He also noted that former U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent mention of Hyperliquid is a positive development for the industry, with assets including HYPE, BNB, and Bitcoin all poised to benefit from the sector’s overall growth. Additionally, CZ pointed out that first movers do not always emerge as the biggest long-term winners, citing examples like Google, Facebook, and Binance—none of which were the first products in their respective fields, and later entrants often optimize on the foundation laid by pioneers. Despite holding large stakes in Binance and significant BNB holdings, centralized exchanges represent only a portion of his asset allocation; rather than focusing on expanding a single platform, he prioritizes driving the growth of the entire crypto industry.
10 minutes ago
Bitget CEO: Formally Requests THORChain to Deny Services to Attacker Addresses
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen posted that attacker addresses linked to the exchange’s security incident have been made public and are under ongoing tracking. Bitget is now formally requesting THORChain to deny services to these addresses. “Decentralization is a design principle, and it should not serve as a shield to facilitate the flow of known stolen funds,” Chen said. She added that the entire cryptocurrency industry is monitoring THORChain’s handling of the matter.
10 minutes ago
A trader made over $320,000 in profits trading MASK within two days, with a return rate of 318%.
According to Lookonchain's monitoring, trader "OuterHeavyBat" made over $320,000 in profits from MASK in just 48 hours, with a return rate of 318%.
10 minutes ago
Early $AAVE whale sells 30,000 tokens ($4.41M) at $147 average price
An early $AAVE whale sold 30,000 $AAVE ($4.41M) at an average price of $147 over the past 2 days.
Bitget will resume crypto withdrawals gradually following a security lapse in which it lost approximately USD 351.6 million from some of its hot and warm wallets.
Bitget Crypto Withdrawals To Return In Four Stages The platform added that the withdrawals will resume slowly once they have implemented more security checks. Bitcoin withdrawals will be reopened first on 28 September at 08:00 UTC.
Meanwhile, withdrawals in Ethereum will resume on September 29. The withdrawal of USDT is scheduled to take place on September 30. The rest of the tokens, fiat and P2P should restore by October 2.
Bitget stated that the exploit that was used in an attack has been discovered and patched. It is now undergoing additional testing throughout the withdrawal system, by its security and technical teams.
“The vulnerability involved in the incident has been identified and remediated,” Bitget wrote on X.
The exchange said that the suspension from the withdrawal was a precautionary measure for security reasons. It emphasized that the balances of customers have not been impacted despite the humongous $352 million Bitget hack on Thursday, September 24.
“The temporary withdrawal pause remains a security measure and is not related to the availability of user assets,” Bitget said.
Bitget also said its Protection Fund will cover the financial damage from the incident. The CEO Gracy Chen earlier revealed that it has more than $464 million in the fund.
Bitget will begin resuming withdrawals in orderly phases following the security incident on Sep 24. Thank you all for your patience. Please understand that due to the different nature of this incident (which involves multiple blockchains and multiple cryptocurrencies), we are… https://t.co/XfdPsIIRiR
— Gracy Chen @Bitget (@GracyBitget) September 26, 2026
However, it’s important to note that the breach only affected parts of Bitget’s hot and warm wallet infrastructure. Hence, the cold wallets remained secure, according to Chen. Thus, trading and deposits also remain operational on the crypto exchange.
Circle, Tether Freeze $318K Linked To Hack Meanwhile, the stablecoin issuers have taken steps to freeze a small fraction of the stolen money. The address names “Bitget Exploiter 8” has been blacklisted by Circle and Tether. The move froze 218,023 USDT and 99,990 USDC. Their combined assets were approximately $318,000.
Chen expressed his gratitude to both companies for their prompt response. “Every address frozen matters,” she wrote.
She also announced that Bitget has the Recovery Bounty Program. The exchange is providing a 5% discount when it comes to freezing attacker-controlled funds, and a 5% asset recovery discount.
Thank you to Circle and Tether for moving quickly. Every address frozen matters.
To the broader community: Bitget's Recovery Bounty Program is live — 5% for freezing attacker funds, 5% for recovery. Every exchange, security researcher, and onchain investigator can make a… https://t.co/UrFjceBL49
— Gracy Chen @Bitget (@GracyBitget) September 26, 2026
The embezzled crypto stack contained a significant number of XRP tokens. Almost $157.5 million in XRP was reportedly siphoned off, which was the largest amount of assets stolen in this incident. Ethereum was also one of the big assets seized.
The attackers allegedly transferred the funds among several networks and swapped some of their holdings in ETH.
Bitget has said the incident is contained. It also said any additional unauthorized transfers are no longer possible.
Mandiant and SlowMist are helping with the investigation. Bitget claimed that its users would not be required to do anything before withdrawals are re-opened.
“Withdrawal availability will be reflected directly on the Bitget platform,” the crypto exchange added.
There has also been a suggestion that the Lazarus Group, which is linked to the North Korean government, may have been involved by Chen and some blockchain experts. The attribution is still being investigated.
Bitget has annoucne to reopen crypto withdrawals after a $387.5 million security breach that forced the exchange to suspend the service. Bitcoin withdrawals will resume first on September 28, followed by Ethereum and USDT, while XRP and other assets are expected to return by October 2.
Alongside the withdrawal restart, Bitget has also launched a recovery bounty program, offering rewards totaling up to 10%.
Bitget Schedule Phased Withdrawal Resumption Bitget will resume withdrawals in phases to manage liquidity and avoid sudden pressure on its network. The first phase will begin on September 28 at 08:00 UTC (1:30 PM IST), when Bitcoin withdrawals will reopen on the native Bitcoin network.
Bitget will begin resuming withdrawals in orderly phases following the security incident identified on September 24.
The vulnerability involved in the incident has been identified and remediated.
Bitget's security and technical teams have since been conducting additional… https://t.co/VZu59GnLAN
— Bitget (@bitget) September 26, 2026 On September 29, Ethereum withdrawals will resume across Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum, Base and Optimism. USDT withdrawals will follow on September 30 across Ethereum, BSC, Solana and Tron.
Finally, on October 2, withdrawals for other assets such as XRP, BNB and AVAX, along with fiat currencies and P2P settlements, will return to normal.
Why Withdrawals Paused but Deposits ContinuedBitget CEO Gracy Chen said the temporary withdrawal pause was a security measure and did not affect users’ account balances.
Bitget initially estimated the affected assets at $351.6 million. After further tracking, the exchange raised the figure to around $387.5 million, adding assets on Zcash and TRON that were missing from the first estimate.
The exchange said the security issue has been fixed and no further unauthorized transfers are possible. However, withdrawals were paused as an extra safety step while the platform completed its security review.
Deposits and other exchange services continued during the review because incoming deposits did not pose a threat to the platform’s core systems.
Bitget Launches Recovery Bounty Program With 10% RewardsAs withdrawals begin to resume, Bitget has also launched an Asset Recovery Bounty Program offering up to 10% in total rewards. The program offers 5% for helping freeze stolen funds and another 5% if those efforts lead to their recovery.
Thank you to Circle and Tether for moving quickly. Every address frozen matters.
To the broader community: Bitget's Recovery Bounty Program is live — 5% for freezing attacker funds, 5% for recovery. Every exchange, security researcher, and onchain investigator can make a… https://t.co/UrFjceBL49
— Gracy Chen @Bitget (@GracyBitget) September 26, 2026 Circle and Tether have already frozen 218,023 USDT and 99,990 USDC, worth about $318,000 combined, from an address linked to the attacker.
However, more stolen assets remain under investigation.
Data shows that attacker-linked wallets still hold more than 63,000 ETH, worth around $183 million, which cannot be frozen by stablecoin issuers. Even more than 102 million stolen XRP tokens, worth about $157.48 million, also remain in circulation.
Story Ends Here
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Bitget CEO: Formally Requests THORChain to Deny Services to Attacker Addresses
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen posted that attacker addresses linked to the exchange’s security incident have been made public and are under ongoing tracking. Bitget is now formally requesting THORChain to deny services to these addresses. “Decentralization is a design principle, and it should not serve as a shield to facilitate the flow of known stolen funds,” Chen said. She added that the entire cryptocurrency industry is monitoring THORChain’s handling of the matter.
1 hours ago
A trader made over $320,000 in profits trading MASK within two days, with a return rate of 318%.
According to Lookonchain's monitoring, trader "OuterHeavyBat" made over $320,000 in profits from MASK in just 48 hours, with a return rate of 318%.
1 hours ago
A crypto whale sold 30,000 AAVE tokens over the past two days, worth approximately $4.41 million.
According to Lookonchain’s monitoring, an early AAVE whale sold 30,000 AAVE over the past two days at an average price of $147, totaling approximately $4.41 million.
1 hours ago
An address spent $3,207 to purchase 10 million PAID tokens 10 days ago, delivering a return of over 134 times.
According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa), wallet address 4RS3H…Ldq2Z purchased 10 million PAID tokens 10 days ago for $3,207, at an average cost of just $0.0003197 per token. With PAID hitting an all-time high today, the address is now sitting on an unrealized profit of roughly $437,000, representing a return of over 13,493% on its holdings.
Researchers proposed Shielded Bitcoin, a system modeled on Zcash that could conceal payment amounts, senders and recipients without changing Bitcoin’s network rules.The proposal would store encrypted transfers on Bitcoin but rely on separate software to verify them, meaning a Bitcoin transaction could be confirmed even if the private payment failed its own checks.The research remains preliminary, with no launch date or mechanism for depositing and withdrawing bitcoin, while critics also cite visible fees, higher transaction costs and reliance on a trusted cryptographic setup.A group of researchers have floated a way to make bitcoin payments more private without changing the network’s rules, as privacy-focused cryptocurrencies led by Zcash attract renewed investor interest.
The Shielded Bitcoin paper, published on Thursday by Clara Shikhelman, Mikhail Komarov and Aleksei Moskvin of cryptography firm [alloc] init, borrows the encrypted payment design used by Zcash.
Inside the proposed system, bitcoin-denominated value would be held in encrypted records called notes. Spending one would publish a marker showing it had been used, along with a mathematical proof that the sender owned the funds and had not created new ones. The amount, sender and recipient would remain hidden.
Under Bitcoin's current system, every node checks every transaction against one shared rulebook. A payment that breaks those rules never makes it into a block, so a confirmation is proof the network agreed the money was real and the sender owned it.
Zcash enforces its private payment rules inside its own blockchain, so a confirmed Zcash transaction has already passed them. Shielded Bitcoin would publish the transfer data on Bitcoin and leave the checking to separate software anyone could run. A Bitcoin transaction could therefore be confirmed while the private payment recorded inside it failed Shielded Bitcoin's checks.
The paper comes as privacy has become a practical concern in recent months as developers try to make cryptocurrencies useful for payroll, business payments and everyday spending.
Ordinary bitcoin transactions permanently expose amounts and addresses, but once an address is linked to a company or person, other payments associated with it become easier to follow.
Shielded Bitcoin would keep the encrypted transfer data on Bitcoin so users could reconstruct accepted payments from the public record using their wallet keys. Separate viewing keys would allow them to disclose transactions to an accountant or auditor without handing over permission to spend their funds.
Bitcoin would store the data but check nothing. (Shaurya Malwa/Coindesk)How Zcash worksZcash has been the flagbearer of crypto's renewed privacy push. It lets users choose between transparent payments, whose addresses and amounts are public, and shielded payments that encrypt those details.
Its shielded pools held about 4.9 million ZEC on Friday, up 14% from July 30, according to CoinDesk calculations using ZecStats data. That represents roughly 29% of issued coins, worth about $7.8 billion following the rally.
Zcash recorded roughly 63,000 shielded transactions last week, its busiest week for private transfers since 2022 and fourth-highest on record. Across the network, reported transfer volume exceeded $23 billion, the largest weekly total since 2021 and second-highest in its history.
Nearly a third of all ZEC now sits hidden. (Shaurya Malwa/CoinDesk)Zcash has attracted both investor money and attention amid those metrics. By early September, ZEC had gained more than 2,300% over the preceding year and crossed $1,000. It extended the rally above $1,600 on Wednesday.
Bitcoin’s connection to Zcash goes back further than Thursday’s paper. Zcash’s roots can be traced to an experimental idea called ‘Zerocoin,’ which was proposed as a privacy extension to Bitcoin in 2013. Subsequent Zerocash research developed that project into Zcash, which launched as a separate cryptocurrency in 2016.
Unanswered questionsThe 56-page specification does not explain how ordinary BTC would enter that system or be released when someone wanted to withdraw. The authors reserve those mechanisms for a separate paper using PIPEs, a technique designed to lock a Bitcoin signing key until specified conditions are met. Their claim that users retain control of their funds covers transfers inside the system and explicitly excludes deposits and withdrawals.
Meanwhile, the omissions have drawn criticism from developers and Zcash supporters.
Mert Mumtaz, cofounder of Helius, which provides infrastructure for Solana developers, and a Zcash proponent, described the proposal on X as “a synthetic ledger with significant tradeoffs.”
He pointed to “a trusted setup” and “no fee anonymization,” meaning the Bitcoin wallet paying to publish a private transfer could still be visible. He also criticized the absence of a deposit and withdrawal mechanism, writing that there was “no in-protocol mechanism for getting actual BTC in or out (which means you are holding synthetics).”
“I respect that people are working on this and taking notes from zcash finally,” he wrote, adding that the proposal would require years of additional research and development.
Cypherpunk, a company that holds and mines Zcash, welcomed the research but did not perceive it as competition for the existing network. “Privacy works best when built into the base layer. Not requiring Bitcoin changing is this design's biggest selling point, and also its biggest drawback,” the company wrote.
“More privacy on Bitcoin is good for everyone,” the firm added.
Meanwhile, [alloc] init acknowledges several of those limits. Their reference design used in the paper requires a cryptographic setup whose security depends on at least one participant acting honestly. Transfer timing and fee payments remain visible, while an efficient way for lightweight wallets to verify the reconstructed payment history is listed as future work.
12345678910The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific
The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Sep 15, 2026
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Why it matters:
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Researchers proposed Shielded Bitcoin, a system modeled on Zcash that could conceal payment amounts, senders and recipients without changing Bitcoin’s network rules.The proposal would store encrypted transfers on Bitcoin but rely on separate software to verify them, meaning a Bitcoin transaction could be confirmed even if the private payment failed its own checks.The research remains preliminary, with no launch date or mechanism for depositing and withdrawing bitcoin, while critics also cite visible fees, higher transaction costs and reliance on a trusted cryptographic setup.A group of researchers floated a way to make bitcoin payments more private without changing the network’s rules, as privacy-focused cryptocurrencies led by Zcash attract renewed investor interest.
The Shielded Bitcoin paper, published on Thursday by Clara Shikhelman, Mikhail Komarov and Aleksei Moskvin of cryptography firm [alloc] init, borrows the encrypted payment design used by Zcash.
Inside the proposed system, bitcoin-denominated value would be held in encrypted records called notes. Spending one would publish a marker showing it had been used, along with a mathematical proof that the sender owned the funds and had not created new ones. The amount, sender and recipient would remain hidden.
Zcash’s blockchain checks those proofs itself. Shielded Bitcoin would publish the transfer data on Bitcoin and leave the checks to separate software that anyone could run. A Bitcoin transaction could therefore be confirmed while the private payment recorded inside it failed Shielded Bitcoin’s checks.
Privacy has become a practical concern in recent months as developers try to make cryptocurrencies useful for payroll, business payments and everyday spending. Ordinary bitcoin transactions permanently expose amounts and addresses, but once an address is linked to a company or person, other payments associated with it become easier to follow.
Bitcoin would store the data but check nothing. (Shaurya Malwa/Coindesk)Ethereum is also reviewing a proposal for a shared private pool that would let people transfer ether and other tokens without publicly revealing payment details. Its authors cite payroll, treasury management and donations among the uses poorly served by fully public transactions.
How Zcash worksZcash lets users choose between transparent payments, whose addresses and amounts are public, and shielded payments that encrypt those details. Its shielded pools held about 4.9 million ZEC on Friday, up 14% from July 30, according to CoinDesk calculations using ZecStats data. That represents roughly 29% of issued coins, worth about $7.8 billion following the rally.
Zcash recorded roughly 63,000 shielded transactions last week, its busiest week for private transfers since 2022 and fourth-highest on record. Across the network, reported transfer volume exceeded $23 billion, the largest weekly total since 2021 and second-highest in its history.
Nearly a third of all ZEC now sits hidden. (Shaurya Malwa/CoinDesk)Zcash has attracted both investor money and attention amid those metrics. By early September, ZEC had gained more than 2,300% over the preceding year and crossed $1,000. It extended the rally above $1,600 on Wednesday.
The connection to Zcash goes back further than Thursday’s paper. Zerocoin was proposed as a privacy extension to Bitcoin in 2013, the subsequent Zerocash research developed into Zcash, which launched as a separate cryptocurrency in 2016.
Shielded Bitcoin would keep the encrypted transfer data on Bitcoin so users could reconstruct accepted payments from the public record using their wallet keys. Separate viewing keys would allow them to disclose transactions to an accountant or auditor without handing over permission to spend their funds.
Unanswered questionsThe 56-page specification does not explain how ordinary BTC would enter that system or be released when someone wanted to withdraw. The authors reserve those mechanisms for a separate paper using PIPEs, a technique designed to lock a Bitcoin signing key until specified conditions are met. Their claim that users retain control of their funds covers transfers inside the system and explicitly excludes deposits and withdrawals.
Meanwhile, the omissions have drawn criticism from developers and Zcash supporters.
Mert Mumtaz, cofounder of Helius, which provides infrastructure for Solana developers, and a Zcash proponent, described the proposal on X as “a synthetic ledger with significant tradeoffs.”
He pointed to “a trusted setup” and “no fee anonymization,” meaning the Bitcoin wallet paying to publish a private transfer could still be visible. He also criticized the absence of a deposit and withdrawal mechanism, writing that there was “no in-protocol mechanism for getting actual BTC in or out (which means you are holding synthetics).”
“I respect that people are working on this and taking notes from zcash finally,” he wrote, adding that the proposal would require years of additional research and development.
Cypherpunk, a company that holds and mines Zcash, welcomed the research but did not perceive it as competition for the existing network. “Privacy works best when built into the base layer. Not requiring Bitcoin changing is this design's biggest selling point, and also its biggest drawback,” the company wrote.
“More privacy on Bitcoin is good for everyone,” it added.=
Meanwhile, [alloc] init acknowledges several of those limits. Their reference design used in the paper requires a cryptographic setup whose security depends on at least one participant acting honestly. Transfer timing and fee payments remain visible, while an efficient way for lightweight wallets to verify the reconstructed payment history is listed as future work.
Komarov estimated a private transfer at roughly 700 virtual bytes, against 100 to 200 for an ordinary bitcoin transaction, putting miner fees at about four times as much at an equivalent fee rate.
12345678910The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific
The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Sep 15, 2026
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Why it matters:
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
TLDR A research team headed by Clara Shikheman has unveiled a technique for enabling confidential Bitcoin transactions without modifying the network’s consensus protocol. The approach combines mixing mechanisms reminiscent of Tornado Cash with zero-knowledge cryptography to conceal transaction parties and values. Starknet founder Eli Ben-Sasson endorsed the concept, linking it to the foundational Zerocash research that eventually spawned Zcash. Robin Linus, a prominent researcher, cautioned that the underlying cryptographic methods are unproven and lack established security guarantees. Additional skeptics point out potential vulnerabilities to quantum computing attacks. A research collective has introduced an innovative approach to implement confidential transactions on Bitcoin while avoiding any modifications to the network’s core consensus mechanisms. The initiative is spearheaded by Clara Shikheman, who leads Alloc Init, a Bitcoin-focused research organization.
The "Shielded Bitcoin" paper is a great step forward. More privacy on Bitcoin is good for everyone.
Fun fact: Zerocoin, the paper behind Zcash, was first proposed for Bitcoin in 2013. The Bitcoin community passed on it, as zero-knowledge proofs were still immature.
But the…
— Cypherpunk (@cypherpunk) September 24, 2026
The proposal focuses on obscuring the identities of transaction participants and the amounts being transferred. It achieves this through mixing techniques comparable to those employed by Tornado Cash, combined with zero-knowledge proof technology.
Technical Mechanics of the Privacy System According to the proposal, users would deposit their Bitcoin into cryptographically encrypted notes. These notes could then be transferred through the system using zero-knowledge proofs, which prevent transaction details from being publicly visible on the blockchain.
Upon withdrawal, users receive their Bitcoin at a fresh address. This effectively severs the observable connection between the initial wallet and the final receiving address.
Shikheman emphasized that the design requires no soft forks, no bridging mechanisms, and no reliance on external operators. She noted that the research team devoted significant effort to analyzing what metadata the system might still leak despite its privacy protections.
She acknowledged that the current version is preliminary, with substantial additional development planned for the future.
Eli Ben-Sasson, who co-founded Starknet and contributed to pioneering zero-knowledge proof research, expressed support for the initiative. He pointed to the Zerocash whitepaper, which preceded the launch of Zcash, noting that its creators originally intended to integrate privacy capabilities directly into Bitcoin.
Ben-Sasson stated his hope to see that original vision of combining privacy with scalability realized on Bitcoin’s main layer.
The Case for Blockchain Privacy Blockchains like Bitcoin operate as transparent, public ledgers. This means anyone can examine wallet addresses, view their balances, and trace their complete transaction histories.
This transparency limitation has historically driven some users toward alternatives like Zcash, which provides shielded transaction functionality. The desire for privacy doesn’t necessarily indicate malicious intent.
Even routine transactions, such as purchasing groceries, can inadvertently reveal a user’s entire financial portfolio when conducted on transparent blockchains. Advocates for privacy-enhanced systems argue this creates unwarranted personal security vulnerabilities.
Incidents involving physical violence and kidnapping targeting cryptocurrency holders have risen in frequency. Several documented cases have been facilitated by information gleaned from public blockchain data.
Proponents of this new privacy proposal contend that implementing such features could meaningfully reduce these dangers for ordinary Bitcoin users.
However, the research hasn’t received universal acceptance. Robin Linus, a respected researcher, emphasized that the cryptographic foundations of this approach are still experimental in nature.
Linus stressed that the security model underpinning the system lacks rigorous testing and formal verification. While not outright rejecting the concept, he advocated for careful scrutiny before considering it production-ready.
Additional detractors have highlighted potential weaknesses against future quantum computing advances. This represents a widespread concern affecting numerous existing cryptographic protocols.
Nonetheless, the proposal has reignited important discussions about enhancing privacy on the Bitcoin network. Its eventual adoption will hinge on extensive testing and peer review from the broader Bitcoin research ecosystem.
Currently, the initiative remains in early-stage research, with its creators characterizing this release as merely an initial foundation.
U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds took in $2.39 billion during the Sep. 21–25 trading week, with net inflows on all five days. Spot Ether ETFs added $689.8 million, while Solana funds drew $188.1 million.
Summary
Bitcoin ETFs recorded $2.39 billion in weekly net inflows, led by a $999 million Monday. BlackRock’s IBIT drew $1.16 billion, the most among Bitcoin funds. Ether ETFs added $689.8 million across five positive sessions. Solana ETF inflows reached $188.1 million, with $86.7 million arriving Friday. According to Farside Investors, Monday’s $999 million was the largest daily Bitcoin ETF inflow of the week. The funds then added $714.7 million on Tuesday, $346.9 million on Wednesday, $190.7 million on Thursday and $134.5 million on Friday.
BlackRock leads Bitcoin ETF inflows BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, or IBIT, collected $1.16 billion over the five sessions, based on Farside’s daily fund figures. Fidelity’s FBTC followed with $701.6 million, while ARK 21Shares’ ARKB added $294.7 million. Morgan Stanley’s MSBT drew $203.3 million.
Monday accounted for nearly $1 billion of the Bitcoin funds’ $2.39 billion weekly total. IBIT received $381.4 million that day, while ARKB took in $289.1 million and FBTC added $238.8 million. Tuesday brought another $350.3 million to IBIT and $257.4 million to FBTC.
The pace slowed later in the week, but the combined funds remained positive through Friday. IBIT posted an inflow on every trading day. The weekly total also exceeded the prior week’s roughly $6.1 million net inflow, which included sharp withdrawals on Sep. 15 and 16 before flows recovered.
Bitcoin’s price moved above $87,000 earlier in the week before pulling back. crypto.news reported on Friday that BTC was holding near $84,000 despite continued ETF inflows. The fund data show sustained net buying through the price retreat; they do not establish how much of the price move came from ETF demand.
Ether funds reverse the previous week’s outflow U.S. spot Ether ETFs recorded $689.8 million in net inflows from Sep. 21 through Sep. 25, according to Farside’s Ether data. The funds added $270 million on Monday, followed by $162.2 million, $104.5 million, $66.1 million, and $87 million over the next four sessions.
The result reversed the previous week’s roughly $140.6 million net outflow. BlackRock’s ETHA led this week’s gains with $326.2 million, while Fidelity’s FETH took in $174.1 million. BlackRock’s staking fund ETHB added $47.5 million.
Monday’s $270 million was Ether ETFs’ strongest day of the week. ETHA received $110.1 million, FETH added $73 million, and Grayscale’s lower-fee ETH fund drew $59.3 million. Daily inflows became smaller as the week progressed, though the group finished each session in positive territory.
Solana ETFs finish with their strongest day Spot Solana ETFs drew $188.1 million for the week, based on Farside’s Solana figures. Their daily net inflows were $26 million on Monday, $28.9 million on Tuesday, $13.7 million on Wednesday, $32.8 million on Thursday, and $86.7 million on Friday.
Bitwise’s BSOL accounted for $128.4 million of the weekly total. It received $55.7 million on Friday, when Grayscale’s GSOL added $18.5 million, and Morgan Stanley’s MSOL took in $6 million.
Across the Bitcoin, Ether and Solana products tracked in Farside’s three tables, net inflows totaled approximately $3.26 billion for Sep. 21–25. Bitcoin funds accounted for about 73% of that combined figure.
Bitcoin has gained about 3.8% over seven days as U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have drawn $2.39 billion this week, while Quant, Ethena and Bitway have led the 100 largest crypto assets by weekly price gain.
Summary
Quant rose 61.8% after The Clearing House selected it for a U.S. tokenized-deposit network. Ethena gained 54.1% as it expanded USDe’s backing strategy into tokenized stocks and equity futures. Bitway climbed 48.0%, although a sharp daily reversal put its weekly advance under pressure. Bitcoin held near $84,000 after reaching an eight-month high above $87,000 earlier in the week. According to CoinGecko, Bitcoin traded near $84,077 on Sep. 26, and the total crypto market value stood near $2.98 trillion. Quant (QNT) ranked first among the top 100 seven-day gainers at 61.8%, followed by Ethena (ENA) at 54.1% and Bitway (BTW) at 48.0%. The rankings use rolling seven-day price changes, so the figures can change during the weekend.
Bitcoin ETF inflows set the market backdrop U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows on all five trading days from Sep. 21 through Sep. 25, according to Farside Investors. The funds drew $999 million on Monday and $714.7 million on Tuesday, followed by $346.9 million, $190.7 million and $134.5 million over the next three sessions. Combined inflows reached about $2.39 billion.
Bitcoin reached $87,392 on Sep. 21 before retreating toward $84,000. In a report on ETF demand published Sep. 24, crypto.news quoted BTCS S.A. strategy adviser Wojciech Kaszycki, who said cash entering spot funds supported the initial price rise while futures positions also increased. He put the next major test near $90,000 if buying continued.
CoinGecko’s seven-day figures showed a much larger move in the three leading tokens than in Bitcoin. Each also had a separate development or trading pattern behind its advance, leaving different price levels in focus for the coming week.
Quant tests $106 after clearing $100 Quant traded near $104.48 in the CoinGecko snapshot, giving it the strongest seven-day return among the 100 largest assets. On Sep. 24, The Clearing House announced that it had selected Quant to power its On-Chain Money Initiative in the United States.
Quant will provide technology to connect banks and coordinate the clearing and settlement of tokenized-deposit transactions. The Clearing House said the network will also connect with payment systems already used by financial institutions, including RTP and CHIPS. It expects the service to become available to participating banks in the first half of 2027.
The U.S. selection follows Quant’s work on a separate British bank project. On Sep. 24, six UK institutions completed live customer transactions through the Great British Tokenised Deposit initiative, which Quant supported alongside EY and Linklaters. The British project tested payments involving customers at different banks.
On the TradingView daily chart, QNT rose through the Murrey Math $100 level and traded around $104.57. Its Average Directional Index stood at 39.13, indicating a strong trend after the steep advance. Price reached $108 during the session before easing below the chart’s $106.25 overshoot level.
Quant price daily chart — Sep. 26 | Source: TradingView A move back above $106.25 would put $112.50 in focus, followed by $118.75 if buyers sustain the advance. If QNT falls below $100, the breakout would face a more demanding test at $93.75, the next marked level on the daily chart.
Ethena approaches $0.28 with RSI near 80 Ethena’s ENA traded near $0.2781 on CoinGecko after gaining 54.1% over seven days. On Sep. 25, the protocol said it would add tokenized U.S. stocks and corresponding equity perpetual futures on Binance to part of the strategy used to back its USDe synthetic dollar.
As reported on Sep. 25, Ethena plans to hold Binance bStocks for stock exposure and take offsetting positions in equity perpetuals. Ethena said Binance’s equity perpetual market had more than $2.9 billion in open interest. The stock-linked positions add another market for a strategy the protocol has also used with crypto assets.
Ethena Labs founder Guy Young called it “the most significant expansion of USDe’s funding mechanism since we started.” The company said its Risk Committee had approved a framework for the stock-based trades.
The strategy involves tokenized U.S. equities, but Binance’s bStocks offering is available to eligible users where permitted by local law. Binance’s original bStocks launch included tokens linked to Nvidia, Tesla, Circle, Micron, and Sandisk shares. The tokens provide stock-linked exposure without the voting rights held by direct shareholders.
On the TradingView daily chart, ENA traded around $0.2756 after touching $0.2807. Price stood above its 20-day moving average at $0.1808, its 50-day average at $0.1491, its 100-day average at $0.1160, and its 200-day average at $0.1082. Daily RSI reached 79.85, above the commonly watched 70 level.
Ethena price daily chart — Sep. 26 | Source: TradingView A move above $0.2807 would extend the latest breakout. The day’s $0.2632 low is the first level to watch on a pullback; below it, the earlier $0.22–$0.23 trading area would come back into view. Ethena’s fee-switch proposal links future ENA buybacks to USDe supply thresholds, starting at $7.5 billion, rather than providing an immediate buyback at the supply level cited in the proposal.
Bitway’s reversal puts $0.76 in focus Bitway traded near $0.9032 on CoinGecko, up 48.0% for the rolling seven-day period. Its daily TradingView chart showed a much sharper move within that window: BTW reached $1.3661 before falling to about $0.9033, with the session’s low at $0.7620.
Earlier in the week, on-chain analyst Ai Yi reported that a new address withdrew 5 million BTW, worth about $3.71 million at the time, from Gate. Other reports of the analyst’s findings put the combined withdrawals by three new addresses at 15 million BTW within three hours. The transfers occurred during the rally, but the transactions alone do not establish who controlled the wallets or why BTW’s price rose.
Bitway also has a staking program running from Sep. 1 to Oct. 1, with an 8% stated annual rate on USDT and an additional 3% offered in BW Points. Its earlier incentive programs were covered in an August Bitway price report after the token rose sharply that month.
The latest daily candle leaves BTW below the Bollinger upper band near $1.1513 but above its middle band near $0.7121. Regaining $1.00 and then $1.1513 would bring the $1.30–$1.37 area back into focus. A fall through the $0.7620 daily low would put the $0.7121 middle band next on the chart.
Bitway price daily chart — Sep. 26 | Source: TradingView Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
CryptoQuant: Bitcoin's unrealized profits and take-profit volumes rise in tandem, market faces correction risk.
CryptoQuant Research Head Julio Moreno stated that amid Bitcoin’s recent rally, the market’s unrealized profit rate climbed to 33%, reaching its highest level since December 2024. At the same time, Bitcoin’s take-profit volume rose to 25,700 BTC, marking the highest level since 2026. Moreno pointed out that the simultaneous increase in the unrealized profit rate and take-profit volume typically signals that the current upward momentum is weakening, leaving the market facing a correction risk.
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US SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce to Step Down on October 2nd
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner Hester Peirce has officially submitted her resignation and will step down on October 2. Peirce, who has served at the SEC for approximately 8 years, is known in the industry as the "Crypto Mom" for her longstanding advocacy of establishing a clear, rule-based regulatory framework for the crypto sector. Since February 4, 2025, Peirce has also served as head of the SEC’s Crypto Working Group, driving research into how existing securities laws apply to digital assets and decentralized systems. Her term as an SEC commissioner expired in June 2025, but under relevant regulations, she may continue serving for approximately 18 months until a successor is appointed. Peirce is expected to join the Regent University School of Law in Virginia in November as an associate professor, where she will conduct teaching and research in areas including federal litigation, securities regulation, and digital assets. Following her departure, the SEC will temporarily have only two Republican members: Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda, and the seat she is vacating may not be filled immediately.
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Ansem: Airdrops remain a key catalyst for driving trading activity back on-chain.
Crypto trader Ansem stated that airdrops remain one of the strongest catalysts driving users and trading activity back on-chain. During the previous market cycle, trading terminals recorded massive trading volumes, yet many of these platforms have still not offered rewards to their users. Ansem argues that as competition between platforms to secure traders intensifies, rewarding early users will prove an effective means of building user loyalty and retaining liquidity. Past experience demonstrates that well-timed airdrops can unlock substantial on-chain activity, and he anticipates this strategy will reemerge in the current cycle.
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Ten days after Arc’s mainnet launch, its DeFi total value locked (TVL) exceeds $490 million, with a 44.52% growth over the past week.
According to DefiLlama data, Circle's public chain Arc has reached $494 million in DeFi total value locked (TVL) 10 days after its mainnet launch. It grew 44.52% over the past week, ranking first in growth rate among top blockchains. In terms of DEX trading volume, the network recorded $55 million in trading volume in the past 24 hours.
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A trader went long on NEAR worth $28.48 million, with an unrealized profit of $14.74 million currently.
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, trader MK4 (@mk4_lul) currently holds open positions worth $43.63 million, with an unrealized profit of approximately $12.95 million. His largest position is a long NEAR trade: ? Holding 5.84 million NEAR tokens, valued at roughly $28.48 million; ? Average entry price: $2.35; ? Unrealized profit: ~$14.74 million; ? Cumulative historical profit and loss: ~$57.04 million (from spot and perpetual contracts).
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Vitalik Buterin tests a mobile offline knowledge app, aiming to enable offline queries of all world facts.
Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin wrote in a post that he is testing a community-developed offline local knowledge application for mobile devices. The app works significantly better than the version he built himself two months ago, though it still lags behind models running on laptops in solving challenging problems. His evaluations included queries such as "the best vegan restaurant in my current city"—notably, all such apps currently perform poorly on travel-specific questions. Buterin thanked the relevant developers, expressing anticipation for further improvements and hoping to soon be able to query any world facts he cares about without an internet connection.
Bitcoin’s pullback from $87k seems to have not negatively impacted institutional investors’ sentiment. In fact, BTC Spot ETFs have recorded net inflow for six consecutive sessions.
BlackRock’s IBIT adds $166 million as inflows extend to 6 sessions Onchain Lens reported that BlackRock’s IBIT accumulated 1.97K BTC worth $166 million from Coinbase Prime.
BlackRock’s IBIT has been aggressively accumulating. AMBCrypto earlier reported that the fund recorded over $1 billion in Inflows for four consecutive sessions.
Even after Bitcoin [BTC] dropped to $82k, investors continued to get exposure through the ETF. That said, BlackRock’s spree is not an isolated case. As this is a part of broader renewed demand from other ETFs.
Source: Sosovalue In as much, BTC Spot ETFs have recorded net inflows for six consecutive sessions between September 17th and 24th. These funds recorded a total of $2.8 billion in inflows over the period.
The continued net inflows suggest that ETFs have jumped in even to buy the dips. In doing so, they absorbed market pressure.
In fact , on September 24th trading session, only WisdomTree’s (BTCW) recorded outflows, seeing $4 million in net outflows. This points to strong optimism, with investors expecting the trend to hold.
Source: Cryptoquant With these funds buying, they have pulled a significant share of supply on Exchanges. As a result, Exchange Netflow has remained negative for four consecutive days , coinciding ETFs inflows.
Historically, since ETFs came around in 2024, strong periods of net inflows have preceded better price performances on BTC charts.
One major hurdle remains for Bitcoin Bitcoin ETFs are now buying, which gives hope for the market. But it does not mean all institutions are buying. US institutional investors remain adamant and , with the majority dumping.
A look at Bitcoin’s Coinbase Premium Index, the metric has remained negative for three consecutive days. At press time, CPI sat around -0.02.
Source: Cryptoquant With the index holding negative, it suggest most institutional investors are yet to start buying, while other cash out recent gains.
Previously, Bitcoin has relied on both ETFs recording net inflows, and Coinbase Premium index positive. We cannot confirm the transition into a bullish phase until, the two holds true.
Until then, Bitcoin will continue to fluctuate, with every uptick, followed by a pullback, as the stability lacks on this side. If it happens so, BTC will be strong enough to reclaim $87k, flip $90k, and eye to extend the rally.
Final summary BlackRock’s IBIT purchased 1.97K BTC worth $166 million as ETFs recorded net inflows for six consecutive sessions. Bitcoin’s Coinbase Premium Index still remains negative, suggesting institutions are not fully convinced.
Hackers from North Korea targeted crypto exchange Bitget on Thursday, according to an update from the CEO, making away with close to $388 million in digital assets — more than originally reported.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said Friday that the higher figure “reflects a more complete accounting of transfers during the incident.” Chen had first reported that over $350 million had been moved.
Security firms first flagged unauthorized transactions from the Victoria, Seychelles-based exchange’s hot wallets on Thursday before the company announced it had frozen withdrawals.
Bitget is the sixth biggest crypto exchange, processing over $1 billion in trading volume per day, according to CoinGecko data.
“Based on IP behavior patterns and on-chain analysis, the attack method in this incident is highly consistent with known patterns of North Korean hacker organizations,” Chen wrote on X on Friday.
She added: “Our goal is to complete a full recovery as soon as possible. We will announce the specific time window immediately upon confirmation.”
In a security update, the exchange said it identified the digital assets stolen, which mostly included ethereum, tron, and USDT stablecoin — and no bitcoin. But a stolen funds tracker does show that the attacker has over $28.8 million in the leading cryptocurrency.
Crypto stealing criminals — especially from North Korea — have become more sophisticated and faster since last year. Experts have said that the use of artificial intelligence tools is allowing cyber crooks to work more efficiently.
U.S. authorities have long alleged that hacking groups with ties to the North Korea’s government, such as Lazarus, steal from crypto exchanges.
Crypto security is in the limelight after a string of breaches this year have the community reeling. Just in July, hackers targeted a firmware bug in the popular bitcoin hardware wallet, Coldcard, to steal nearly $120 million in user funds.
And this month, purported white-hat hackers withdrew about 4,000 bitcoins — worth about $320 million at the time — from Blockstream’s Liquid sidechain’s federation wallet. They then returned 85% and demanded to keep the rest as ransom days later.
Mathew Di Salvo
Mathew is a reporter who's covered the space since 2019, reporting on everything from Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele's Bitcoin bet to crypto exchange FTX's bankruptcy.
PayPal has hit pause on cryptocurrency purchases for its European users in Luxembourg, effective June 25, 2026. The culprit: a new international tax reporting framework that requires the company to collect and verify detailed customer information before it can legally facilitate new buy orders.
The temporary freeze applies specifically to new purchases of Bitcoin and other crypto assets through PayPal’s platform in Luxembourg. Users who already hold crypto in their PayPal accounts can still sell or manage those positions. They just can’t add to them for now.
What CARF actually requires The Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, or CARF, is the OECD’s answer to a simple question: how do you tax something that moves across borders as easily as an email? Developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, CARF creates a standardized way for countries to share information about crypto transactions, much like the Common Reporting Standard already does for traditional bank accounts.
Luxembourg has now written CARF into local law, which means any company facilitating crypto transactions there needs to collect specific data from its customers. That includes account holder addresses, tax identification numbers where applicable, and classifications of account entities.
All of that information ultimately gets reported to Luxembourg’s tax authority, the Administration des Contributions Directes (ACD). The ACD can then share that data with tax authorities in other jurisdictions.
The requirements apply to both new and existing PayPal accounts. That means even longtime users will need to provide additional documentation as part of updated onboarding procedures.
Why PayPal chose to pause rather than patch The company has said it expects to resume crypto purchases by the end of 2026. That timeline suggests PayPal views this as a months-long engineering and compliance project, not a quick fix. The gap between the June 25 freeze and a projected late-2026 resumption gives the company roughly six months to build out the necessary systems.
It’s worth noting what this pause is not. It’s not a withdrawal from crypto. It’s not a signal that PayPal is souring on digital assets. And it’s not a market-wide disruption. The freeze is geographically contained to Luxembourg, and users retain full control over assets they already hold on the platform.
The bigger picture for crypto regulation Luxembourg’s implementation of CARF is not happening in isolation. The framework was designed for broad international adoption, and the European Union has already embedded it into its DAC8 directive, which updates the bloc’s rules on administrative cooperation in taxation.
For investors, the immediate impact is negligible. There have been no reported price effects or broader market disruptions tied to PayPal’s announcement. Luxembourg, while an important financial hub, represents a fraction of global crypto trading volume.
Disclosure: This article was edited by John Chen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
MSCI is consulting on a new index eligibility screen for companies it considers non-operating. The August 2026 proposal is not a Bitcoin-only exclusion. It would first examine operating assets, then apply five financial ratios to companies that fail the initial test. A company would fail the second screen if flagged on at least four of those ratios. MSCI says feedback is due September 30, results are expected by October 16, and any adopted change would enter the November 2026 index review.
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Why Bitcoin treasury companies are watching MSCI’s consultation uses May 2026 data to illustrate possible outcomes. Its simulated deletion list includes Bitcoin holders Strategy and Metaplanet, along with Yellow Cake, a uranium investment company. These are modeled results, not completed removals. The proposal gives existing index members a two-period buffer before a deletion, so a single failed screen would not necessarily remove a current constituent.
Strive chief executive Matt Cole raised a related objection in a letter dated December 4, 2025. That letter addressed MSCI’s earlier idea to exclude companies whose digital-asset holdings exceeded half of their total assets. Cole argued that Bitcoin treasury companies can operate structured-finance businesses and that investors should be able to choose tailored index screens. MSCI decided in January 2026 not to implement that Bitcoin-specific rule and said it would study non-operating companies more broadly.
What this article corrects An earlier version presented Cole as sending a new letter on September 25 and used Strive’s 2025 holding figure as if current. The reviewed primary records document the December 2025 letter and the August 2026 MSCI consultation, but not a new Strive letter on September 25. The earlier version also gave October 16 as the feedback deadline; MSCI lists that date for announcing results, with feedback due September 30. This correction does not claim Strive is on MSCI’s simulated deletion list or that any proposed exclusion has taken effect.
Disclosure: This article was edited by John Chen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have experienced significant inflows, drawing nearly $3 billion from investors over the past six trading days. The surge has occurred amid renewed optimism in the cryptocurrency sector and marks the strongest streak of interest since earlier this year.
Major asset managers see record activityLeading financial institutions, including BlackRock, Fidelity, and Morgan Stanley, actively manage these Bitcoin ETFs. Data compiled by Farside Investors indicate that, since September 17, the funds have attracted $2.8 billion in new capital.
Trading on Monday alone accounted for nearly $1 billion in ETF share purchases, representing the largest single-day inflow since October 6, when over $1.2 billion entered the market and Bitcoin’s price climbed to its all-time high of $126,080.
Despite the recent flurry of investment, Bitcoin’s price has reacted more moderately. By Friday, the cryptocurrency traded just under $83,975, up from a weekly low but still below Monday’s high of $87,330. Over the last week, Bitcoin’s value increased by approximately 4%.
Investor returns improve as ETF cost basis risesBloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart noted that, for the first time since January, most ETF holders are now in profit. This development follows an increase in the estimated ETF cost basis, now at $81,722 per Bitcoin.
Most Bitcoin ETF investors are seeing gains as the cost basis surpasses $81,722 per coin, marking the first time the average holder is back in profit since January.
The strong inflows coincide with increased investor confidence following policy signals from the U.S. Department of the Treasury in August. The department announced it would at least double the amount of liquidity-support buyback operations, easing conditions in financial markets.
The Treasury’s move led to a decline in 30-year U.S. bond yields and a weaker dollar, both seen as supportive for Bitcoin’s price. However, Treasury yields have since risen again, tempering some of the initial momentum.
Market outlook and the “debasement trade”Bitcoin’s strong performance came despite a backdrop of political and regulatory headwinds. Last week, lawmakers blocked the Clarity Act, a bill aimed at clarifying crypto regulations, and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates. Still, Bitcoin continued to gain ground.
CryptoQuant, a prominent cryptocurrency market analytics firm, observed this week that Bitcoin rose above its 365-day moving average—a metric often used to identify longer-term market trends. Analysts from the company suggested this was a sign that the asset had exited its recent bear market.
The current rally has revived discussions around the so-called “debasement trade.” This strategy involves investors moving capital into assets like Bitcoin to hedge against the risk of currency depreciation.
In October last year, Bitcoin touched a record high of $126,080 before declining sharply, following a major liquidation event that resulted in the closure of $19 billion in leveraged positions. With the dollar weakening once again, Bitcoin appears to be benefiting from investors seeking alternatives to traditional fiat currencies.
Mini dictionary: Debasement trade, a financial strategy where investors allocate funds to assets such as gold or Bitcoin as a hedge against the declining value of a currency, especially in environments where inflation or monetary policy weaken the currency’s purchasing power.
The CFTC’s September 22 CME Bitcoin futures report, released September 25, lists noncommercial traders at 17,658 long and 14,902 short contracts, a net long of 2,756. That net position grew by 288 contracts from the previous week. Total open interest rose by 1,542 to 22,315 contracts.
Commercial net shorts also rose Commercial traders held 66 long and 3,175 short contracts, a net short of 3,109. The prior week’s net short was 2,657 contracts, so the position grew by 452. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said it had shrunk.
Each CME Bitcoin futures contract represents five BTC. The noncommercial net long is equivalent to 13,780 BTC in contract units; the commercial net short is equivalent to 15,545 BTC. These figures describe reported positions, not the reasons traders held them.
What the report can and cannot show The CFTC classifies traders by their reported predominant business purpose. It does not know each trader’s reason for a position, so these totals alone do not prove that commercial traders were hedging a price decline or predict Bitcoin’s next move.
In the separate Traders in Financial Futures report, leveraged funds held 4,745 long and 12,698 short CME Bitcoin contracts on September 22, a net short of 7,953. The 6,354 net-short figure in the earlier article referred to September 15, not the latest report.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs registered net inflows of approximately $191 million on Thursday, securing their sixth consecutive day of positive flows. The recent streak has brought total inflows to over $2.8 billion, reflecting sustained investor interest despite signs of cooling demand later in the week.
Demand slows after Monday’s recordThursday’s inflow of $191 million represented a sharp decline from Monday’s influx of $999 million, the highest single-day figure for 2026. In the days following the peak, inflows have decreased steadily, with Tuesday and Wednesday drawing $714.75 million and $347 million, respectively. This signals falling demand across three consecutive sessions.
Monday’s record, set on September 21, was the largest daily total for US spot Bitcoin ETFs since October 2025. On that day, Bitcoin briefly soared past $87,000 before pulling back to around $83,800. Over the week, Bitcoin’s price remains up by about 3.6%, even as the pace of ETF inflows has moderated.
Thursday’s entry was 81% lower than Monday’s record, but the six-day net inflow streak continues, exceeding $2.8 billion as overall momentum slows.
Fund breakdown: BlackRock leads inflowsBlackRock’s IBIT commanded $162.63 million of Thursday’s net inflows, significantly outpacing the category. The remaining eleven spot Bitcoin ETFs shared a much smaller portion of the total. Fidelity’s FBTC recorded $12.86 million, and Morgan Stanley’s MSBT absorbed $10.16 million. Franklin’s EZBC and Bitwise’s BITB collected $4.88 million and $4.13 million, respectively.
WisdomTree’s BTCW was the only fund to experience net outflows, totaling $4.02 million. Across the six-session streak, IBIT drew in approximately $1.35 billion, close to half of all inflows to the category. Combined, the twelve ETFs registered a trading turnover of $2.27 billion, with aggregate net assets ending near $108.92 billion.
Momentum continues for crypto ETF productsEther ETF products also maintained positive momentum, marking five days of returns with inflows of $66.01 million. The increased volume across major ETFs underscores ongoing institutional and retail participation in crypto-based products.
Brian Huang, co-founder and chief executive of Glider, observed that bitcoin futures open interest has returned to levels last seen in May. Huang identified about $3.3 billion in open interest on Hyperliquid’s BTC perpetuals. He noted that a negative basis, alongside increasing open interest, suggests new short positions are being initiated.
Bitcoin’s pullback after recent highs has coincided with growing open interest in perpetual futures, a sign that new shorts may be entering the market as traders adjust their positioning.
As investors weigh technical signals such as inflow trends and futures open interest, the meme token segment remains volatile and heavily influenced by internet-driven trends. In the meme token market, an internet trend can transform into millions of dollars of interest within days. According to data shared by Fomo App, a trade involving “Niu Lai”—which turned an initial $99 investment into approximately $370,000, stands out as a striking example of this activity. In this market, tracking not only prices but also the timing and token choices of investors is crucial. Fomo App brings token discovery and trading together on a single platform, featuring social feeds, investor rankings, and trade notifications. Discover Fomo App to follow the world of meme tokens alongside investor activity.
Strategy Inc., the company formerly known as MicroStrategy, has climbed to the 20th spot among the most actively traded stocks in the US, surpassing Palantir Technologies in share turnover.
Volume that rivals the giants During peak days in August, the stock temporarily ranked as high as the 10th most actively traded in the entire US market, with daily share turnover reaching between 46 and 49.2 million shares.
By mid-September, Strategy’s 30-day average trading volume settled into a range of 22 to 25 million shares. The dollar volume on those trades hovered near $3.6 to $3.9 billion.
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On particularly active sessions, MSTR has surpassed not just Palantir but also Robinhood, occasionally climbing to the 16th position on most-active lists. On calmer days, it sits closer to 21st.
The Bitcoin treasury playbook Michael Saylor’s strategy has been straightforward: raise capital through equity and preferred stock offerings, then use the proceeds to buy Bitcoin. Through May 2026, the company had raised over $5.6 billion through preferred share issuances alone.
The result is a Bitcoin treasury that some estimates place above 840,000 BTC. That hoard effectively turns MSTR into a leveraged bet on Bitcoin’s price. When Bitcoin rallies, MSTR tends to move faster. When Bitcoin drops, the same leverage works in reverse.
Short sellers add fuel Short interest in MSTR sat at approximately 14% of its market cap as of February 2026, a level that adds meaningful fuel to the stock’s volatility.
High short interest creates the conditions for sharp moves in both directions. When Bitcoin rallies and MSTR follows, short sellers face pressure to cover their positions, which drives the price higher and generates even more trading volume. When Bitcoin stumbles, those same short sellers get rewarded, and momentum traders pile in on the downside.
Disclosure: This article was edited by John Chen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Strive, Inc. has figured out a way to buy Bitcoin without taking on debt, without heavily diluting shareholders, and without touching a convertible note. The vehicle is a perpetual preferred stock called SATA, and it traded enough volume this week to fund the purchase of roughly 1,400 Bitcoin worth around $117 million.
How SATA works, and why it matters Strive launched its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock, ticker SATA, in November 2025. The IPO was oversubscribed, bringing in between $149 million and $160 million at launch.
The mechanics are straightforward: SATA carries a $100 par value and pays a variable annualized dividend of roughly 13%. Whenever shares trade at or above that par value, Strive activates an at-the-market program to issue new shares and capture the proceeds. Those proceeds go directly into Bitcoin.
The numbers behind the recent accumulation Between August 31 and September 4, 2026, Strive purchased 1,375 BTC for approximately $109 million. About 70% of that capital, roughly $92 million, came directly from SATA share sales. That purchase averaged approximately $79,281 per Bitcoin and pushed Strive’s total holdings to 24,531 BTC.
Then, between September 8 and September 11, Strive made another move: 469 BTC for $36.6 million, this time entirely funded by SATA. That transaction brought the company to exactly 25,000 BTC in total holdings.
It also pushed SATA’s notional value past $1.04 billion. A preferred stock instrument that launched less than a year ago has already crossed the ten-figure mark in notional terms.
Strive held Bitcoin only in the low thousands when it completed its merger in January 2026. CEO Matt Cole has publicly highlighted what the company calls its amplification ratio, which measures how much Bitcoin NAV the company controls relative to the preferred equity it has issued.
A new template for Bitcoin treasury companies The broader Bitcoin treasury playbook was popularized by MicroStrategy, which used convertible debt and equity raises to accumulate Bitcoin on its balance sheet.
Perpetual preferred equity does not mature. There is no principal repayment deadline, no covenant that kicks in if Bitcoin falls 30%. The dividend obligation is real, but it does not trigger the same existential risk that debt maturities can create.
SATA’s target trading band is $99 to $101 per share. As long as it stays in that range, the system keeps feeding itself. High trading volumes in the first half of September 2026 demonstrated that the instrument can absorb capital influxes large enough to move Bitcoin purchasing power by hundreds of BTC per week.
Disclosure: This article was edited by John Chen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Circle launched cirBTC on June 8, 2026, and the market apparently liked what it saw. The 1:1 Bitcoin-backed token has now crossed the 5,000-token milestone, a number that looks modest until you consider it was sitting at roughly 40 tokens in mid-August.
The product is Circle’s formal entry into the wrapped Bitcoin market, a corner of DeFi where your Bitcoin gets tokenized so it can participate in lending, borrowing, and other on-chain strategies without you ever having to sell it.
What cirBTC actually is cirBTC, formally called Circle Wrapped Bitcoin, is a token where each unit is backed by one native Bitcoin held in custody by Circle National Trust, a federally chartered trust bank. The custody arrangement matters: Circle is not relying on a third-party custodian with ambiguous oversight, but rather an entity with a federal charter, which carries meaningful regulatory weight for institutional buyers.
Transparency is baked in through Chainlink Proof of Reserve, which provides real-time on-chain verification of the backing. Around September 24, 2026, the circulating supply stood at approximately 4,300.68 tokens, while total reserves sat at roughly 4,448.19 BTC. The excess reserve cushion means the backing ratio is better than 1:1 at any given snapshot.
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Users mint and redeem cirBTC through Circle Mint, the same platform that handles USDC. The APIs are identical, which means any developer or institution already integrated with USDC can add cirBTC support without rebuilding their stack from scratch.
The token is available on both Ethereum mainnet and Arc, Circle’s own Layer 1 blockchain.
The wrapped Bitcoin wars Circle is walking into a market that already has entrenched players. Wrapped Bitcoin, known as wBTC, has been the dominant tokenized Bitcoin product for years. Coinbase entered more recently with cbBTC. cirBTC is the third major institutional-grade contender, and Circle is pitching it squarely on the pillars that make compliance teams comfortable: regulated custody, real-time reserve verification, and a federally chartered trust bank in the custody seat.
The practical use case that Circle is emphasizing is collateralized borrowing. Users can deposit cirBTC as collateral to borrow USDC without liquidating their underlying Bitcoin position.
The jump from around 40 tokens in mid-August to over 5,000 by late 2026 represents a supply increase of more than 100x in a matter of months.
What to watch from here The real test for cirBTC is whether it can close the gap with wBTC in terms of liquidity depth across major DeFi protocols. Deep liquidity matters because it determines how efficiently large institutions can enter and exit positions without moving the market against themselves.
Circle’s USDC integration is the strongest card in its hand here. Institutions that already use Circle Mint for USDC have a near-zero switching cost to add cirBTC to their workflow.
Circle National Trust’s federal charter gives cirBTC a compliance profile that is difficult for competitors to replicate quickly. As regulators in the US continue to clarify the rules around tokenized assets and digital custody, having a federally chartered custodian on the backing side could become a prerequisite for certain institutional investors.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Kaye Quema. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
More than four out of every five Bitcoin in existence haven’t budged in at least six months. That’s according to River Financial’s September 23 newsletter, which paints a picture of a market where the vast majority of supply is simply sitting still, locked away by holders who appear entirely uninterested in selling.
The 81% dormancy figure lands at an interesting moment. Bitcoin’s price has climbed roughly 50% from its June 2026 lows, yet trading volumes have cratered 30% year-to-date and ETF inflows have been running below average. In other words, fewer people are trading, but the ones still in the game are decidedly not letting go.
The quiet accumulation beneath the surface River’s data reveals that long-term holders have added over 3 million BTC to their positions since 2020. That’s a staggering amount of supply being pulled off the market and tucked into cold storage or long-duration wallets.
Meanwhile, movement from older coins has slowed to a trickle. Roughly 300,000 BTC changed hands from these long-held cohorts during the first half of 2026.
Retail investors flip from sellers to buyers Perhaps the most telling shift in River’s findings involves individual and retail Bitcoin holders. After dumping a net 140,000 BTC during the first half of 2026, these same participants turned around and accumulated over 107,000 BTC during the third quarter.
The accumulation hasn’t been evenly distributed, though. So-called “dolphin” wallets, those holding between 100 and 1,000 BTC, have been doing the heavy lifting. These mid-tier holders scooped up more than 113,000 BTC since mid-July alone.
What 81% dormancy actually means for the market To appreciate the significance of 81% supply dormancy, consider what it implies about available liquidity. Bitcoin’s circulating supply sits around 19.7 million coins. If 81% hasn’t moved in six months, that leaves roughly 3.7 million BTC as the “active” float, the pool of coins that could realistically hit an exchange and be sold on any given day.
River Financial itself appears to be practicing what it preaches. The company’s reserves stand at approximately 33,737 BTC against liabilities of around 33,499 BTC, maintaining what it describes as 100% Bitcoin reserves.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Leonidas, a core member of the Bitcoin Rune DOG community, has published a lengthy open letter to Bitget CEO Gracy Chen, criticizing the exchange’s highly unusual decision to delist DOG just hours after a hack, while withdrawals remained frozen. The delisting announcement, paired with frozen withdrawals and a trust crisis stemming from the hack, caused a significant price deviation for DOG on Bitget, resulting in losses for long-term holders who trade regularly on the platform. Leonidas noted that DOG boasts a market capitalization of over $100 million, has been listed on Bitget for two and a half years with a cumulative trading volume exceeding $1 billion, and has a far larger community than many small-cap tokens still traded on the exchange. On behalf of the community, he formally demanded Bitget reinstate spot trading to resolve the abnormal market situation, while also wishing the exchange a speedy recovery of stolen assets and proper handling of the hack’s aftermath.
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The Genius Foundation plans to use approximately $62,500 each to purchase GSTOCK and GENIUS.
Ryan Myher, co-founder of Genius Terminal, announced the voting result on the allocation of approximately $125,000 worth of BNB held by the Genius Foundation that cannot be unwrapped (referring to unbundling and redeeming for underlying stocks): 50% will be used to purchase GSTOCK, and 50% will be allocated to buy GENIUS. The funds stem from accumulated fees from the Genius.fun launch platform that flowed into the foundation’s treasury. The foundation stated it will execute the plan per the voting outcome and announce updates on X after completion. According to GMGN data, the platform’s native token GENIUS currently has a market capitalization of $345 million. GSTOCK’s market cap has surpassed $24 million, with a 24-hour price increase of 24.2% and trading volume of $8.4 million. The GSTOCK token is paired with BNCB, the on-chain token of BNB treasury firm BNC, as its liquidity pool base. BlockBeats reminds users that related tokens are highly volatile, so investors should exercise caution.
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Morgan Stanley shifts to a bullish stance on the US dollar, with high yields set to continue weighing on global risk appetite.
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Goldman Sachs: AI capital expenditure has not reached an inflection point, and the market will conduct stricter scrutiny of monetization efficiency.
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According to HTX market data, major crypto tokens saw slight volatility over the weekend. Bitcoin fell below $84,000 to trade at $83,900, Ethereum at $2,688, and ZEC at $1,542. SOL surged past $120 with a 24-hour gain of 3.4%. BNB is trading at $776. The total crypto market cap rose 0.3% in 24 hours to $2.989 trillion. Altcoin rotation persists, with major DeFi tokens rallying broadly. Top gainers among DeFi tokens: QI at $0.003650 (up 103.57% in 24h), QUICK at $0.01287 (up 32.82%), AERO at $0.8314 (up 18.50%), VELODROME at $0.03558 (up 16.20%), ENA at $0.2656 (up 13.94%), JTO at $0.5670 (up 13.38%), JOE at $0.0414 (up 13.11%), ZRO at $1.611 (up 11.18%); EIGEN, REZ, LDO, KMNO, MET and JUP rose but by less than 10%. Additionally, top gainers among other altcoins include: PHA at $0.0847 (up 66.40% in 24h), ARK at $0.2524 (up 29.44%), MUBARAK at $0.05650 (up 26.29%), SEI at $0.07638 (up 20.80%), SUI at $1.1773 (up 12.57%), WLD at $0.4898 (up 10.89%).
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Morgan Stanley shifts to a bullish stance on the US dollar, with high yields set to continue weighing on global risk appetite.
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Microsoft stock advanced approximately 3% following the introduction of enhanced Copilot AI capabilities, featuring a persistent AI agent. Meta’s market capitalization surged by nearly $200 billion after its Muse AI assistant accumulated 2.8 million downloads within twelve days. Equity markets remained largely unchanged as traders balanced enthusiasm for AI advances with concerns over rising yields and energy costs. Crude oil retreated on optimism surrounding potential diplomatic breakthroughs in U.S.-Iran discussions regarding the Strait of Hormuz. Bitcoin maintained support around $84,000, posting approximately 44% quarterly gains in its strongest performance since Q4 2024. Financial markets wrapped up the trading week with cautious optimism. Traders navigated between robust artificial intelligence sector momentum and headwinds from elevated borrowing costs and commodity prices. Meanwhile, cryptocurrency markets demonstrated resilience following recent turbulence.
Microsoft (MSFT) Advances on Enhanced Copilot AI Capabilities Microsoft equity rallied approximately 3% during Friday’s session. The gains followed the technology giant’s announcement of expanded functionality for its Copilot AI ecosystem.
The enhancements encompass advanced programming utilities and introduce a continuously operating AI agent engineered to provide uninterrupted user assistance.
Microsoft emerged as a leading performer within the S&P 500 index throughout the trading day. The company’s strength offset weakness observed in other market sectors.
Market participants are monitoring whether these enhanced capabilities drive increased enterprise adoption. Successful implementation would likely generate expanded recurring revenue streams.
Equity Markets Stabilize Following Week of Uncertainty Broadly, U.S. equity indices finished Friday’s session relatively unchanged. Market participants processed simultaneous signals from technology equities, fixed income securities, and commodity markets.
Artificial intelligence-focused companies provided upward momentum. However, climbing Treasury yields and sustained oil prices prompted investor caution.
Higher yields diminish the present value of anticipated corporate profits. Elevated energy costs additionally fuel inflationary pressures and challenge expectations for monetary policy easing.
Despite these headwinds, international equity markets approached their most robust weekly performance since early August. Revived interest in technology and AI-related investments propelled this momentum.
Meta’s (META) Muse AI Assistant Continues Capturing Market Attention Meta remained in the spotlight throughout the trading week. Its recently launched Muse AI assistant has demonstrated impressive early traction.
The social media giant has accumulated approximately $200 billion in additional market capitalization since Muse’s introduction. This appreciation directly correlates with investor enthusiasm surrounding the offering.
Muse attracted approximately 2.8 million downloads throughout the U.S. and Canadian markets during its initial twelve-day period, according to Reuters data. This represents exceptional velocity for a newly launched AI application.
Market observers are now focused on whether initial adoption momentum translates into sustainable revenue generation. Advertising platforms, subscription models, and e-commerce integration represent the most probable monetization pathways.
Crude Prices Decline on Diplomatic Optimism With Iran Oil prices experienced modest declines Friday. Market participants responded to indications of potential advancement in diplomatic discussions between the U.S. and Iran.
Any agreement facilitating unrestricted passage through the Strait of Hormuz could alleviate concerns regarding global energy distribution. The implications would extend significantly beyond petroleum markets.
Declining crude valuations can moderate inflationary dynamics. They may additionally reduce some upward pressure affecting Treasury yields.
For equity investors, retreating oil prices could provide additional support to growth-oriented industries including technology.
Bitcoin Maintains Support Following Impressive Quarterly Performance Bitcoin hovered near $84,000 during Friday’s trading. This represents a modest retreat from peaks approaching $87,000 observed earlier in the week.
Despite the pullback, Bitcoin ranks among the quarter’s top-performing assets. The cryptocurrency has appreciated roughly 44% throughout this period.
This trajectory positions Bitcoin for its most robust quarterly showing since late 2024. Certain long-term holders have initiated profit-taking activities following the substantial rally.
Analysts are observing whether Bitcoin can defend support within the $83,000 to $84,000 range. This zone may prove decisive in determining the asset’s trajectory toward recent peaks.
With AI-driven equities delivering gains, energy prices softening, and Bitcoin demonstrating stability, markets concluded the week with risk appetite firmly intact.
Bitcoin has surged in recent days, surpassing $80,000 and currently trading around $80,000-$85,000.
At this point, US banking giant JPMorgan pointed out a different picture for BTC.
According to JPMorgan, the fact that the Bitcoin price remains above its estimated production cost of around $85,000 suggests that selling pressure from miners may ease.
Risk of Miners Being Forced to Sell Bitcoin May Decrease! According to The Block, a team of JPMorgan analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou calculated an average production cost of approximately $85,000 for Bitcoin in their latest assessment of the cryptocurrency market.
At this point, analysts noted that Bitcoin’s price remaining above approximately $85,000 could alleviate financial pressure on miners and mitigate the risk of miner selling in the market.
Analysts said that BTC had been trading below its average production cost for 280 days before this week’s sharp rise. It was noted that with Bitcoin surpassing its production cost of approximately $85,000, the profitability outlook for miners could also change.
JPMorgan analysts stated that Bitcoin’s production cost has historically acted as a “soft floor” for its price. When the price remains below this level for an extended period, it negatively impacts the profitability of miners, especially those with high electricity and equipment costs.
Therefore, according to analysts, if Bitcoin remains consistently above the $85,000 level, miners may no longer need to sell their Bitcoins to cover operational expenses. This could help mitigate the risk of forced selling in the market.
*This is not investment advice.
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Bitcoin continues to rally, even as the Federal Reserve’s recent rate hike and the failure of the Clarity Act have added new uncertainties to the market. On-chain data indicates that the supply held by long-term investors recently reached a record high of 15 million BTC, suggesting a significant shift in market dynamics.
Long-term holders and selling pressureMitchell Askew, Head of Blockware Intelligence, highlighted that this unprecedented accumulation by long-term holders may reflect an exhaustion of selling pressure. When so much Bitcoin remains inactive, it often signals growing conviction among holders and a potential foundation for sustained upward price action.
Askew pointed out that historical data shows higher dormancy of coins tends to limit immediate resistance from sellers, giving space for new buyers to accumulate without large quantities entering the market. This supply dynamic can have lasting effects on both the volatility and trend direction of Bitcoin’s price.
Recent on-chain analysis revealed that long-term holders now control 15 million BTC, the highest level ever recorded, which may enhance Bitcoin’s resilience during periods of increased market volatility.
ETF flows and institutional interestAskew also discussed the role of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in shaping demand. He stated that ETF flows have been a notable indicator of renewed institutional interest, with recent inflows pointing to the possibility of bigger investors returning to the market after a period of caution.
This resurgence of institutional participation comes at a time when other market forces, such as technological demands from AI data centers and shifts in global mining, continue to influence the Bitcoin ecosystem. These factors contribute to complex supply and demand dynamics for Bitcoin miners, impacting hash rate trends and overall network profitability.
Broader market trends and investor behaviorFurther, industry observers have commented on the cyclical nature of Bitcoin, noting that the traditional four-year halving cycle appears less predictable due to new variables in both technology and investor behavior. Now, younger demographics like Gen Z are increasingly scrutinized for their saving and investment habits, as economic circumstances and asset preferences evolve rapidly.
Amid these developments, tracking market activity and investor sentiment has become essential not only for Bitcoin but also for the broader digital asset sector. Technical factors such as inactive supply, inflows from institutional products, and changes in network fundamentals continue to play a pivotal role in shaping outlooks.
Market observers also stress the importance of monitoring alternative signals in the rapidly growing meme token market. For example, timing and token selection by investors can lead to rapid value creation, as illustrated by the recent success of a “Niu Lai” trade on Fomo App, where a $99 purchase surged to roughly $370,000. Integrated platforms like Fomo App, which combine token discovery, social feeds, and investor rankings, are offering new tools for monitoring shifts and opportunities in this vibrant segment.
Bitcoin is trading in a narrow range around $84,000 after a recent pullback from the $87,000 zone, with investors monitoring whether the cryptocurrency will break through resistance or retreat toward key support levels.
Key support and resistance emerge for BTCAt the latest check, Bitcoin traded at $83,943, accompanied by a 24-hour trading volume of $41.66 billion and a total market capitalization of $1.69 trillion. The price registered a marginal dip of 0.57% over the preceding 24 hours, signaling a period of consolidation following a strong move in recent weeks.
Crypto analyst That Martini Guy noted that after reaching the $87,000 area, Bitcoin experienced a pullback but continues to maintain an overall bullish structure on the four-hour chart. The recent upward run, from the mid-$70,000 region, was rejected at this key resistance, highlighting $87,000 as a significant ceiling for near-term price action.
According to That Martini Guy, if the pullback deepens, $79,500 serves as an important support level. This zone will be closely watched should sellers gain the upper hand.
Bitcoin is currently hovering near the middle line of the four-hour Bollinger Bands, which often marks a consolidation phase after a substantial move. This suggests that there is currently not a definitive shift in price trend, but rather a pause before potential further movement.
Such periods of consolidation can offer a foundation for the market to establish a new trading range, especially as BTC has already delivered significant gains since July and August.
Bollinger Bands and momentum indicators in focusTechnical analysis reveals that Bitcoin remains in the upper part of its Bollinger Bands range, with the upper band set at $86,798, the middle at $79,957, and the lower at $73,116.
Bollinger BandLevel ($)Upper86,798Middle79,957Lower73,116With BTC trading above the middle band, the four-hour structure stays bullish. However, the proximity to the upper band underlines the growing importance of $87,000 as a resistance area. If the price breaks and holds above $87,000, the bullish momentum could strengthen. On the downside, falling below $79,957 would increase the likelihood of retesting support around $79,500.
Momentum indicators back this cautiously optimistic scenario. The MACD line currently stands at 2,474.61, ahead of the signal line at 2,084.60, while the histogram records 390.01, reflecting some remaining upward momentum even after the recent price contraction.
A focus also remains on Bitcoin’s historical performance in October. Renowned analyst Ali Martinez commented on the upcoming month, referring to positive seasonality data for Bitcoin during October in prior years. While this context provides insight, analysts maintain that historical trends are not direct predictors for future price moves in October 2026.
As trading continues, attention rests on the $87,000 resistance and $79,500 support range. Breakouts in either direction may indicate the end of the current consolidation phase and set the tone for subsequent price action.
Technical analysis shows that Bitcoin is maintaining a bullish structure above key support, with consolidation near major resistance forming the backdrop for upcoming moves as October approaches.
Across the broader crypto-collateralized lending market, Galaxy Research reported $56.16 billion at the end of Q2 2026: $22.98 billion in CeFi open borrows, $20.43 billion in outstanding loans on DeFi lending applications and approximately $12.75 billion in crypto-collateralized portion of CDP stablecoin supply.
Bitcoin-backed borrowing is a small part of this, even though Bitcoin holders have borrowed against Bitcoin for years. SkyQuest estimates the Bitcoin loan market at $3.58 billion in 2025 and forecasts growth to $21 billion by 2033. The estimated Bitcoin loan market remains small relative to Bitcoin’s roughly $1.5 trillion market capitalization. That is about 0.24% of Bitcoin’s market value.
By its properties, Bitcoin should support a much larger loan market. Bitcoin is deeply liquid, globally held and available 24/7. Those are exactly the properties you want in a collateral asset. For lenders, liquidity and continuous trading support collateral valuation and liquidation. For holders, borrowing provides cash or stablecoins without selling their Bitcoin.
The constraint is how holders can borrow. Historically, most large-scale Bitcoin-backed borrowing has relied on one of two methods. You can use a centralized lender or you can wrap your Bitcoin to reach on-chain lending markets. Both work for holders, and neither is free.
So the question is not whether you can borrow against Bitcoin. You can, today. The question is whether you can see the price. In this article, price refers to the full costs and trade-offs of the borrowing model, not just the headline interest rate.
Galaxy Research map comparing CeFi and DeFi lending markets. Source: Galaxy Research, Q2 2026
What a centralized lender is charging you forWith a centralised lender, the total cost is not always captured by the interest rate. The borrower transfers Bitcoin to the lender or its custodian. Loan terms include the interest rate, allowed LTV and any processing fees. Access also depends on identity checks and jurisdictional eligibility.
Published rate cards give a view of the market. Galaxy’s retail credit line, launched in August 2026, is priced at a variable 8.99% APR, with a maximum origination LTV of 50%. Ledn’s published rate table lists 11.49% for loans below $250,000 and 9.25% for loans of $2 million or more. Ledn also lists a typical initial LTV of 50% and a $500 minimum loan. The lowest advertised rates can also require materially lower LTVs or exposure to a platform token. Nexo's advertised 1.9% rate requires an LTV below 20%, together with Platinum status and at least 10% of the portfolio held in NEXO tokens under Nexo Loyalty Program.
So what are you paying for?
Custody, balance-sheet capacity, liquidity and liquidation infrastructure. In exchange, your Bitcoin is held by the lender or its custodian for the life of the loan.
By comparison, Aave v4 uses a shared, market-based variable rate for each borrowed asset. Pricing follows protocol rules rather than individually negotiated loan quotes or platform-token loyalty tiers.
Going on-chain changes the risk model, but does it remove the cost?
On-chain Bitcoin exists in multiple tokenised formsOn-chain lending markets use several wrapped representations of Bitcoin. WBTC is the largest, with roughly $9 billion in circulation as of September 2026, according to CoinGecko. Other major representations include cbBTC, FBTC and tBTC. These assets form much of the Bitcoin collateral base in DeFi. In Token Terminal’s July 2026 report, WBTC and cbBTC accounted for 10.1% and 6.0% of Aave’s total value locked (TVL), respectively, or 16.1% combined.
What you post as collateral in these markets is not native Bitcoin. It is a token issued under another system. WBTC can be bought, swapped or borrowed without using its mint-and-burn process. At the issuance and redemption layer, however, only identity-verified institutions approved through WBTC governance can mint and burn WBTC. A holder seeking direct redemption into native Bitcoin therefore depends on an authorized merchant and WBTC’s custodial system.
The market has already shown what that trust is worth. In August 2024, BitGo announced plans to transfer management of WBTC to a joint venture with BiT Global and move from US-based custody to a multi-jurisdictional model. The announcement prompted Aave risk contributors from the Aave governance to review the implications for WBTC. WBTC did not need to fail for the market to reassess the collateral. A proposed change in the trusted parties was enough.
Bridges have been among the most costly attack vectors in digital assets. According to DefiLlama data cited by Bloomberg, 26 of the 250 hacks recorded so far in 2026 targeted bridges and cross-chain infrastructure. If the system backing a wrapped asset fails, the token posted as collateral can remain on-chain even if access to the underlying Bitcoin is impaired.
Tokenizing Bitcoin does not eliminate third-party or protocol risk. It changes its form. A centralized lender can fail. A custodial token depends on its issuer and custodian. Other designs may depend on signer sets, bridge contracts or cross-chain messaging.
None of this is permanent. The intermediary exists because native Bitcoin could not previously verify repayment and liquidation events on another chain. Removing that limitation means the intermediary can also be removed.
Comparison of Bitcoin borrowing rates, collateral types and third-party requirementsNative and trustless togetherBabylon Trustless Bitcoin Vaults (TBV) let native Bitcoin be used as collateral without wrapping, bridging or intermediaries. To use Bitcoin as collateral on Ethereum, each depositor creates a self-custodial BTCVault by locking their native Bitcoin in a dedicated UTXO on the Bitcoin network. Redemption is trustless and is authorised by a proof and challenge process.
This native and trustless end-to-end process re-prices borrowing. There is no Bitcoin custodian to pay for and no wrapped-asset issuer to redeem through.
Here is how native Bitcoin-backed borrowing through Aave v4 works. The flow is available on Babylon’s TBV public testnet app using test assets.
The five steps for borrowing against native Bitcoin through Aave v4.Lock. You lock native Bitcoin on the Bitcoin network. While the transaction receives confirmations, participants construct and pre-sign the transaction graph that fixes every permitted spending path.Activate. Once setup is complete, the self-custodial BTCVault is activated on Ethereum and Aave v4 can recognise the Bitcoin as collateral.Borrow. You borrow supported assets through Aave v4 at market-based variable rates.Repay. To close the position and withdraw all of your Bitcoin, you repay all outstanding debt and accrued interest, then request withdrawal. (Liquidation happens only if the position falls below the liquidation threshold. Partial liquidation is supported.)Unlock. Your withdrawal is checked through a challenge process on Bitcoin. If no valid challenge is raised, your Bitcoin returns to your nominated address.Why this is possible nowEfficiently verifying zero-knowledge proofs on Bitcoin has been a long-standing problem. With BitVM2, disputing a claim could require more than $14,000 in on-chain fees. BitVM3 reduced the on-chain cost but required a 42 GiB garbled circuit for each instance. BABE retains BitVM3's lower on-chain costs and reduces off-chain storage and setup requirements by more than 1,000x. This is achieved by using witness encryption for linear pairing relations instead of garbling the full Groth16 verifier.
That makes cryptographic enforcement more practical. During the BTCVault setup, participants pre-sign a Bitcoin transaction graph that fixes the permitted ways the Bitcoin can be spent. Redemption of Bitcoin is authorized by an Ethereum event, whose existence is proven by a zero-knowledge proof, and is protected by a challenge process. The proof and challenge mechanism determine whether the claim can proceed, without relying on any approval from a custodian, wrapped-asset issuer or signer committee.
Borrowing uses Aave v4’s market-based variable rates. Total costs also include applicable protocol, Vault Provider and network fees (Babylon documentation).
Native Bitcoin collateral beyond lendingTBV is designed to support multiple chains and applications and a variety of different use cases. Lending is the first integration and the largest market. In September 2025, DeFi lending reached a record $130 billion in total value locked, making it the largest DeFi sector at the time (DL News, citing DeFiLlama). Lending tests collateral under stress. Prices fall, borrowers face margin pressure and liquidations have to clear.
The same infrastructure is designed to support stablecoin issuance, derivatives, insurance and other applications.
So you’re left with a question. If borrowing against Bitcoin no longer means giving up custody or exchanging it for a wrapped asset, how much longer will Bitcoin remain idle?
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) is proposing daily dividends across STRF, STRC, STRK, and STRD. The company wants its preferred shareholders to earn cash income every calendar day, a model that is unusual in the US stock market.
A dividend is simply money a company pays investors for owning its stock. Under MicroStrategy’s proposal, that income would build up every day, including weekends and holidays, with payment made on the next business day.
The total return would stay the same. The change is mainly about how often investors receive it.
Strategy is proposing daily dividends on $STRF, $STRC, $STRK, and $STRD, accruing every calendar day, including weekends and holidays, and paid the next business day, with economics unchanged. The proposed changes aim to support price stability, liquidity, and demand. pic.twitter.com/N0wkXzi1gl
— Michael Saylor (@saylor) September 25, 2026
Note: Preferred stock is a special type of company share designed mainly to pay investors regular income. Regular stock, like MSTR, gives investors more exposure to the company’s gains and losses, so its price can move much more.
STRC is Becoming an Income Product, Not a Bitcoin StockSTRC currently pays a 12% annual dividend on its $100 stated value. In simple terms, an investor holding one $100 share would receive around $12 a year at the current rate.
Daily dividends would not increase that amount. They would spread the same income across much smaller, more frequent payments.
Think of it like getting part of your monthly salary every working day instead of receiving one larger payment at the end of the month.
That could make STRC more attractive to investors who care about regular income. Strategy also says the change could support liquidity and price stability.
There are RisksSTRC is designed very differently from MSTR, the company’s flagship stock that tracks Bitcoin movements.
MSTR can rise or fall sharply because investors largely treat it as a leveraged bet on Bitcoin. STRC is built around income and Strategy’s effort to keep its price close to $100.
Daily dividends could reinforce that difference, but they cannot remove the risk.
If Bitcoin falls sharply and investors become concerned about Strategy’s finances, STRC can still trade well below $100. It happened in June, when Bitcoin dropped below $60,000, and STRC dropped to $75.
STRC 6-Month Price Chart. Source: Yahoo FinanceIts dividend also depends on Strategy having enough cash to keep paying it.
What It Means for MSTR InvestorsFor MSTR shareholders, the impact is more indirect.
Preferred shareholders sit ahead of MSTR holders in Strategy’s capital structure and must be paid before common shareholders receive anything.
So, the difference between the two products is becoming clearer.
MSTR remains the higher-volatility Bitcoin-linked trade. STRC increasingly looks like Strategy’s income product: lower upside, regular cash payments and a structure designed to keep the price relatively stable.
Bitcoin price fell to about $83,450 on Sep. 25 after a rally above $87,000 earlier in the week gave way to a narrower trading range. The pullback comes as traders weigh a quarterly options expiry against higher U.S. Treasury yields.
Summary
Bitcoin’s daily chart showed a 1.1% decline, with the price near $83,476. The 4-hour MACD turned negative as the rally from below $76,000 lost momentum. CoinGlass’s three-day heatmap showed liquidation clusters near $83,300 and above $85,000. LVRG Research’s Dan Khus said Treasury yields, ETF flows, and oil prices remain in focus. According to the daily Bitcoin price chart, BTC traded near $83,476 after reaching $85,255 during the Sep. 25 session. The price was still above the chart’s 20-day Bollinger Band midpoint at $79,951, despite retreating from an upper band near $86,724.
Bitcoin price daily chart — Sep. 25 | Source: TradingView The decline followed a sharp move earlier in the week that carried Bitcoin above $87,000. The daily chart showed the relative strength index at 62.03, down from the higher readings reached during the rally but still above the neutral level of 50.
Bitcoin holds above $83K as the 4-hour MACD weakens Bitcoin’s 4-hour chart showed the price falling from the $86,000–$87,000 area and then trading mostly between $83,000 and $85,000. Its latest candle on the chart opened at $84,583, fell to $83,183, and traded near $83,454.
Bitcoin price 4-hour chart — Sep. 25 | Source: TradingView The 4-hour MACD line stood at 251.25, below its signal line at 551.84. Its histogram reading of minus 300.59 showed that short-term momentum had weakened after the earlier advance. The Awesome Oscillator remained positive at 154.98, although its bars had narrowed toward zero.
Trader Ardi described $83,000 as local range support and a former May high. In a Sep. 25 market post, Ardi said a loss of that level could put $81,000 back in view, while reclaiming $85,200 as support could open another test of the $87,000 highs. Trader Daan Crypto Trades separately identified $83,500 to $85,000 as the range Bitcoin had occupied over the previous two days.
The levels are close to concentrations on CoinGlass’s three-day Bitcoin liquidation heatmap. The chart showed a bright band near $83,300, with further liquidity around $82,500. Above the market, clusters appeared near $85,200–$85,500 and around $87,300. The heatmap shows where leveraged positions may face liquidation if price reaches those levels; it does not establish which direction Bitcoin will move next.
Bitcoin liquidation heatmap | Source: CoinGlass Options expiry meets a rise in U.S. Treasury yields A large quarterly options expiry has added another event for derivatives traders to navigate. Options positions can affect hedging and trading around settlement, although the expiry alone does not establish what caused Bitcoin’s decline.
The U.S. bond market has also moved into focus. Dan Khus, chief analyst at LVRG Research, told crypto.news that Bitcoin and Ether were holding support as the Treasury sell-off eased slightly. His comments put the 10-year yield near 5.19% after a 30-basis-point rise.
“Bitcoin and ether are maintaining in support as the Treasury sell-off cooled slightly with the 10-year easing back toward 5.19% after a 30-basis-point surge. Looking ahead, focus is on whether yields stay elevated, October Fed hike odds hold above 70%, and if spot ETF flows can absorb weekend options expiry, along with any further oil-driven inflation shock from developments in the US-Iran conflict.”
The Federal Reserve raised its target rate by a quarter percentage point to 3.75%–4.00% on Sep. 16. Khus’s October figure refers to market expectations for another increase, rather than a decision already made by the Fed. Oil prices and developments in the U.S.-Iran conflict could affect those expectations through their impact on inflation.
ETF demand and $83K support frame Bitcoin’s next test U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund flows offer a separate measure of demand as the market absorbs the price reversal. Khus identified those flows, alongside yields and the options expiry, as factors to watch. Farside Investors’ ETF flow table tracks the funds’ daily net subscriptions and redemptions.
For the near-term chart setup, the first test is whether Bitcoin can hold the $83,000–$83,500 range cited by the traders and visible on the 4-hour chart. A move below it would bring the heatmap’s lower liquidity bands and Ardi’s $81,000 level into focus. On the upside, a sustained move back above $85,000–$85,200 would put the higher liquidation clusters and the recent $87,000 peak back in view.
Bitcoin’s daily RSI remained above 50, and its price remained above the Bollinger Band midpoint, while the 4-hour MACD showed weaker short-term momentum. Those readings leave the next move tied to the range boundaries as traders assess the expiry, U.S. yields, and ETF flows.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
Strategy is seeking shareholder approval to move its four preferred stocks, including STRC, to daily dividend payments without changing their dividend rates or the total amount paid.
The company’s board approved the proposal on Thursday, according to a Friday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Shareholders are scheduled to vote on the amendments at a virtual special meeting on Oct. 28.
If approved, each calendar day would become a dividend record date, with the corresponding payment made on the next business day. STRC would move to the new schedule first, with its initial daily dividend payment expected on Nov. 2.
STRF, STRK and STRD would follow in January, with their first payments under the daily schedule expected on Jan. 4. The amendments would take effect after Strategy files updated certificates governing the preferred stocks with the state of Delaware.
Strategy follows Strive into daily dividendsStrategy’s proposal comes several months after fellow Bitcoin treasury company Strive moved its SATA preferred stock to daily dividend payments, becoming the first public company to adopt the model.
Strive announced in May that SATA would begin paying dividends every business day on June 16 at a 13% annual rate, and also reported that it eliminated its outstanding debt in the first quarter.
Unlike Strive’s business-day schedule, Strategy’s proposal would make every calendar day a record date, with the corresponding dividend payable on the following business day.
Strive holds 26,355 Bitcoin, compared with Strategy’s 846,000 BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries.NET.
Top 10 Bitcoin treasury companies. Source: BitcoinTreasuries.NET
Strategy CEO says leverage drove STRC below $100While Strive was the first public company to offer daily dividends, Strategy pioneered what it calls “digital credit,” preferred securities designed to generate income from a capital structure built around the company’s Bitcoin treasury.
STRC, a key part of Strategy’s digital credit strategy, has seen significant price swings this year. In June, the stock fell sharply below its $100 stated amount, hitting an intraday low of $71.25 on June 26, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Speaking on Natalie Brunell’s Coin Stories podcast earlier this week, Strategy CEO Phong Le attributed the decline to more leverage entering the market for STRC than the company had anticipated. He said some investors borrowed against Bitcoin at lower rates to buy STRC and capture the spread between their borrowing costs and STRC’s dividend yield.
When Bitcoin’s price fell, investors who had borrowed against their holdings faced pressure to either add more collateral or sell STRC, according to Le.
“We did not expect the amount of leverage that came into the system,” Le said. “And so that’s a lesson learned, next time around.”
Le said Strategy is seeking to prevent another such unwind by maintaining a strong US dollar reserve and having a policy that allows the company to repurchase STRC when it trades below its $100 stated amount. He also said the company wants to attract more long-term holders, particularly institutional investors.
STRC has since recovered to about $98.41, close to Strategy’s stated goal of keeping the security between $99 and $100. It currently carries a 12% variable annual dividend rate.
Magazine: Exchanges reporting crypto gains to IRS becomes tax nightmare
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Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has an answer to whether his tweets move crypto markets, no, they don’t, even when the timing looks suspiciously perfect.
Zhao addressed speculation that his August 19 tweet triggered a 20% Bitcoin rally that unfolded just hours before Trump’s crypto summit speech. “The short answer is no. I do not have the power to do that,” Zhao said, explaining he tweets bullish content five to ten times daily and had no advance knowledge of Trump’s speech. “If I had known, I would not have made that tweet.”
Zhao said the tweet came from reading a quote about taking action today to build a better future, which he adapted into crypto commentary while on the road, calling it coincidence rather than insider timing. “If you tweet bullish five times a day, one of the times it will be five hours before positive news,” he said. “Well, for sure no one is complaining today.”
On whether crypto has reached market saturation, Zhao pointed to global adoption figures suggesting crypto penetration remains under 1% worldwide, arguing significant room for growth still exists.
On Whether Retail Investors Can Compete Against Paid Promotion
Asked whether retail investors can truly win when projects pay market makers, KOLs, launchpads and exchanges for promotion, Zhao said yes, though he acknowledged the space between honest marketing and outright deception isn’t always clear-cut. “Between false and truth, it’s not always black and white,” he said, noting projects can overhype or use deliberately ambiguous language without technically lying.
Zhao said protecting retail investors requires a combination of factors: encouraging founders to act responsibly, educating users to evaluate projects based on fundamentals rather than hype, and building out regulatory disclosure requirements similar to those already standard in traditional stock markets. He noted such frameworks remain underdeveloped across most crypto markets today.
Ultimately, Zhao argued that the market self-corrects over time. “Any new industry will have some guys who can overhype, who can over-market, and they will get a short-term benefit at the expense of users,” he said. “But in the long run, those projects will not last. The long-lasting platforms will be the ones built sustainably and solidly.”
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Well-known analyst Benjamin Cowen has unveiled an updated strategic model for Bitcoin in Q4 2026, urging investors to abandon forecasting in favor of responding strictly to the chart's current structure. He made the statement as Bitcoin tested a key technical level around $83,000.
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The trigger for this urgent reassessment of market strategy was Bitcoin's move above its May high on the weekly timeframe, which effectively broke the classic four-year cycle pattern. According to the analyst, the current weekly candle's close will activate the main trigger determining the asset's direction through the end of the year.
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What one weekly candle will decideUnder Cowen's updated framework, the market's next move depends entirely on whether Bitcoin can hold its current price levels. The analyst outlines two possible outcomes:
Bullish scenario (holding above): If Bitcoin closes the week and holds above its May peak, it would significantly strengthen buyers' position and lay the groundwork for an uptrend throughout the fourth quarter.
Bearish scenario (false breakout): A move back below the May high would amount to a major fakeout. In that case, the asset would face the seasonal correction typical at the end of the year, though it would not fall to new cycle lows.
Bitcoin weekly chart from Benjamin Cowen illustrating the pivotal battle at the May resistance level, Source: Into The Cryptoverse You Might Also Like
Cowen stressed that, in current market conditions, trying to predict the exact direction of the price is counterproductive.
"You don't have to predict what happens; I think reacting is better in this case," the analyst said.
As a basic defensive strategy, investors are still advised to use dollar-cost averaging (DCA) in the second half of the year, leveraging historical midterm seasonal tendencies to build long-term positions amid heightened volatility.
Regardless of possible short-term shocks in October or November, Bitcoin's broader macroeconomic trend remains optimistic, with strong performance expected in early 2027.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disclosed that his holdings in Bitcoin on Coinbase produced capital gains ranging from $2,702 to $6,000 during 2025, as detailed in his annual financial report.
Details of Bitcoin holdings and transactionsThe annual disclosure, certified on September 18 by the Office of Government Ethics, outlines two separate Bitcoin stakes in a single Coinbase wallet. The first stake, valued between $15,001 and $50,000, registered capital gains between $2,501 and $5,000. The second stake, worth $1,001 to $15,000, resulted in gains of $201 to $1,000.
Combined, these entries place the total value of Hegseth’s Bitcoin between approximately $16,000 and $65,000. The form separates holdings by value brackets, but does not specify individual trade dates or precise amounts.
For transactions exceeding $1,000, Part 7 of the report provides further detail. However, no Bitcoin trades are listed in this section, as only sales valued above $1,000 require itemization. Any transactions below this threshold do not appear in the breakdown.
The breakdown of holdings in the report places Pete Hegseth’s Bitcoin at between $16,000 and $65,000, with gains for 2025 in the range of $2,702 to $6,000, based on separate wallet entries.
Hegseth completed and signed the financial report on May 14. The Defense Department’s ethics office approved the disclosure in August, followed by the Office of Government Ethics’ final certification in September.
Stock holdings and sales after assuming officeThe disclosure form covers additional investment activities beyond cryptocurrency. Several weeks into his appointment, Hegseth sold shares of Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Honeywell, each valued between $1,001 and $15,000. On February 7, he also sold holdings in KKR and Blackstone, both in the $15,001 to $50,000 range.
Further divestments occurred on March 24, when Hegseth sold stock in major technology firms Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle. His largest individual acquisitions were in index funds, with between $100,001 and $250,000 each invested in SPY and QQQ on February 24.
The report also notes more than $1 million held in a single U.S. bank account, emphasizing Hegseth’s substantial traditional financial holdings alongside his digital assets.
Mortgages, mortgage rates, and property detailsHegseth’s financial disclosure lists two mortgages on his primary residence, with each loan falling between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000. A new mortgage obtained in 2025 carries an interest rate of 8.5 percent.
Monitoring investor behavior across asset classes, particularly in rapidly evolving sectors like meme tokens, has gained additional importance. In the meme token market, an internet trend can transform into millions of dollars of interest within days. According to data shared by Fomo App, a trade involving “Niu Lai”—which turned an initial $99 investment into approximately $370,000, stands out as a striking example of this activity. In this market, tracking not only prices but also the timing and token choices of investors is crucial. Fomo App brings token discovery and trading together on a single platform, featuring social feeds, investor rankings, and trade notifications. Discover Fomo App to follow the world of meme tokens alongside investor activity.
Broader context: Trump’s digital asset incomePresident Trump reported making $1.4 billion from digital assets through 2025. Separate filings in May revealed that Trump made repeated purchases of Coinbase and Strategy shares, reflecting continued exposure to cryptocurrency-related investments.
President Trump has reported $1.4 billion in digital asset gains, with filings showing ongoing accumulation of both Coinbase and Strategy shares.
Cryptocurrency analyst Benjamin Cowen has presented a revised strategy for navigating the Bitcoin market in the fourth quarter of 2026, urging investors to move away from forecasting and instead focus on responding directly to current price movements. This guidance comes as Bitcoin challenges a critical technical level near $83,000, breaking its previous May high and signaling a potential shift away from the well-known four-year cycle.
Strategic shift amid technical breakoutCowen highlighted that Bitcoin’s recent move above its May peak on the weekly chart has triggered his reevaluation of market strategies. He believes this breakout marks the end of predictable cycle-driven movements and calls for a more flexible, chart-centered approach through the end of the year.
The outcome of the current weekly candle is set to play a pivotal role in determining Bitcoin’s trajectory going into 2027. Cowen’s new framework centers on whether Bitcoin can maintain its position above the recently surpassed resistance level.
“You don’t have to predict what happens; I think reacting is better in this case,” noted Cowen, emphasizing that a responsive approach is superior to attempting to forecast the market’s exact direction.
Bullish and bearish scenariosAccording to Cowen’s analysis, two primary scenarios may unfold. Should Bitcoin close the week above its May high and maintain this level, the market could see renewed strength for buyers and the possibility of an extended uptrend through the final quarter of the year.
Alternatively, if Bitcoin fails to hold above its May peak and drops back below, Cowen suggests this would constitute a false breakout. In such a situation, Bitcoin may undergo a seasonal correction commonly observed at year-end, though he does not anticipate a return to new cycle lows.
In both cases, Cowen warns that strict prediction efforts may be unproductive in the current climate, with a focus on monitoring meaningful price levels proving more effective.
Advisory on investment strategiesFor investors aiming to navigate the remainder of 2026, Cowen recommends dollar-cost averaging (DCA) as a prudent approach, taking advantage of well-documented midterm seasonal trends to gradually accumulate positions amid ongoing volatility.
He maintains that, despite the possibility of short-term turbulence in October or November, Bitcoin’s broader macro trend remains favorable, with early 2027 positioned as a period of likely strong performance.
Given the technical importance of tracking not only price levels but also investor activity and market timing, trends in related segments become increasingly significant. In the meme token space, the rapid movement of capital highlights the importance of real-time observations. For instance, Fomo App data reveals a notable trade where an initial $99 investment in “Niu Lai” ballooned to about $370,000. Fomo App has emerged as a hub for token discovery and trading, integrating social feeds, investor rankings, and trade notifications to help users follow the fast-paced world of meme tokens and investor behavior.
This week featured significant developments in crypto regulation, blockchain infrastructure, and global finance as policymakers and organizations moved to address the sector’s evolving landscape. US Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Hester Peirce delivered a compelling critique of current anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) frameworks during a speech at SIFMA’s Digital Assets Conference. Peirce stated that while regulatory compliance is essential, the prevailing approach of collecting extensive personal data from customers is flawed.
SEC’s Peirce calls for modernized verificationSpeaking in her last weeks as an SEC commissioner, Peirce highlighted the security risks and privacy concerns that stem from storing large amounts of sensitive customer data. She argued that emerging technologies like zero-knowledge proofs and attribute-based credentials could confirm critical facts, such as a person’s age or investor status, without requiring institutions to collect or keep underlying records.
Peirce emphasized that her views are personal and do not signal imminent regulatory change. Nevertheless, her remarks came at a time when regulators and market participants are re-examining the balance between compliance and user privacy.
Regulators are now considering solutions that enable compliance without unnecessary data collection, as innovations like zero-knowledge proofs offer ways to verify requirements while respecting privacy.
US government and dollar-backed stablecoin pushAmid geopolitical and technological shifts, the Trump administration is considering public-private ventures to promote dollar-backed stablecoins abroad. The Treasury Department, State Department, and US International Development Finance Corporation are reportedly involved in discussions aiming to secure the dollar’s role as the global digital currency. Although the initiative’s details and timeline remain unclear, the topic has moved into the policy arena at the highest levels.
Separately, Binance announced plans to rename its Spot Accounts to “Stocks Accounts” by 2027 and transfer user assets from Funding Accounts in advance. With millions of users affected, any operational change at the world’s largest crypto exchange has wide-ranging implications.
X, formerly known as Twitter, filed lawsuits against users accused of manipulating its creator-revenue program via fake Bitcoin influencer accounts. The company is seeking to curb new techniques in crypto fraud, which have recently shifted focus from wallet drainage to engagement farming.
ECB adopts blockchain for institutional paymentsThe European Central Bank introduced Pontes, a wholesale settlement platform connecting distributed ledger systems with its core TARGET payments infrastructure. Thirteen major institutions, including Deutsche Bank, Santander, and Clearstream, joined the launch, enabling central bank money to settle tokenized asset transactions. Pontes underpins the institutional layer of digital finance, distinct from any retail-focused digital euro pilots.
The Pontes platform establishes important connectivity between traditional settlement infrastructure and private blockchain networks, marking a notable milestone for institutional tokenized finance.
Amid these technical advances, market watchers note that, particularly in low-liquidity environments, price and volume spikes often reflect speculative behavior rather than underlying fundamentals. In the meme token market, an internet trend can transform into millions of dollars of interest within days. According to data shared by Fomo App, a trade involving “Niu Lai”—which turned an initial $99 investment into approximately $370,000, stands out as a striking example of this activity. In this market, tracking not only prices but also the timing and token choices of investors is crucial. Fomo App brings token discovery and trading together on a single platform, featuring social feeds, investor rankings, and trade notifications. Discover Fomo App to follow the world of meme tokens alongside investor activity.
AI regulation and global tech competitionSingapore has intensified its national push for artificial intelligence adoption, while the country’s financial regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, warned that the speed of AI investment growth could pose risks. Authorities maintain that encouraging innovation while managing potential fallout is a delicate balance. Meanwhile, the UK has pressured Google to provide broader access to Android and search functionality for AI assistants and rival developers, echoing regulatory themes emerging from the European Union.
On the geopolitical front, Xi Jinping met with Donald Trump at the White House in the first US state visit in over a decade by a Chinese leader. Trade, AI, and regional tensions dominated the summit, though existing trade deals remained unchanged.
Other notable movements included sharp price action in tokens such as Neon and AntFun. Neon saw brief speculative surges on thin trading activity, while AntFun declined following a reduction in speculative hype and profit-taking by holders.
Numerous altcoins have produced far more impressive gains than BTC over the past week, including XRP, SOL, ADA, LINK, DOGE, NEAR, and more.
It was a rather interesting and unexpected week for the cryptocurrency markets, especially since the setbacks suffered just ten days ago.
Recall the market update from last Friday, in which we reported that BTC had somehow crossed the $80,000 barrier despite the failure of the CLARITY Act in the US Senate and the Fed’s subsequent interest rate hike. The cryptocurrency slipped to $75,000 after both of those developments, but rebounded swiftly and reclaimed the key $80,000 level by Friday afternoon. It hasn’t been below that level since.
Although it was initially stopped at $82,000 during the previous weekend after more bad macro news, this time on the two major war fronts, BTC started the current business week with one of its most impressive rallies this year. It defended the $80,000 support and the bulls drove it higher by $7,000 in less than 24 hours. As such, the cryptocurrency topped $87,000 for the first time since late January on the heels of massive ETF inflows.
It pulled back to $85,000 almost immediately, but the bulls initiated another leg up to $87,300. However, the rejection scenario repeated, and BTC has been unable to recapture its momentum since then. Moreover, it dipped below $83,000 on Thursday before it found support and bounced off to $85,000 earlier today.
The bears were more persistent once again, stopping its progress there and pushing it south to $83,500 as of press time. This means that the largest cryptocurrency is still 5% up weekly, but its performance has dwindled compared to most alts. The graph below will show the clear winners, led by BTW’s massive 73% weekly surge. ENA (52%), NEAR (45%), ONDO (40%), SUI (39%), BCH (32%), and AVAX (29%) follow suit.
Among the largest alts, XRP, LINK, and ADA stand out as the top performers, with gains of 17%-18%. Naturally, this has driven the BTC dominance metric south hard, losing roughly 2% in a week.
You may also like: How Will Crypto Markets Move After $16B in Bitcoin Options Expire Today? 2 Major On-Chain Signals Are Testing the Strength of Bitcoin’s Rally Crypto vs Stocks: What the 200-Day Moving Average Shows Now BTC: $83,500 (+5%) | ETH: $2,685 (+5.9%) | XRP: $1.57 (+17%)
This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss This Signal Has Flipped to Altcoin Season as Crypto Rally Spreads Beyond Bitcoin. We continue with the altseason narrative as Glassnode’s Altcoin Cycle Signal flipped from BTC season to one dominated by altcoins this week, which was not the case during the August rally.
Bitcoin Just Broke Its Correlation With Gold, Stocks, and the Dollar: What Changed? Meanwhile, BTC’s relationship with the largest asset classes such as US equities and the precious metal market has deteriorated as most have failed to follow the cryptocurrency’s resurgence.
Zcash Tops $1,600 After Europe’s First ZEC ETP Debuts. The popular privacy coin continued its impressive ascent in the past several days, surging past $1,600 for the first time in a decade. The latest move higher came after 21Shares launched the first ZEC ETP in Europe.
Bitget Reports $351M Hot Wallet Breach, Says User Funds Are Covered. The week didn’t go by without a major incident as Bitget reported an incident in which bad actors swiped over $350 million in various cryptocurrencies. The exchange promised that every dollar of that loss falls under its User Protection Fund, so customers’ balances will remain whole.
Ondo Finance Unveils BlackRock-Backed On-chain Portfolios for Investors. Ondo launched three new on-chain portfolio products based on BlackRock strategies, aiming to integrate traditional portfolio management with blockchain. Perhaps it’s no surprise that its native token is among the top gainers over the past week.
Strategy’s Bitcoin Stash Hits 846,000 After Fresh 950 BTC Purchase. After another pause, this time a smaller one of just three weeks, the world’s largest corporate holder of bitcoin resumed its purchases, accumulating 950 BTC for $75.7 million. Interestingly, Strive made an even more impressive buy this week, scooping 1,355 units for $107.7 million.
Fundstrat’s Tom Lee expects Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) to maintain a $150,000 target while arguing Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) could eventually reach $60,000 as tokenization, Wall Street adoption and AI bring a much larger pool of investors into digital assets.
Why Lee Calls It Bigger Bull MarketIn a "Money Talks" interview on Sept. 24, Lee noted that past cycles were largely driven by specific crypto-native themes: initial coin offerings in 2017, NFTs and meme coins during the pandemic-era boom, and, more recently, stablecoins.
This time, Lee sees a much broader combination of catalysts.
Tokenization is accelerating, Regulatory backdrop has become more crypto-supportive, and Financial institutions are increasingly exploring blockchain infrastructure. AI and autonomous agents could create another source of demand for crypto-based payments and settlement. Long periods of price consolidation across crypto also strengthen his bullish outlook.
Some assets have spent roughly five years trading within broad ranges, which Lee believes could ultimately produce decisive breakouts.
Ethereum’s Eventual $60,000, Bitcoin’s $150,000Lee has maintained his $150,000 Bitcoin target, even as it consolidates after its latest rally. After peaking at $87,000 during a two-week rally, Bitcoin traded largely flat through Sep. 24 and is now hovering around $85,000.
Ethereum could offer even greater upside if institutional adoption of blockchain technology continues, Lee said.
He highlighted Ethereum’s roughly five-year consolidation and compared its current setup with the breakout that followed the 2018 bear market, which eventually produced an approximately 17-fold rally.
He advocates that ETH could multiply 10x to 12x above its prior highs of $5,000, placing it at around $60,000 in a couple of years.
In the shorter term, Lee sees $3,000 as a reasonable target and expects ETH to eventually move well above its previous highs and peak to an all-time high this year.
What Is the Rule Of "10 Best Days"Lee argues investors should be cautious about attempting to perfectly time crypto markets.
Digital assets tend to generate a disproportionate amount of their gains during a handful of sharp rallies, which Lee describes through his "rule of 10 best days."
His broader thesis rests on crypto becoming increasingly integrated with TradFi rather than simply attracting another wave of speculative traders.
"I think we’re early," Lee said. "I think crypto could run a lot."
As Bitcoin (BTC) recently rebounded to around $85,000, holders have started taking profits, but the volume of realized profits is significantly lower than during previous market peaks. Data shows BTC holders have accumulated roughly $2.4 billion in realized profits recently, while daily realized profits typically hit $7 billion to $10 billion during past market peaks. BTC has risen approximately 44% so far this quarter, hitting a peak near $85,000, marking its best quarterly performance since Q4 2024, after three consecutive quarters of declines. Meanwhile, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen a combined net inflow of around $2.84 billion over the past six trading days, exceeding BTC holders' realized profits in the same period; year-to-date, the ETFs' cumulative net inflow has also turned positive at roughly $800 million. Ethereum (ETH) has also shown signs of capital outflow from exchanges: around 410,000 ETH has been moved out of trading platforms over the past month, while U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs have attracted a combined $680 million in net inflows over the past four trading days. Following the $452 million Bitget hack, BTC, ETH and other major crypto assets have not shown significant signs of weakening so far. Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury yields and the U.S. Dollar Index have temporarily slowed their rally, but crude oil markets remain highly volatile due to news related to U.S.-Iran tensions.
Japan’s 30-year bond yield climbed to a record 4.223% on Friday. That is the highest level since Tokyo first sold the maturity in 1999.
Borrowing costs are rising across the curve. The 10-year yield reached 3.055% on Thursday, its highest point since August 1996.
Why Japan’s 30-Year Bond Yield Keeps ClimbingMonetary policy is the first driver. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) raised rates to 1.25% on September 18, the highest level since 1995. The board split 7-2, yet the central bank signaled that further hikes remain on the table, according to its statement.
Fiscal strain adds to the pressure. Government ministries requested a record ¥143.1 trillion for fiscal 2027, Reuters reported. Debt servicing alone accounts for ¥36.64 trillion. Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry raised its assumed borrowing rate to 3.8% from 3%.
Selling abroad has also spilled into Tokyo. The US 10-year Treasury yield broke 5% on September 15 during a global bond sell-off. The Federal Reserve then lifted its target range to between 3.75% and 4%.
However, the yen has not benefited. The currency slid toward 158 per dollar after the BOJ decision. A similar split appeared when Japan’s 2-year yield hit a 31-year high in August.
Katsutoshi Inadome of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management linked the two trends.
“Japanese bond yields are facing upward pressure as inflation concerns grew on a weaker yen.”
What Japan’s Record Yield Means for Bitcoin
🚨THIS IS INSANE
Japan's 30-year bond yield just hit 4.223%, its highest level ever in history.
Japan is now paying over 4% to borrow for 30 years – a historic reversal from decades of ultra low rates. pic.twitter.com/rR5om8SOil
— Bull Theory (@BullTheoryio) September 25, 2026
Higher safe returns raise the bar for risk assets. A 30-year Japanese bond now pays more than 4%, which could draw capital away from crypto.
The larger threat sits in the yen carry trade. Investors borrow cheap yen and buy higher-yielding assets abroad. A sharp yen rally would make those loans costlier and could force selling.
Historically, that risk has hit crypto hard. During the 2024 yen shock, Bitcoin and Ethereum fell roughly 20% as positions unwound.
For now, Bitcoin (BTC) trades near $84,033, down 0.5% in 24 hours, according to BeInCrypto data. The wide gap between US and Japanese rates keeps the carry trade open.
Therefore, the yen may be the signal to watch. A sudden reversal in USD/JPY would suggest carry positions are closing, and Bitcoin could feel it quickly.
Liquid Capital founder Jack Yi wrote in a post that after Bitcoin (BTC) rose to around $86,000, it is facing a normal correction. In the current bull market, investors should "be bearish but not short" and wait patiently for the next long trading opportunity. He noted that for specific trading opportunities, Ethereum (ETH) is showing stronger performance; trading infrastructure assets such as UNI and HYPE are gaining market acceptance, while ZEC is a "strong-whale asset".
Pi Network price hovered at $0.0893 on September 25, extending its seven-day gain to 7%. The token rose roughly 2.7% in 24 hours as traders tracked another network upgrade and changes to identity checks.
Bitcoin price traded near $83,600, Ethereum near $2,690, and XRP price around $1.58. The overall crypto market climbed 1.2% to about $2.99 trillion, giving smaller tokens a firmer backdrop.
Protocol 28 Testnet Upgrade Puts October Rollout in Focus Protocol 28 has entered Pi Network’s Testnet following the Mainnet rollout of Protocol 27, according to community upgrade reports. The changes aim to reduce transaction-data delays, support grouped smart-contract upgrades, and improve how applications update stored information. Node operators have been told to upgrade by October 13, ahead of a planned October 16 Mainnet activation.
Those dates remain targets, and successful Testnet checks will matter before the upgrade reaches the live network. The October event concerns a protocol upgrade; Pi’s Mainnet is already operating.
🚀 PI NETWORK PROTOCOL v28 IS NOW ON TESTNET!$Pi’s next protocol upgrade is entering testing, opening the door to further improvements in network performance, scalability and ecosystem capabilities.
🛠️ Testnet first. Mainnet comes next.
The Pi Network continues moving forward.… pic.twitter.com/2zpGKywqiw
— Pi News (@CTNewsApp) September 25, 2026
For PI, a sustained move above $0.090 could put this week’s $0.0945 area back in view. A slip below $0.085 would weaken the recent recovery and return attention to the seven-day low near $0.083. These are nearby trading levels, not assured outcomes of the software release.
KYC Upgrades Unblock More Pi Network Users Pi Network said its latest verification changes cleared a duplicate-account flag affecting more than 417,000 previously blocked users. Those eligible users can resume KYC, although they must still satisfy any remaining checks.
A separate fix is intended to help about 497,000 users unable to claim migrated balances. Pi attributed that problem to insufficient wallet funds for network fees on accounts created through Fast-Track.
It also adjusted video-processing systems and broadened liveness-check access for older phones. Selected users can try palm-print verification, while affected applicants can resubmit missing details. Wider access could support network activity, but it does not establish a direct cause for PI’s price gains.
Could Pi Network Price Reach $0.10 if Momentum Improves? The Pi Coin price stood at $0.08904 on September 25. The Pi Network price had rebounded from a mid-month low near $0.082 but was struggling to hold above $0.090
A sustained four-hour close above $0.090 could bring $0.095 back into view. That level marked an earlier resistance area. If future Pi Coin outlook clears it, the chart’s next marked target is $0.100.
The relative strength index stood at 61. That suggests improving momentum, though the reading remains below the usual overbought threshold.
The MACD line remained slightly below its signal line, with both readings near zero. That gap leaves the rebound without clear momentum confirmation.
PI/USDT 4-hour chart: TradingView If Pi Network price fails to hold $0.090, recent support near $0.087 becomes the first downside level. A break below it could expose $0.085, followed by the mid-month low near $0.082.
