Bitcoin surged past the key resistance level of $82,000 to hit a high of $87,300, triggering liquidations of around $750 million in bearish crypto derivative positions, with buying pressure from short covering further fueling the price rally. Since the breakout, Bitcoin’s derivative open interest has added roughly $2 billion, indicating a rapid return of market leverage. Nansen analyst Nicolai Sondergaard noted that “prices are turning bullish faster than position adjustments.” U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, which had faced headwinds from the CLARITY Act and Federal Reserve rate hikes, saw a combined outflow of $746 million on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by inflows of $160 million and $433 million on Thursday and Friday respectively. The average cost basis for U.S. Bitcoin ETF holders is around $82,200; with Bitcoin breaking above this level, ETF investors as a whole have returned to profitability. Looking ahead, Sondergaard identifies $87,000 as the next key level, with $90,000 and $92,000 as subsequent targets; Wintermute trader Jasper De Maere also believes Bitcoin could test $90,000. However, he pointed out that breaking above the 50-week moving average is merely a positive signal, and significant volatility could still occur in the short term. The market is now closely watching whether spot and ETF inflows can sustain the rally. Sondergaard warned that if spot demand fails to keep pace with the growth in derivative leverage, the rally could become leverage-driven and reverse rapidly amid rising U.S. Treasury yields or geopolitical shocks. Wintermute advised focusing on ETF flows, perpetual contract open interest and funding rates in the coming days, as well as the options expiration this Friday.
TL;DR Strategy bought 950 BTC during the week ending September 20 for $75.7 million. The purchases were made at an average price of $79,670 per Bitcoin. Strategy now reports 846,000 BTC acquired for an aggregate $63.80 billion. Strategy has added another 950 Bitcoin to its balance sheet, extending the corporate treasury strategy that continues to define the company.
An SEC filing dated September 21 shows the purchases were made between September 14 and September 20 for an aggregate $75.7 million in cash. The average purchase price was $79,670 per BTC.
Strategy’s Bitcoin Stack Reaches 846,000 BTC Following the latest acquisition, Strategy reported total holdings of 846,000 BTC.
The company says those coins were acquired for an aggregate $63.80 billion, putting its average acquisition price at $75,416 per Bitcoin.
The timing is worth keeping precise. The filing landed on September 21, but it covers purchases made over the prior week rather than a single transaction executed on filing day.
That distinction has become increasingly important with Strategy’s regular treasury updates, which often bundle several purchases into one disclosure.
The same filing also shows the company repurchased 1,771,238 shares of its STRC preferred stock for $174 million.
Corporate Treasury Strategy Keeps Expanding Strategy’s latest move reinforces how aggressively it continues to use the public markets and its capital structure to support a Bitcoin-heavy balance sheet.
At 846,000 BTC, the company’s exposure is no longer a side allocation. Bitcoin is central to how investors value the business, how its financing activity is interpreted and how changes in BTC price feed through to the company’s balance-sheet narrative.
The latest purchase was made above Strategy’s aggregate average cost, which also means every incremental acquisition at current levels nudges that blended cost basis higher.
For now, the key confirmed figures are the 950 BTC weekly purchase and the resulting 846,000 BTC total. The filing does not indicate that all 950 BTC were bought on September 21 itself.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
XRP reached $1.49 on Monday, encountering a crucial resistance level after an 8.7% rally that drew significant market attention. Egrag Crypto, a prominent analyst focusing on support and resistance patterns, identified a confluent resistance zone between $1.49 and $1.54, which XRP is currently testing.
XRP tests critical resistance zoneThe $1.49 to $1.54 range forms the lower boundary of a major resistance channel for XRP. Egrag Crypto stated that successfully surpassing this area and establishing it as support could activate an upward trend toward $1.64, highlighted as his “white line” target.
If the price climbs beyond $1.64, the next major target emerges at $2, mirroring price levels seen during the mid-August rally when XRP peaked between $1.65 and $1.70. Multiple market tracking platforms have reported similar projections for the token’s potential upside.
Analysts are setting expectations for XRP to approach $2 soon, provided it maintains momentum above $1.54, with resistance at $1.64 to $1.70 marking the next crucial area to watch.
However, if XRP fails to hold above $1.49 to $1.54, Egrag Crypto pointed to the risk of significant price swings between $1.30 and $1.10. He has charted four previous rejections in this territory, revealing potential liquidity pockets at $1.05 and $0.97 if a bull trap scenario unfolds.
Volume surges in derivatives and spot marketsMonday’s move was characterized by high trading activity, with derivatives markets outpacing spot trading. According to SoSoValue, spot trading volume in XRP reached $3.8 billion over 24 hours. Meanwhile, derivatives volume surged by 22%, surpassing $5.39 billion.
CoinGlass data revealed a 12% jump in open interest, pushing totals to $3.42 billion. Short sellers experienced $9.93 million in liquidations, while bullish traders faced $1.59 million in losses.
Derivatives volumes have overtaken spot, with open interest and liquidations highlighting intense volatility as bulls and bears battle at these resistance levels.
Market observers noted that much of XRP’s price momentum remains closely tied to Bitcoin, which crossed $84,000 for the first time since January. XRP and several top altcoins have benefited from this broader bullish sentiment, moving in correlation with the lead cryptocurrency’s recovery.
Meme token trends and investor behaviorWhile monitoring technical resistance zones like the current one facing XRP is essential for predicting short-term moves, activity within the meme token sector also demands attention. An internet-driven trend can rapidly generate millions of dollars in trading volume and price action.
Data from Fomo App highlighted an example where a $99 investment in “Niu Lai” turned into approximately $370,000, underscoring the explosive nature of meme token speculation. In these markets, tracking not only price levels but also investor timing and token selection becomes vital.
Fomo App offers a platform integrating token discovery, trading, social feeds, investor rankings, and real-time trade alerts, providing users with resources to follow meme token trends and investor movements as they unfold.
XRP Options Price in 8.9% Move Through September 27, Largest Among Major Cryptos.
XRP options are pricing in the largest seven-day move among four major cryptocurrencies through September 27, according to options data presented using figures from Glassnode and Coinbase.
The chart shows an 8.9% one-standard-deviation, or 1σ, implied move for XRP. That compares with 8.0% for Solana (SOL), 6.9% for Ethereum (ETH), and 5.0% for Bitcoin (BTC). The figures represent the magnitude of the options-implied move in either direction rather than a forecast of whether prices will rise or fall.
XRP Options Price in 8.9% XRP Implied Move Stands 1.79 Times Historical Median XRP also shows the largest gap between its options-implied move and its historical median seven-day move.
The chart places XRP’s historical median move at approximately 5.0%, compared with the current 8.9% implied move. The implied figure is therefore about 1.79 times the historical median, a difference of approximately 3.9 percentage points.
Solana has an 8.0% implied move, compared with a historical median of approximately 6.6%. Ethereum’s options imply a 6.9% move, versus a historical median of about 5.1%.
Bitcoin has the smallest implied move among the four assets at 5.0%, while its historical median seven-day move stands at approximately 3.6%.
The comparison means that all four cryptocurrencies have seven-day implied moves above their respective historical median moves in the dataset.
XRP Leads Seven-Day Options Pricing Ranked by the magnitude of the options-implied move, XRP leads at 8.9%, followed by SOL at 8.0%, ETH at 6.9%, and BTC at 5.0%.
The chart uses at-the-money implied volatility to calculate the expected seven-day absolute move and is based on data available as of September 20, 2026.
These percentages describe the range being reflected in options pricing through September 27. They do not specify the direction of the move or indicate that the full implied percentage will necessarily occur.
The cryptocurrency derivatives market experienced its largest wave of forced short liquidations in recent months, with total losses soaring to $789.57 million in the past 24 hours. Data from analytics provider CoinGlass revealed that short traders alone faced liquidations worth $665.81 million following sharp price increases across several major digital assets.
Altcoin short sellers face heavy lossesWhile Bitcoin and Ethereum have historically dominated liquidation events, the latest cycle saw a significant share of losses shifting to altcoins. Market participants with short positions in assets like XRP, NEAR, and Zcash were particularly affected as strong rallies prompted a cascade of forced liquidations.
NEAR recorded the largest jump among these, climbing 11.51% to reach $4.06 and triggering $8.88 million in short liquidations in a single session. Meanwhile, XRP climbed 7.99% to $1.47, contributing to $10.04 million in liquidated short positions. Zcash (ZEC) also participated in the surge, posting a 6.24% increase to $1,514.93, with $11.51 million in short liquidations. In just a few hours, short sellers targeting these three tokens absorbed over $30 million in losses.
A pronounced build-up of highly leveraged short trades led to a textbook short squeeze, as rising prices forced exchanges to trigger automated buybacks for collateral coverage. These forced purchases amplified the momentum, sending values higher and liquidating more short positions in succession.
Bitcoin and Ethereum liquidations dominateBitcoin accounted for the highest single-day nominal liquidations, with $384.71 million wiped from traders holding short positions. The leading cryptocurrency advanced by 5.73%, pushing past the $85,000 mark. The largest individual liquidation took place on Binance in the BTCUSDT pair, valued at $11.29 million.
Ethereum short sellers followed, absorbing $157.97 million in forced liquidations as ETH gained 5.80% to approach a major psychological threshold at $2,710.
Solana (SOL) also saw an impressive move, with the price rising 8.15% to $117.28, resulting in $20.21 million in liquidated shorts.
Critical price zones and meme token momentumLiquidity maps from CoinGlass indicate that fresh risk zones for Bitcoin shorts now cluster around $86,385, where $72.26 million remains at stake. For Ethereum, the comparable zone is $2,757, with $30.31 million at risk. Both thresholds are less than 2% above current prices, suggesting further liquidations could quickly follow if upward movement resumes.
NEAR and XRP short sellers face renewed pressure at $4.28 and $1.49, respectively. A rapid contraction in open interest for short positions signals that sellers are capitulating, while buying momentum strengthens across spot markets.
As technical levels and stop order cascades come into focus, the meme token market has continued to draw speculative activity. An example, illustrated by Fomo App, saw a $99 trade in “Niu Lai” balloon into roughly $370,000 within days. In such fast-moving markets, close tracking of both token selection and timing is critical for participants. Fomo App integrates real-time token discovery, trading, investor rankings, and social feeds, allowing users to follow meme token dynamics and investor behavior as they unfold.
Short seller losses across the largest assets have led to a shift in risk zones, with Bitcoin and Ethereum bears now facing potential additional liquidations as prices approach $86,385 and $2,757, respectively. Market momentum currently favors buyers following a rapid decline in open short positions.
Traders betting against Bitcoin are getting wrecked to start the week, with nearly $1 billion in leveraged bets wiped out as BTC’s price punches through $86,000.
In the last 24 hours, $930.04 million in leveraged crypto bets have been liquidated, says CoinGlass.
Most of that is shorts. Bitcoin shorts alone come to $454.95 million. Bitcoin longs are $52.96 million.
Ethereum followed with $172.68 million in shorts and $28.61 million in longs.
More than 131,000 traders were forced out. The largest single close was an $11.29 million Bitcoin position on Binance.
Bitcoin is trading at $86,038 at time of publishing, up 5.5% in the last 24 hours.
Crypto markets delivered a sharp reminder on September 21 of what happens when too many traders lean the same way at the wrong time. A broad price surge across digital assets wiped out $928.8 million in leveraged positions over 24 hours, catching short sellers badly offside, according to data from @coinglass_com.
Shorts Take the Brunt Of the total liquidated, $767.3 million came from short positions, more than four times the $161.4 million that hit longs. In all, 130,256 traders were forced out of their positions. The scale of short-side losses reflects a market that had been leaning heavily bearish heading into the move, leaving bears exposed when prices turned.
Bitcoin led the damage. $BTC positions accounted for $503.2 million of liquidations, with $ETH close behind at $201.7 million. The figures are consistent with the broader pattern seen throughout 2026, where sharp upside moves have repeatedly flushed out over-leveraged short sellers.
The mechanics here are well understood. When that process hits short sellers en masse,
Context Within a Volatile Year The September 21 event sits within a year marked by several large liquidation episodes. More recently, a rally in August sent Bitcoin toward $85,000 and produced back-to-back sessions of billion-dollar-plus liquidations.
It is worth noting that
Sources:
CoinGlass Liquidation Data
CoinDesk: Bitcoin tops $75,000 as shorts wiped out
Crypto Times: Crypto Liquidations Hit $795M as Bitcoin Surges
The cryptocurrency market continues its strong upward momentum, with Bitcoin (BTC) surpassing $87,000 and Ethereum (ETH) exceeding $2,800. According to OKX data, Bitcoin’s price rose to $87,010, gaining 7.41% in the last 24 hours, while Ethereum reached $2,800.26, extending its daily gain to 5.98%.
Weekly chart showing the recent rise in BTC price. There are multiple factors behind the market rally. Chief among them is the renewed strong inflow of capital into US spot Bitcoin ETFs. According to data reported by Bloomberg, US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of approximately $593 million over Thursday and Friday. This offset a significant portion of the outflows seen earlier in the week, increasing expectations of renewed institutional demand.
Weekly chart showing the recent rise in ETH price. Regulatory developments also supported market sentiment. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) granted a five-year regulatory exemption to certain platforms for trading tokenized shares on the blockchain. This move is seen as a potential step towards integrating blockchain-based financial products into traditional markets in the U.S.
On the macroeconomic front, the recovery in risk appetite was another factor supporting cryptocurrencies. The fall in the US 10-year Treasury yield below 5%, the drop in oil prices, and the Nasdaq’s rise to a record high led by technology stocks made it easier for investors to turn to riskier assets. Bitcoin also gained over 6% in value during the same period.
However, one of the strongest short-term drivers of the rally was the short squeeze in the futures market. According to CoinGlass data, a total of $926 million worth of leveraged positions were liquidated in the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours. Approximately $785 million of these liquidations consisted of short positions, indicating that investors who had taken short positions as the price rose were forced to close their positions. The amount of liquidations in long positions remained at approximately $142 million.
A total of $509 million worth of Bitcoin positions and approximately $198 million worth of Ethereum positions were liquidated. The largest single liquidation occurred on the BTC/USDT trading pair on Binance, with a position size of approximately $11.3 million.
*This is not investment advice.
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Bitcoin rallied to an almost eight-month high as institutional interest surged, while crude oil prices fell below $100 and Treasury yields slipped below 5%.
Notable Statistics:
Coinglass data shows 130,362 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours for $928.11 million. SoSoValue data shows net inflows of $433 million from spot Bitcoin ETFs on Friday. Spot Ethereum ETFs saw net inflows of $143.8 million. In the past 24 hours, top gainers include Bitway, Pepe and Dogecoin. Notable Developments:
Strategy Buys 950 Bitcoin For $76M as MSTR Surges 8%: What’s Going On?Top 6 Crypto Stocks Climbing with Bitcoin Right NowBitmine Buys 27,562 ETH as Tom Lee Says Crypto’s Bull Market Is ‘Underway’Is Solana’s Next ‘Token Supercycle’ Taking Shape? Expert Identifies Three Key IndicatorsBitcoin Hits 7-Month High as Coinbase CEO Sees $400,000, Says Crypto Won’t Wait for CongressMichael Saylor Says ‘Welcome Back’ as Bitcoin Bear Admits: ‘I Was Wrong’XRP Jumps 8% as Ripple Says Asset Managers Eye XRPL UpgradeTrader Notes:
Heavily followed crypto trader CrediBULL Crypto said Bitcoin is now pushing into higher-timeframe resistance, raising the risk of a short- to medium-term pullback.
He said such a move could still form a higher low above $60,000 before BTC resumes toward $100,000-plus, while consolidation could give altcoins room to rally.
Jelle noted Bitcoin’s higher high signals the start of a new bull market, with a weekly close at $83,000 or above providing further confirmation.
He believes traders now face a choice between buying immediately, waiting for confirmation or hoping for a better entry on a pullback.
Image: Shutterstock
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Selling Bitcoin to access cash is the crypto equivalent of selling your house to pay rent. Circle wants to end that tradeoff for institutional holders. The company launched a Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing feature on its Circle Mint platform, giving eligible institutions a way to unlock USDC liquidity while keeping their BTC position intact.
The feature went live on September 2, 2026, with Morpho as its first integrated lending market, running across both Ethereum and Arc, Circle’s new EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain.
How the mechanics actually work The workflow has three steps. An institution deposits BTC into Circle Mint. That BTC gets wrapped into cirBTC, a tokenized version backed 1:1 by BTC held in custody at Circle National Trust. The cirBTC then serves as collateral inside Morpho vaults, and the resulting USDC loan settles directly back into the borrower’s Circle Mint account.
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Repaying the loan releases the collateral, returning cirBTC and eventually the underlying BTC. The whole cycle stays within the Circle Mint interface, so institutions avoid stitching together custody, bridging, and DeFi protocols on their own.
Chainlink’s proof-of-reserves verification underpins the cirBTC backing, giving lenders on the other side of the trade an on-chain confirmation that the collateral is real and accounted for. Interest rates and collateral ratios are determined by Morpho’s market parameters rather than set by Circle, which means they float with supply and demand.
One geographic caveat: the service is not available to clients based in New York.
The day-one numbers from Arc Circle’s Arc mainnet launched publicly around September 16, 2026, and the early demand for cirBTC-backed borrowing was hard to ignore. On Arc’s launch day, Morpho vaults backed by cirBTC drew over $150 million in USDC and EURC deposits.
Why this matters beyond the product itself The choice of Morpho as the launch partner reflects a deliberate bet on permissioned DeFi. Morpho’s vault architecture allows for curated risk parameters, which makes it better suited to institutional compliance requirements than fully open lending pools. Circle has signaled plans to expand to additional protocols, with Aave named as a future integration target.
Arc’s role in this picture is worth watching. By launching cirBTC borrowing simultaneously on Ethereum and its own chain, Circle is not just offering a product. It is seeding demand for activity on Arc itself. A lending market with $150 million in day-one deposits gives developers and other protocols a reason to build on the chain.
For institutional Bitcoin holders specifically, the DABB feature changes the calculus on holding BTC through market cycles. Rather than facing a binary choice between holding and selling, large holders can now borrow against their position to fund operations, meet capital calls, or deploy into other opportunities, without triggering a taxable sale or abandoning their BTC upside.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Stablecoin issuer Circle has launched a Bitcoin-backed borrowing service for institutional clients, allowing eligible Circle Mint customers to use BTC as collateral to borrow USDC through onchain lending markets.
The service, called Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing, lets customers deposit Bitcoin, mint Circle’s wrapped Bitcoin token cirBTC and supply it as collateral to supported third-party lending markets on Arc or Ethereum. Morpho is the first lending protocol supported, with Circle planning to add Aave and other protocols. The rollout coincides with cirBTC going live on Arc on Monday.
According to Circle, borrowed USDC is deposited directly into the customer’s Circle Mint balance, while borrowing rates, collateral requirements and liquidation thresholds are set by the third-party lending market. The borrowing positions are overcollateralized, with collateral supplied through a customer-controlled wallet to third-party DeFi protocols rather than lent directly by Circle. New York clients are excluded.
Circle previously launched cirBTC on Ethereum in June. The token is backed 1:1 by Bitcoin held in custody by Circle National Trust.
Both launches come days after Circle rolled out the Arc mainnet, its layer-1 blockchain targeting stablecoin payments and financial markets. Arc uses USDC as its native gas token and supports tokenized assets including BlackRock’s BUIDL and Circle’s USYC.
Source: Circle
Institutional crypto lending expandsCircle’s launch follows a broader push to give institutional investors access to crypto-backed borrowing while keeping collateral within established custody arrangements.
In February, Anchorage Digital partnered with Kamino to allow institutions to borrow against staked Solana (SOL) held at Anchorage Digital Bank, giving borrowers access to onchain liquidity without moving the collateral out of qualified custody.
Bitcoin-backed models followed in March, when Lombard partnered with Bitwise to develop a system for borrowing against BTC held in custody, with Morpho providing the lending infrastructure. Unlike Circle’s model, which converts deposited BTC into cirBTC for use as collateral, Lombard’s system was designed to keep the underlying Bitcoin in custody without wrapping or bridging it.
BitGo also expanded its institutional lending offering in March, launching a financing platform for borrowing and lending against liquid, staked and locked crypto assets held in custody. Its portfolio-based model allows multiple assets to serve as collateral rather than requiring collateral to be posted for individual loans.
Magazine: Kyle Samani predicts SOL flippening, claims ‘no one’ uses ETH
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.
Stablecoin issuer Circle has launched a Bitcoin-backed borrowing service for institutional clients, allowing eligible Circle Mint customers to use BTC as collateral to borrow USDC through onchain lending markets.
The service, called Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing, lets customers deposit Bitcoin, mint Circle’s wrapped Bitcoin token cirBTC and supply it as collateral to supported third-party lending markets on Arc or Ethereum. Morpho is the first lending protocol supported, with Circle planning to add Aave and other protocols. The rollout coincides with cirBTC going live on Arc on Monday.
According to Circle, borrowed USDC is deposited directly into the customer’s Circle Mint balance, while borrowing rates, collateral requirements and liquidation thresholds are set by the third-party lending market. The borrowing positions are overcollateralized, with collateral supplied through a customer-controlled wallet to third-party DeFi protocols rather than lent directly by Circle. New York clients are excluded.
Circle previously launched cirBTC on Ethereum in June. The token is backed 1:1 by Bitcoin held in custody by Circle National Trust.
Both launches come days after Circle rolled out the Arc mainnet, its layer-1 blockchain targeting stablecoin payments and financial markets. Arc uses USDC as its native gas token and supports tokenized assets including BlackRock’s BUIDL and Circle’s USYC.
Source: Circle
Institutional crypto lending expandsCircle’s launch follows a broader push to give institutional investors access to crypto-backed borrowing while keeping collateral within established custody arrangements.
In February, Anchorage Digital partnered with Kamino to allow institutions to borrow against staked Solana (SOL) held at Anchorage Digital Bank, giving borrowers access to onchain liquidity without moving the collateral out of qualified custody.
Bitcoin-backed models followed in March, when Lombard partnered with Bitwise to develop a system for borrowing against BTC held in custody, with Morpho providing the lending infrastructure. Unlike Circle’s model, which converts deposited BTC into cirBTC for use as collateral, Lombard’s system was designed to keep the underlying Bitcoin in custody without wrapping or bridging it.
BitGo also expanded its institutional lending offering in March, launching a financing platform for borrowing and lending against liquid, staked and locked crypto assets held in custody. Its portfolio-based model allows multiple assets to serve as collateral rather than requiring collateral to be posted for individual loans.
Magazine: Kyle Samani predicts SOL flippening, claims ‘no one’ uses ETH
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.
Shares of Circle climbed approximately 6% on Monday amid a broader crypto market surge and the company’s institutional lending expansion. The stablecoin issuer introduced Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing, enabling qualified institutional clients to obtain USDC loans using Bitcoin collateral while maintaining BTC holdings. Users deposit Bitcoin, create cirBTC tokens, and leverage them as collateral via third-party lending platforms on Arc or Ethereum. Morpho protocol is initially supported, with plans to integrate Aave and additional protocols in the future. Users remain subject to fluctuating interest rates, collateral ratio adjustments, and liquidation risks set by the chosen lending platform. Circle Internet Group (CRCL) shares advanced roughly 6% on Monday as Bitcoin surged past $85,000 and the stablecoin provider unveiled a new institutional borrowing solution. CRCL closed Friday at $91.78 and opened Monday trading at $98.09.
Circle Internet Group, CRCL
The newly introduced offering, dubbed Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing, enables qualified Circle Mint clients to leverage Bitcoin holdings as collateral for USDC loans without liquidating their BTC positions. The functionality is accessible via supported onchain lending venues on both Arc and Ethereum networks.
Clients deposit Bitcoin with Circle and generate Circle Wrapped Bitcoin tokens, known as cirBTC. These tokens can then be deployed as collateral through user-controlled wallets, with borrowed USDC transferred directly into their Circle Mint accounts.
This mechanism provides institutions with dollar-denominated capital access while preserving Bitcoin market exposure. Circle indicates the streamlined workflow aims to minimize the platforms and steps typically involved in crypto-collateralized lending.
Circle Broadens Bitcoin and USDC Functionality Morpho serves as the inaugural third-party lending protocol integrated with the service. Circle has signaled that Aave and other lending infrastructure will be incorporated progressively.
The lending arrangements require overcollateralization rather than traditional credit assessment models. Clients can supplement collateral or repay USDC to retrieve their cirBTC holdings.
Circle does not directly provide the loans or establish borrowing parameters. Interest rate levels, collateral ratios, liquidation triggers, and capital availability are governed by the respective third-party marketplace.
The product debut aligns with cirBTC’s availability on Circle’s Arc blockchain network. Each cirBTC token maintains 1:1 backing by native Bitcoin custody through Circle National Trust, per company statements.
Circle initially rolled out cirBTC on Ethereum earlier this year. The Arc integration provides an additional blockchain environment where institutional participants can utilize Bitcoin collateral within Circle’s expanding stablecoin infrastructure.
Arc recently activated its mainnet and employs USDC as its native gas currency. Circle is strategically positioning the network around stablecoin transactions, asset tokenization, and institutional financial applications.
Cryptocurrency Market Upswing Provides Additional Momentum Monday’s CRCL appreciation was not exclusively attributed to the borrowing product announcement. Bitcoin climbed to approximately $85,000, marking its strongest performance since January, which elevated optimism throughout crypto-related equities.
Circle stands to benefit if the product generates heightened institutional appetite for both USDC and cirBTC. The offering also creates another connection point between Circle Mint users and activities occurring on Arc.
Significant risks persist, however. A substantial Bitcoin price decline could force collateral positions toward liquidation thresholds, while borrowing expenses and collateral demands may shift based on prevailing market dynamics.
Circle is additionally dependent on third-party DeFi infrastructure, meaning participants face exposure to smart-contract vulnerabilities, liquidity constraints, and protocol risks beyond Circle’s direct oversight. New York-based customers are presently ineligible for the service.
From an investor perspective, the service introduces another potential driver of USDC utilization, though Circle has not revealed anticipated borrowing volumes or revenue projections tied to the product. Its financial impact will hinge on institutional client adoption rates.
For Monday’s session, the immediate catalyst combined strengthening cryptocurrency valuations with further expansion of Circle’s institutional offerings. Qualified Circle Mint participants can now establish Bitcoin-collateralized USDC borrowing arrangements through Morpho on Arc or Ethereum networks.
@circle has launched Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing, a new service that lets institutional clients access dollar liquidity against their Bitcoin holdings without having to sell them. The product went live on September 21 for eligible Circle Mint customers on @arc and @ethereum.
How It Works The mechanics are straightforward.
Early Demand and Broader Context
Sources:
CoinGape: Circle Rolls Out Bitcoin-Backed Loans for Institutions
Crypto Times: Circle Launches Bitcoin-Backed cirBTC on Arc for DeFi Use
CoinCentral: Circle (CRCL) Stock Jumps 6% as Bitcoin-Backed USDC Borrowing Launches
Circle has launched Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing for eligible Circle Mint customers, creating a new institutional use for Bitcoin and USDC. The service enables customers to deposit bitcoin-backed collateral and use USDC without selling their BTC holdings.
Circle Mint Adds Bitcoin-Backed USDC Borrowing Under the new service, customers deposit BTC and mint Circle Wrapped Bitcoin, known as cirBTC. They can then supply cirBTC to supported third-party lending markets and borrow USDC into their Circle Mint accounts.
The product is available for both Arc and Ethereum, Circle said, with Morpho being the first supported lending protocol. Circle plans to expand access to more lending markets and networks, with Aave support on its way soon. Customers control their positions via their own wallet that is linked to the Circle Mint workflow.
The borrowing positions are overcollateralized, meaning that access is based on the value of the collateral and market rules rather than unsecured credit checks. Rates, liquidation levels, liquidity, and collateral requirements are determined by the lending market chosen and may vary from time to time.
cirBTC Connects Bitcoin Collateral With USDC Liquidity According to Circle, each cirBTC token is backed 1 to 1 with native BTC, and reserves can be verified on-chain. The underlying BTC is held through Circle National Trust, which Circle describes as a federally chartered trust bank.
The structure allows institutions to keep their exposure to Bitcoin and lend using the asset as a program. Borrowed USDC can return to the Circle Mint directly, which reduces the number of platforms involved in the process.
Arc provides Circle-designed infrastructure for stablecoin finance, while Ethereum offers established lending markets and broader onchain activity. Both networks are available to customers depending on the borrowing costs, liquidity requirements, and internal risk management, Circle said. The service may be expanded with additional networks as the company progresses.
TD Cowen Keeps Buy Rating as CRCL Rises After the announcement, Circle stock (CRCL) soared by 2% to $93.69, boosted by Bitcoin’s recovery above $85k. Another catalyst for the recovery has been the SEC-approved temporary relief for limited tokenized U.S. stock trading on approved on-chain venues.
Amid these developments, TD Cowen analyst Bryan Bergin has kept his rating on Circle as Buy while increasing the price target to $92 from $87. The firm pointed to improved reserve economics due to the Federal Reserve rate hike and possible non-reserve expansion from Arc.
The revised target followed the Senate’s failure to advance the CLARITY Act earlier this month. However, TD Cowen has said its investment thesis remained unchanged despite the failed vote, according to reports on the analyst note.
The cirBTC market on Arc holds $14.3 million of USDC borrowed against 287 cirBTC, up from $1.37 million on Sept. 17. Galaxy and Keyrock supply nearly all the dollars. Circle issues the wrapper and the wallet; the loan terms sit with Morpho.
The cirBTC market on Arc holds $14.3 million of USDC borrowed against 287 cirBTC, up from $1.37 million on Sept. 17. Galaxy and Keyrock supply nearly all the dollars. Circle issues the wrapper and the wallet; the loan terms sit with Morpho.
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According to official data, zkSNARKs, an NFT project in the Zcash (ZEC) ecosystem, has broken its issue price, with its floor price currently standing at 0.5 ZEC (approximately $749). Previous reports indicated that the final clearing settlement reserve price for zkSNARKs' auction was 1.5 ZEC. @LeonidasNFT, a well-known builder in the Bitcoin inscriptions era, publicly accused the zkSNARKs team of being a serial "entrepreneur" in the Ordinals space, noting that most of their projects are scams.
NEAR Protocol Price surged to $4.14 after gaining about 70% weekly, extending its strongest rally in several months.
The NEAR price surged by 8% during the past day and has nearly doubled during the past month.
NEAR recently climbed from around $2.20, breaking a multiyear descending trendline and reclaiming the important $3.50 resistance area.
Stronger ecosystem activity, rising trading volume, and renewed confidence across cryptocurrency markets supported the rapid price recovery.
TVL Surpasses $200 Million on Intents NEAR Intents’ total value locked reportedly surpassed $207 million as users deposited more assets across its cross-chain infrastructure.
The expansion reflects growing demand for simplified transactions connecting Bitcoin, Ethereum, NEAR, Tron, BNB Chain, and other networks.
NEAR Intents enables users to define their desired results and independent solvers execute and route across supported blockchains.
BREAKING: NEAR Intents has surpassed $207 million in total value locked. pic.twitter.com/kKqnOT0d9Y
— MSB Intel (@MSBIntel) September 21, 2026
That structure removes several technical steps normally required when moving assets or completing transactions between separate blockchain ecosystems.
The protocol’s confidential products have also attracted attention following the introduction of private perpetual trading powered by Hyperliquid.
Confidential balances recently crossed $70 million, strengthening participation around NEAR’s incentives and privacy-focused financial services.
However, live DefiLlama data later placed Intents TVL near $189 million, showing that deposited values remain volatile.
Bitcoin Surge Above $86K Fuels the NEAR Rally Bitcoin price surged above $86,000 and reached its highest level since January, providing a strong tailwind for altcoins.
The cryptocurrency soared almost 5% in the session as institutional buying and large scale short-sells accelerated the breakout.
Ethereum price climbed over $2,760, and XRP increased to about $1.50 following massive daily gains in both assets.
The broader cryptocurrency market capitalization crept up to $2.93 trillion as an indicator of fresh demand in both large and small digital assets.
The inflows of spot Bitcoin ETFs contributed to the recovery, and forced short closures increased additional upward pressure.
The progress of regulation also enhanced the mood even as the Senate failed to pass the CLARITY Act.
The SEC and CFTC went on to seek individual cryptocurrency structures, which fostered expectations of more transparent operating conditions to digital asset firms.
Risk appetite was also supported by falling oil prices and Treasury yields, and contributed to the recovery of speculative assets that had previously been weak.
How High Can NEAR Protocol Price Go? NEAR Protocol Price is experiencing short-term resistance between $4.2-$4.40 following the penetration into a supply region that had earlier limited recovery efforts.
A weekly verified close above $4.40 would open the door to $4.80 above the psychological $5 as per the Long-term NEAR projection.
The daily Relative Strength Index has recently topped 63, indicating that it is nearing the overbought after the sharp rise.
NEAR/USDT 4-hour chart: TradingView In the meantime, the MACD is still bullish, and the positive histogram of the MACD indicates that its positive momentum is still ongoing in spite of the growing pullback risks.
The supports lie between $3.80 and $3.90, and the previous breakout zone is between $3.30 and $3.50.
The potential loss of $3.30 would reveal the $3.10, and the bullish scenario would be reinforced by the continuous increase in volume and ecosystem growth.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins have seen significant price increases in recent days. At this point, treasury companies have also started buying again.
First, Strategy, the world’s largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder, made purchases again after weeks.
According to a statement by Strategy founder Michael Saylor, Strategy purchased an additional 950 Bitcoin. This brings the company’s total Bitcoin holdings to 846,000 BTC. The company also repurchased STRC preferred shares worth $174 million.
Saylor noted that Strategy also holds assets worth $6.09 billion, adding that the company’s dollar-denominated assets could cover current preferred stock dividends and interest payments for approximately 3.8 years.
Ethereum Purchases Continue! Bitmine, the world’s largest holder of Ethereum, also announced last week that it purchased an additional 27,562 ETH, bringing its total holdings to 5,983,940. According to the announcement, this represents 4.9% of the total circulating ETH supply.
The official statement also noted that Bitmine’s total assets, including cryptocurrency, cash, marketable securities, and strategic investment assets, have reached $17.1 billion.
This figure includes 5.98 million ETH, 212 Bitcoin, $714 million in cash and marketable securities, $180 million worth of Beast Industries shares, and $105 million worth of Aitco Holdings shares.
Assuming the ETH price is $2,688, Bitmine’s ETH holdings are estimated to be worth approximately $16.1 billion.
Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee stated, “We believe a crypto bull market is continuing, driven by several factors, including the shift from AI to crypto that began in late June, the strengthening of crypto fundamentals around both tokenization and AI, and finally, the end of the 4-year cycle. In our view, ETH’s tremendous performance in Q3 2026 is seen as a harbinger of potentially even stronger growth in Q4 2026. Given that institutions kept their crypto investments low in early 2026, partly due to the superior performance of AI stocks in early 2026, we expect institutions to significantly increase their crypto investments in the final three months of 2026.”
Solana Procurement Announced Too! Last week, Nasdaq-listed company DeFi Development Corp. announced it had purchased an additional 101,381 Solana tokens, bringing its total SOL holdings to 2.49 million. The company also added that it plans to use its SOL holdings for staking, validator operations, and on-chain financial infrastructure, depending on market conditions and risk management standards.
*This is not investment advice.
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Bitcoin climbed above $85,000 on Monday for the first time since January, causing significant losses for traders betting against the cryptocurrency. According to CoinGlass, short liquidations reached $634.7 million over the past 24 hours at 11:25 a.m. UTC, while long liquidations totaled $121.3 million.
Mass liquidations and increased trading activityIn total, forced closures across all crypto assets over the 24-hour period amounted to approximately $756 million, affecting 114,385 traders. CoinGlass reported that Bitcoin alone was responsible for $367.1 million of the short liquidations, with Ethereum contributing $154.2 million.
Among the largest single events was an $11.29 million BTCUSDT position that was liquidated on Binance, which is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume.
Despite the wave of liquidations, market-wide open interest rose by 8.07% to $155.7 billion. Additionally, 24-hour trading volume jumped 57.96% to $235.7 billion, reflecting a surge in trading activity as prices broke new ground.
MetricValueShort liquidations$634.7 millionLong liquidations$121.3 millionTotal forced closures$756 millionOpen interest$155.7 billionTrading volume (24h)$235.7 billionMajor altcoins post gainsOther major cryptocurrencies also saw strong upward moves. Ethereum traded over $2,700, up more than 5% on the day. Solana gained over 7% to trade above $116, and XRP rose nearly 8% to reach $1.49, according to CoinGecko.
Analysts reflect on recent momentumAlex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy Digital, highlighted Bitcoin’s technical progress. He noted in a Monday post that Bitcoin closed the week above its 50-week moving average for the first time in 45 weeks. Historically, this level has marked a strong confirmation that bear market lows are behind, he observed, with Bitcoin up 29% over the past 35 days.
Alex Thorn emphasized that Bitcoin trading above the 50-week moving average after 45 weeks suggested the bear market low may have passed, as the cryptocurrency had gained 29% in just over a month.
Bitcoin reached a recent low of $74,977 on September 15 and has risen about 13% since then. However, it remains down roughly 3% year-to-date and sits 33% below its all-time high of $126,080 from October 2025.
Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States recorded $433 million in inflows last week, reversing a recent trend of net outflows. This influx brought the week’s cumulative flows into positive territory at $6.2 million.
Bitcoin has already traded above $80,000 once earlier this month, briefly surpassing the level on September 4 before retreating.
Focus on broader trends and correlationsKhing Oei, founder and CEO of Dutch bitcoin treasury firm Treasury, pointed to Bitcoin’s new high versus the S&P 500 as a significant shift. In a post over the weekend, he remarked that after months of behaving like a low volatility gold substitute, Bitcoin had decoupled and marked a new milestone against the equity benchmark.
Khing Oei observed that a rally emerging from compressed volatility and strong gold correlation is primarily driven by allocation, which tends to move gradually before accelerating all at once.
These moves underline a period of heightened volatility and shifting market sentiment as major cryptocurrencies extend their gains in September.
Mini dictionary: CoinGlass is a crypto analytics platform that provides real-time data on futures, liquidations, market sentiment, and other key metrics across digital asset markets.
[PRESS RELEASE – Tallinn, Estonia, September 21st, 2026]
NOWPayments today published new empirical data analyzing six months of enterprise payout activity, offering a comparative performance benchmark across TRON, BNB Smart Chain, Solana, Bitcoin, and Ethereum to help businesses select optimal blockchain rails based on speed, transaction volume, and cost efficiency.
The dataset reveals distinct operational advantages depending on transfer priorities: Solana recorded the fastest average payout speed at 1 minute and 45 seconds while accounting for 3.08% of volume and 3.86% of transactions. TRON led in total monetary volume at 43.69%, and BNB Smart Chain handled the largest share of individual payout transactions at 48.23%.
High-Frequency Payouts Put BNB Smart Chain in the Lead
Together, TRON, BNB Smart Chain, Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Solana accounted for 94.04% of payout volume and 77.84% of payout transactions during the period analyzed.
BNB Smart Chain accounted for 48.23% of transactions, compared with 15.73% for TRON. Its share of payout volume was lower at 21.75%.
The network handled far more individual transfers without carrying the largest share of value, a pattern consistent with higher-frequency, lower-value payouts in the NOWPayments dataset.
Higher-Value Payouts Put TRON in the Lead
TRON moved 43.69% of payout volume, more than twice BNB Smart Chain’s 21.75% share, despite accounting for a much smaller share of transactions.
Based on those shares, the average TRON payout was approximately 6.2 times larger than the average BNB Smart Chain payout during the period. The networks served different payout patterns: TRON carried more value, while BNB Smart Chain handled far more individual transfers.
Ethereum ranked third by volume at 18.84% and represented 7.42% of transactions. Bitcoin accounted for 6.68% of volume and 2.60% of transactions, while Solana represented 3.08% of volume and 3.86% of transactions.
The data suggests a practical framework for matching the network to the payout flow:
The data offers a starting point, not a universal network recommendation.
When Speed Matters, Solana Leads
Solana led on speed with an average payout time of 1:45. Bitcoin followed at 2:53, ahead of TRON at 3:08 and BNB Smart Chain at 3:13. Ethereum recorded the longest average at 5:56.
The gap between the fastest and slowest networks was 4 minutes and 11 seconds. Every network in the comparison still averaged less than six minutes, while TRON and BNB Smart Chain were separated by only five seconds.
The fastest network was not the most widely used. That points to a broader principle: crypto infrastructure should be evaluated across the full movement of funds, not by a single headline metric.
Kate Lifshits, Commercial Director at NOWPayments, applies the same data-first approach in Crypto That Works for Business, her Cryptopolitan series on the commercial impact of crypto payments. The first column, the 22% Sales Boost Hiding in Your Crypto Checkout, examined checkout performance; future editions will cover other points where payment infrastructure affects revenue, costs, and growth.
“The useful question is not which network tops a leaderboard. It is what a specific payout flow needs to optimize: value, frequency, speed, or cost,” said Kate Lifshits, Commercial Director at NOWPayments.
When Cost Matters, The Best Route May Not Be a Blockchain Network
When minimizing payout costs is the priority, comparing blockchain networks may be the wrong place to start.
NOWPayments allows businesses to send payouts to ChangeNOW Pro wallets with no network or service fees within the ecosystem. Creator Andy Tries Coding publicly tested the route and reported receiving a fee-free payout in under five seconds.
Recipients are identified by email and confirm the transfer before funds move, so businesses do not need to collect wallet addresses at the beginning of the payout process. An interactive guide walks through the process from payout creation to recipient access.
The takeaway is simple: define the payout flow first, then select the network or route. Value, frequency, speed, and cost will not point every business to the same answer.
About NOWPayments
NOWPayments is a crypto business ecosystem designed to help companies accept payments, automate mass payouts, manage stablecoin treasury, and scale global digital asset operations through a single infrastructure. The platform supports more than 350 cryptocurrencies, over 30 stablecoins, flexible settlement options, and enterprise-grade APIs.
Solana has pushed back into territory it has not visited since January, briefly reaching $119 earlier Monday. $SOL is currently trading above $118 at press time, having gained more than 9% over the past 24 hours and is up over 15% in the past week, extending a rally that has brought renewed attention to the asset.
The move comes alongside continued demand from U.S. spot Solana ETFs. The products recorded $47.62 million in net inflows on September 18, with Bitwise's $BSOL accounting for the entire day's inflow.
Last week, the ETFs attracted $60.82 million, including $58.76 million through $BSOL.
That demand adds another channel for investors to gain $SOL exposure. Solana's onchain activity also remains strong, with the network leading all Layer-1 and Layer-2 chains in weekly DEX volume for the 21st consecutive week.
In a recent statement, Ron Sade, CEO of Solmate, a Solana treasury company, expressed his belief that $SOL is still undervalued, saying that he "sees a potential path towards continued market momentum over the next year".
Bitcoin Breaks Back Above $86K Bitcoin has joined the move, climbing above $86,000 for the first time since January. $BTC has gained more than 9% across the past 7 days and nearly 35% over 3 months, although it remains roughly 32% below its October 2025 record above $126,000.
The rebound has continued despite two bearish developments: the Federal Reserve raising rates and the CLARITY Act failing to advance in the Senate. Bitcoin initially fell as traders anticipated both events, but the market absorbed the news without the broader sell-off many participants expected.
Short sellers have also added fuel to the rally. CoinGlass data shows 130,314 traders liquidated over the past 24 hours, with total liquidations reaching $923.67 million. Nearly $785 million, or about 85%, came from short positions.
When exchanges liquidate leveraged shorts, they buy the underlying asset to close the positions. That buying can push prices higher and trigger further liquidations, creating a short squeeze.
Institutions Keep Buying Institutional demand provides another part of the picture. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs absorbed $433 million on September 18, led by Fidelity's $FBTC ($310.7 million) and BlackRock's $IBIT ($108.4 million).
Those inflows offset roughly $746 million in midweek redemptions, leaving a modest $6.2 million net inflow last week. Since their 2024 launch, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have accumulated nearly $55 billion in net inflows, with assets above $102 billion.
Corporate treasuries are also adding exposure. Strategy resumed Bitcoin purchases after a roughly 3-week pause, buying 950 $BTC for $75.7 million at an average price of $79,670. The purchase lifted its holdings to 846,000 $BTC.
Strive Asset Management added another 1,355 $BTC for $107.7 million at an average price of $79,475, bringing its holdings to 26,355 BTC.
Is Crypto Spring Here? The strength of the rebound has prompted some market participants to argue that crypto has entered a new phase. Speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe”, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan opined, “I think this will actually be the strongest and longest-running bull market in crypto’s history,” describing the current environment as "crypto spring" and arguing that blockchain activity and institutional participation continued improving even while prices declined.
“So I think we had this unusual situation where you had a cyclical decline in prices even as you had a secular improvement in fundamentals. And now I suspect that prices are going to catch up toward the end of the year,” - Matt Hougan, Bitwise CIO
Bitcoin's performance also marks a sharp change from earlier in 2026, when technology stocks and the AI trade outperformed crypto. $BTC now stands roughly 44% higher for the third quarter, its strongest quarterly performance since late 2024.
For Solana, the combination of rising price, ETF inflows, and sustained network activity has created a similar shift in market conditions, showing that demand has returned across several parts of the crypto market.
Read More on SolanaFloor Solana Leads All Chains in DEX Volume Amidst DeFi Resurgence
Raydium Captures 90% of Solana’s Memestock Volume as $RAY Jumps 109%
This Monday, the price of the main crypto approached 86000 dollars, its highest level since the end of January. However, this recovery remains imperfect, as US spot demand has not yet shown strength comparable to that of the price.
In Brief Bitcoin neared 86,000 dollars, its highest level in eight months. BTC shows an increase of about 6% over 24 hours and over 30% since August 19. BTC shows an increase of about 6% over 24 hours and over 30% since August 19. Spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted about 433 million dollars. The recovery will still need to be confirmed by ETF flows, spot demand, and Bitcoin maintaining above 85,000 dollars. Bitcoin Price Reaches Eight-Month High Bitcoin has just crossed 85000 dollars before approaching 86000 dollars, with a nearly 6% increase over 24 hours. Indeed, the crypto now shows a gain of more than 30% since its low point on August 19.
This increase comes despite two major obstacles. The US Federal Reserve raised its main key interest rate by 25 basis points, a decision generally unfavorable to risky assets. Moreover, the CLARITY Act, which was intended to clarify US crypto regulation, also failed to gain the necessary votes in the Senate.
Some key data help to understand the magnitude of this move :
Bitcoin reached its highest level in eight months ; Its increase was around 6% over 24 hours ; The gain exceeds 30% since August 19 ; The loss recorded since January fell below 3% ; The Coinbase premium still showed -0.02 at the CryptoQuant reading. This rebound has also benefited companies related to the sector. Thus, Coinbase gained nearly 5% on the stock market, while Strategy’s stock rose by around 8%. Such a reaction reveals that the renewed interest does not exclusively concern the spot market.
The Coinbase Premium Remains Slightly Negative The Coinbase Premium Index is the main weakness identified. It is an indicator that measures the gap between the bitcoin price on the Coinbase dollar market and that observed on the BTC-USDT pair of Binance.
A positive premium usually signals that bitcoin trades at a higher price on Coinbase. It thus indicates relatively stronger demand from American investors, notably companies and institutional players. A negative value, on the contrary, indicates weaker demand or higher selling pressure on the American platform.
According to CryptoQuant, the index fell to -0.02 when bitcoin was still around 81500 dollars. It had briefly exceeded zero before returning to negative territory.
This reading predates the move toward 86000 dollars. However, it does not necessarily describe the exact situation at the peak of the session. Its weakness nevertheless reveals that the increase was not yet supported by sustained outperformance of acquisitions made on Coinbase.
A value really close to zero does not immediately announce a bearish reversal. The desired confirmation would rather be a premium that becomes positive again, stays above zero, and rises in parallel with the crypto price.
ETFs and Position Buybacks Support the Rise Other sources support the progression. Spot Bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock and Fidelity reportedly amassed nearly 433 million dollars on Friday. These inflows help absorb bitcoins sold by some long-term holders.
The closing of short positions amplified the move. More than 658 million dollars of short positions were liquidated in one day across the entire crypto market. Bitcoin accounted for nearly 367 million dollars of this total. These forced buybacks accelerated the rise, without constituting sustainable demand by themselves.
Meanwhile, Strategy resumed its purchases after a three-week pause. The company acquired 950 bitcoins for 75.7 million dollars, at an average price of 79670 dollars. It now holds 846,000 BTC, acquired for 63.8 billion dollars.
These factors explain why the price can rise despite a negative Coinbase premium. Demand related to ETFs, company acquisitions, and liquidations on derivatives operate through different channels.
Bitcoin Still Needs to Confirm Its Recovery Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, believes that the market has entered a “crypto spring”. He even projects the bull cycle as “the most powerful and longest” in the sector’s history. This statement remains an anticipation, not a guarantee about BTC’s trajectory.
The strength of the rebound will now depend on three signals. Thus, the Coinbase premium must sustainably move back above zero, ETFs must maintain positive flows, and bitcoin must defend the zone between 80,000 and 85,000 dollars after the wave of liquidations.
Maintaining above 85,000 dollars would consolidate the scenario of a recovery fueled by spot acquisitions. Conversely, a quick retreat accompanied by ETF outflows could indicate that the move to 86000 dollars was mainly based on closing short positions.
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Luc Jose A.
Diplômé de Sciences Po Toulouse et titulaire d'une certification consultant blockchain délivrée par Alyra, j'ai rejoint l'aventure Cointribune en 2019. Convaincu du potentiel de la blockchain pour transformer de nombreux secteurs de l'économie, j'ai pris l'engagement de sensibiliser et d'informer le grand public sur cet écosystème en constante évolution. Mon objectif est de permettre à chacun de mieux comprendre la blockchain et de saisir les opportunités qu'elle offre. Je m'efforce chaque jour de fournir une analyse objective de l'actualité, de décrypter les tendances du marché, de relayer les dernières innovations technologiques et de mettre en perspective les enjeux économiques et sociétaux de cette révolution en marche.
DISCLAIMER
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.
Bitcoin’s recent rebound is starting to lift the wider crypto market, with several major altcoins showing notable gains and signaling renewed risk appetite among traders.
Altcoins gather strength as momentum shiftsLeading cryptocurrencies including Solana, Ethereum, Sui, Avalanche and Dogecoin are posting significant increases, indicating investors are looking beyond Bitcoin and turning towards assets perceived as riskier within the sector. This trend highlights a broader shift, as capital flow begins to diversify outside the market’s largest coin.
Sui has emerged as one of the top performers, gaining momentum ahead of anticipated ecosystem announcements and drawing increased interest from the crypto community. Meanwhile, Solana’s price has climbed above $116 after jumping roughly 7% over the last day. The move places SOL near a fresh technical breakout zone, with the next resistance level approaching at $120.
Key technical levels and price actionAvalanche is seeing sharp acceleration as well, with AVAX rising about 7% in 24 hours and nearly 14% over the past week, supported by a spike in trading activity. Solana mirrors this weekly gain with a 14% increase, crossing through its previously established resistance range.
CoinCurrent Price24h Change7d ChangeKey ResistanceSolana (SOL)$116+7%+14%$120Sui (SUI)Near $1Not specifiedNot specified$1Avalanche (AVAX)Not specified+7%+14%Not specifiedDogecoin (DOGE)$0.088+7%Not specified$0.093–$0.095Ethereum (ETH)Above $2,600Not specifiedNot specified$2,800, $3,000Sui is approaching the crucial $1 level, regarded by traders as a key psychological barrier. A clear move above this figure may reinforce the current breakout, while rejection at this price could send attention back toward recent support zones.
Solana’s advance past resistance puts the token in a critical position, with $120 now in focus as the next challenge for bulls aiming to extend the rally. Market analysts have identified this region as the next important technical milestone.
Avalanche, a smart contract platform known for its high throughput and low transaction fees, also continues its recovery. The network’s recent rise is accompanied by growing trading volumes as traders reassess risk across the market.
Dogecoin, often seen as a proxy for speculative enthusiasm due to its meme coin status, is trading near $0.088 after climbing approximately 7% in the past 24 hours. The $0.093–$0.095 range is seen as near-term resistance, with the $0.10 mark considered the next psychological goal for DOGE enthusiasts.
Ethereum has stabilized after reclaiming the $2,600 level, showing gradual improvement in fund flows following weeks of underperformance. If this renewed strength continues, analysts will keep $2,800 and $3,000 in their sights as possible upside targets for ETH.
Mini dictionary: Sui is a layer 1 blockchain designed for speed and scalability, developed by Mysten Labs. It utilizes a proof-of-stake mechanism and is focused on enabling high throughput for decentralized applications.
Traders are increasingly moving capital from Bitcoin into Solana, Sui, Avalanche, Ethereum and Dogecoin as these altcoins show signs of renewed momentum and approach critical resistance zones that could define the next phase of the market.
Market outlook: Rotation or relief rally?The simultaneous price increases in these five altcoins are driven by different factors, but the expanding risk appetite in the crypto market is evident. With Bitcoin steady, attention is shifting to see whether the current rally will evolve into a sustained rotation toward large-cap altcoins or represents a short-term relief bounce.
Sui, Solana, Avalanche, Ethereum and Dogecoin each face key technical hurdles in the days ahead. The market’s next direction will likely depend on SUI breaking $1, SOL pushing past $120, ETH approaching $3,000, AVAX sustaining its recovery and DOGE reclaiming $0.10.
Key Highlights BTC surged past the $85,000 threshold for the first time since late January, touching approximately $85,248. The cryptocurrency has successfully recovered its 50-week EMA positioned around $77,769 following last week’s close at $81,120. Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States saw $435 million in net capital inflows on Friday, representing the highest single-day figure since early September. Declining crude oil prices and softening Treasury yields created favorable conditions for risk-oriented assets, despite ongoing market expectations of additional Federal Reserve policy tightening. Strategy acquired an additional 950 BTC valued at $75.7 million, bringing its aggregate Bitcoin position to 846,000 BTC. Bitcoin (BTC) powered through the $85,000 level on Monday, marking its strongest price performance in approximately eight months. The leading cryptocurrency reached an intraday peak of $85,248 after finishing the prior week at $81,120.
Bitcoin (BTC) Price This advance represents Bitcoin’s initial breach above the $85,000 threshold since the final days of January. BTC subsequently traded near $85,139, representing approximately 5.7% gains during the session.
The upward movement came after a bounce from levels below $76,000 that followed the Federal Reserve’s recent interest rate hike last week. Buying momentum intensified throughout the weekend, propelling BTC beyond its earlier May peak around $82,950.
Forced liquidations of short positions gained pace as prices climbed higher. Total liquidations across cryptocurrency markets exceeded $600 million during a 24-hour period.
Strong ETF demand and energy market shifts bolster Bitcoin Bitcoin has successfully regained its 50-week exponential moving average positioned around $77,769. The daily relative strength index also approached the 70 threshold as bullish momentum gained traction.
Institutional demand through exchange-traded funds strengthened in tandem with the price rally. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs logged $435 million in net capital inflows on Friday, marking the most robust single-day performance since early September.
Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund captured $310 million of that investment activity, temporarily surpassing BlackRock’s IBIT as the primary channel for institutional capital that session.
Bitcoin is now trading near the aggregate cost basis for U.S. spot ETF holders, calculated at approximately $85,638. This positions the current valuation close to the breakeven threshold for the broader ETF investor base.
Energy market dynamics also contributed to favorable conditions. WTI crude dropped below $94 per barrel after exceeding $100 during the previous week, while Brent crude similarly declined as global markets monitored renewed diplomatic discussions between the United States and Iran.
Reuters noted that the retreat in oil prices supported gains in international equities and fixed income securities on Monday, even as market participants continued pricing in prospects for another U.S. interest rate adjustment.
Strategy expands Bitcoin reserves by 950 coins Strategy completed an acquisition of 950 Bitcoin valued at $75.7 million during the period spanning September 14 through September 20, at an average purchase price of $79,670 per unit. The company’s cumulative holdings have reached 846,000 BTC.
Market analyst Ted Pillows noted via social media that Bitcoin had established its first higher high while reclaiming its 50-week moving average. He characterized the market trough as definitively established, signaling his optimistic view of recent technical developments.
The regulatory environment also showed signs of improvement following the SEC’s announcement of a conditional five-year exemption permitting select platforms to facilitate trading of tokenized U.S. equities on blockchain infrastructure. The Commission specified that this provisional measure applies to qualified tokenized securities venues and designated liquidity providers.
Currently, Bitcoin maintains its position above the $85,000 level, with the ETF holder average cost basis near $85,638 and the January peak region representing the next significant resistance zone.
The crypto stocks have recorded massive gains today, as Bitcoin price has soared past $86,000, fueling market optimism. Notably, Circle (CRCL), Strategy (MSTR), Coinbase (COIN), Robinhood (HOOD), and Bitmine (BMNR) have all stayed in the green today.
A flurry of market pundits have also attributed the recent rally in the crypto market to the US SEC’s Innovation Exemption Framework. So, here we take a quick tour of the recent performances of the crypto stocks and see what might have contributed to the latest gains in them.
Crypto Stocks Rally As Market Lauds US Regulatory Push The crypto stocks retreated last week, as the CLARITY Act failed in the Senate vote, which sparked discussions among traders. However, the picture quickly changed, especially after the US SEC’s Innovation Exemption Framework approved the trading of tokenized stocks.
Commenting on the matter, Goldman Sachs also said that this framework is likely to benefit firms like Coinbase, Robinhood, and Circle. Notably, as of writing, Circle (CRCL) stock price was up over 3% and exchanged hands at $94.75.
Meanwhile, Robinhood (HOOD) stock price also rose nearly 3% to $123.21, with its five-day gain extending to around 8%. On the other hand, the stock of the leading crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) surged more than 5.5% to $205.09.
Apart from that, other crypto stocks like Strategy (MSTR) and Bitmine (BMNR) have also continued to surge, with their latest bets on Bitcoin and Ethereum, respectively. This suggests that market confidence is aggressively betting on the digital assets space recently.
Strategy & Bitmine Stocks Rise as BTC Hits $86K The Strategy (MSTR) stock was up more than 8% as of writing and exchanged hands at $166.35. The surge in the MSTR crypto stock comes as Strategy buys 950 BTC, valued at around $75.7 million, after a brief pause of two weeks.
This also suggests that the firm is once again getting confident in the long-term trajectory of Bitcoin price. Simultaneously, the Bitmine (BMNR) stock jumped about 6% today and traded at $27.43, while its 30-day gain was recorded at 21%.
The surge in Bitmine stock price also followed its latest Ethereum purchase. Bitmine has purchased a total of 27,562 Ethereum over the past week, which represents around 4.9% of the total ETH supply.
Meanwhile, the surge in crypto stocks also followed a significant rally in BTC price today. As of writing, Bitcoin price rose more than 6% over the past 24 hours and touched a daily high of $86,313.45.
21 September 2026 | 19:38 Bitcoin and Ethereum climbed about 6%, yet the strongest 24-hour moves came from altcoins. Softer oil prices and renewed ETF demand supported the market, while short liquidations helped accelerate the advance.
Key Takeaways Bitcoin and Ethereum gained roughly 6%. Displayed altcoin gains ranged from 11% to 27%. Lower oil prices eased inflation concerns and supported wider risk sentiment. Short liquidations accelerated the crypto advance. One session does not establish altseason. The rally widened beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum In the September 21 CoinMarketCap snapshot, Bitcoin traded near $86,000 and Ethereum around $2,760. The CoinMarketCap 20 Index DTF shown alongside them had risen by a similar amount, indicating that the advance extended beyond the two largest cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin
Near $86,000
Up about 6%
Ethereum
Near $2,760
Up about 6%
CMC20 tracker
Shown in the snapshot
Up about 6%
The three readings establish the breadth of the large-cap move. The faster action was farther down the market: every token displayed in CoinMarketCap’s 13-asset gainers list rose by at least 11%, while PEPE’s 27% increase was more than four times Bitcoin’s gain.
Macro relief and ETF demand supported the move No single project announcement explains the breadth of the move. It coincided with improving conditions across several risk markets. Reuters reported that oil fell about 3% as markets responded to signs of possible diplomatic progress in the Middle East. The retreat helped pull the US 10-year Treasury yield below 5% and supported equity futures.
Lower energy prices can ease near-term inflation concerns, which generally helps sentiment toward risk assets. The timing does not prove that investors bought crypto because oil fell, however, and geopolitical conditions can change quickly.
Crypto also received support through regulated investment products. US spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted approximately $593 million across Thursday and Friday, reversing the outflows recorded earlier in the week, according to Bloomberg. Unlike forced liquidations, positive ETF flows provide evidence of demand through spot-linked investment products.
Bitcoin’s breakout forced bearish trades to close Bitcoin’s break above its May peak gave traders a new reference point and placed bearish positions under pressure. The importance of that level became clear when the Bitcoin price moved through $84,000. As the advance continued, some traders positioned for another rejection were forced to close their shorts or add collateral.
Liquidation data show that the advance was also amplified by forced buying. CoinDesk reported $746.6 million in crypto liquidations over 24 hours, including $647.9 million from short positions. Bitcoin shorts accounted for $277.5 million, while Ether shorts contributed $122.8 million.
How a short squeeze pushes prices higher A short position profits when price falls. If the market rises far enough, an exchange may close the trade and buy back the asset. Those forced purchases can push price higher, trigger additional liquidations and create a feedback loop. The process adds momentum, but it is temporary because the supply of losing shorts eventually declines.
Market-wide open interest still rose by approximately 8% to $156 billion even as shorts were removed, CoinDesk found. New positions were therefore entering while old ones were being liquidated. That can prolong momentum, but it also keeps the market sensitive to a reversal if leveraged traders become too aggressive.
The rally extended well beyond the largest coins The CD100 provides a broader check against relying only on a top-gainers list: CoinDesk reported that 95 of its 100 constituents were positive. The 13 gainers displayed in the CoinMarketCap snapshot also crossed several sectors rather than clustering around one project or narrative.
13 gainers displayed by CoinMarketCap
Rounded 24-hour changes in the September 21 snapshot
PEPE +27%
SEI +22%
SUI +22%
FET +18%
PIEVERSE +15%
ARB +14%
RENDER +14%
PENGU +14%
TAO +14%
DOGE +14%
JUP +14%
RAY +13%
ZRO +11%
The list crossed memecoins, layer-one networks, AI and computing projects, decentralized exchanges, scaling networks and interoperability infrastructure. That breadth argues against one project announcement being responsible for the entire move.
Why smaller tokens can rise faster, and reverse faster Many altcoins trade in thinner markets than Bitcoin. A relatively small imbalance between available buyers and sellers can therefore reprice them sharply, even though a 10% increase in market capitalization does not mean an equivalent amount of new money entered the token. Derivatives can magnify the effect when short positions are forced to close.
That explains how Bitcoin and Ethereum can post unusually strong gains while still trailing the day’s leaders. It does not prove that investors sold Bitcoin to buy altcoins. Demonstrating that kind of rotation would require exchange-flow, fund-flow or wallet data rather than a comparison of price changes.
Wide participation is not automatically altseason A 24-hour leaderboard measures speed over one session, while altseason indicators use a much longer comparison. As explained in why the market had not yet reached altseason report, CoinMarketCap’s index asks how many eligible top-100 cryptocurrencies have outperformed Bitcoin over 90 days and requires the share to reach 75%. Today’s winners would need to preserve their advantage over Bitcoin for weeks, not hours, to change that classification.
What would make the advance more durable? Bitcoin holds above its former May high. Altcoin leaders keep much of their gains during the next pullback. Spot buying remains active as derivatives positions grow. More tokens outperform Bitcoin over longer periods. The next pullback will test the rally’s quality The useful test begins when forced short covering slows. If spot demand remains active and the leading altcoins hold much of their advance during the next pullback, the move will look more like a developing market rotation. A rapid return to the previous ranges would show that leverage, not lasting demand, produced the largest gains.
This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency prices, fund flows and derivatives positioning can change rapidly.
Author
Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.
After several weeks of rejection and a bear trap, Bitcoin reclaimed MA50 Weekly.
Bitcoin is following a similar trajectory seen in 2022-2023, according to the latest observation by Doctor Profit.
The analyst said that the latest move above the 50-week moving average, in particular, set the stage for the breakout toward the $82,500-$83,000 area, which took place over the past several hours.
2022-2023 Structure Is Repeating The MA50 Weekly is currently around $78,700. BTC recently pushed past that level and was trading near $85,000 at the time of writing after an explosive rally on Monday. Doctor Profit said a weekly close above the moving average would strengthen his bullish view. His observation stems from Bitcoin’s previous market structure in 2022-2023, when the crypto asset faced several rejections around the MA50 Weekly before eventually clearing it.
Bitcoin broke below the MA50 Weekly and then reclaimed it seven times. Five instances were followed by bull markets, while two became false signals. Those occurred once in 2011, when BTC had “virtually no liquidity,” and once in 2020 during the COVID-19 crash.
The current market is showing a similar pattern. The analyst explained,
“The recent bear trap adds another similarity to 2022-2023! Same rejections, for 3-4 Weeks followed by a shakeout, then a recovery above the moving average and breakout above the MA50 Weekly, exactly of what is happening right now! Bears interpreted weakness as confirmation of another collapse, but the market reversed. I see the same broader transition!”
The latest move puts the focus on the start of the next bull market phase, which analysts have been speculating about lately. Doctor Profit has identified $88,000 as the next target once the remaining resistance levels are cleared.
Even Bolder Target Another market commentator believes that Bitcoin could be repeating a historical cycle. Crypto Patel flagged a 364-day gap between the crypto asset’s 2017 peak and 2018 bottom, followed by a similar 364-day gap between the 2021 peak and 2022 bottom. The analyst said the 2025-peak-to-2026-bottom also appears to follow the same timing.
You may also like: Bitcoin (BTC) Just Reached $86K: There’s Just One Problem Liquidations Top $750M as BTC, ETH, and XRP Rocket to New Local Peaks Bitcoin Reclaims 50-Week Moving Average for the First Time in Over 10 Months Bitcoin is now retesting long-term trendline support after losing the major EC zone. If the historical pattern continues, Crypto Patel said the next major expansion could target $370,000. He stressed that price action must confirm the setup.
The leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, surged 2.5% in the last 24 hours, climbing above $84,000 for the first time since January 30th. BTC’s gains over the past week have reached nearly 9%, and over the past month, almost 30%.
While altcoins followed Bitcoin’s rise, Ethereum surged 5.5% in the last 24 hours, surpassing $2,700. This marks the first time ETH has exceeded $2,700 since the end of January.
Bitcoin Breaks Through Critical Technical Level Again! Bitcoin, which has continued its upward movement in recent days, finished the week ending September 20 above its 50-week moving average, regaining a significant technical level after approximately 45 weeks.
At this point, Galaxy Digital Research Head Alex Thorn stated in a post on his X account that Bitcoin had closed the week above its 50-week moving average.
Thorn stated in his post that the recapture of the 50-week moving average is a strong signal/confirmation that bear market bottoms have formed in the past.
Thorn also noted that Bitcoin has risen by approximately 29 percent in the last 35 days, adding that such a close has occurred for the first time in 45 weeks.
“Historically, Bitcoin’s regaining the 50-week moving average has generally served as strong confirmation that the bear market is at its bottom.”
Why is the 50-Week Moving Average Important for Bitcoin? The 50-week moving average is considered one of the technical indicators followed to assess Bitcoin’s long-term price trend. According to research published by Galaxy in early September, in four out of five completed bear markets, Bitcoin did not see a new low after breaking above the 50-week moving average for the first time. The research noted that 2021 was an exception to this historical pattern.
According to the analyst, Bitcoin closed the week around $81,000, while the 50-week moving average is around $78,800. However, this technical indicator alone does not prove the start of a new bull market. Whether the market can maintain the 50-week average as support in the coming weeks is important for the sustainability of the signal.
*This is not investment advice.
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Bitcoin traded as high as $86,355 on Coinbase, its best level since Jan. 29, in a leg that started in the 8 a.m. UTC hour and extended through the U.S. open. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 8.1% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.6%. Perpetual funding sits near zero and the bitcoin and ether swaps trade below index. Of the 125 largest non-stablecoin tokens, 106 are higher.
Bitcoin traded as high as $86,355 on Coinbase, its best level since Jan. 29, in a leg that started in the 8 a.m. UTC hour and extended through the U.S. open. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 8.1% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.6%. Perpetual funding sits near zero and the bitcoin and ether swaps trade below index. Of the 125 largest non-stablecoin tokens, 106 are higher.
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According to TradingBeats' monitoring, a short-term rally in Bitcoin (BTC) triggered liquidations totaling $65.6 million in short positions on Hyperliquid. Among these, the BTC short position of 122.88 BTC held by an address starting with 0xec0b was fully force-closed by the system in two rounds, with a liquidation volume of approximately $10.165 million, marking the largest single liquidation on the platform. This BTC short position was opened on September 4, with an average entry price of around $81,335.90, and held for about 17 days. The average execution price of the forced liquidation was roughly $82,720.70, meaning BTC had risen only about 1.7% from its entry cost, resulting in a realized loss of approximately $170,200. Meanwhile, the address’s long Ethereum (ETH) position remains open. It currently holds 7,007.8 ETH in long positions, valued at around $18.951 million, with an average entry price of about $2,065.97 and an unrealized profit of roughly $4.473 million. The address previously held a simultaneous long ETH / short BTC position, a spread trade essentially betting on ETH’s relative strength against BTC. However, during BTC’s short-term rally, the short side hit the liquidation threshold first, forcing the original position pair to be unwound.
According to TradingBeats' monitoring, Bitcoin briefly broke through $84,000. The only remaining contract position under Garrett Jin’s account — a 3x Bitcoin long order — has now generated an unrealized profit of $7.76 million. However, it’s a mixed picture: a long-term ETH “diamond hand” held a Bitcoin short order worth $10.16 million that was liquidated half an hour ago. Additionally, Abraxas Capital, the largest holder of Bitcoin short positions on Hyperliquid, reported unrealized losses of $23.51 million and $17.11 million respectively for its two Bitcoin short addresses.
Hyperliquid generated $429.04 million through September 15, leading CoinGecko’s 2026 crypto revenue ranking. Current DeFiLlama data put Hyperliquid’s annualized revenue near $696 million against roughly $7 billion in TVL. Bitcoin’s break above $85,000 triggered a heavily one-sided derivatives reset, with shorts accounting for 84% of 24-hour liquidations. Hyperliquid has taken the top position in CoinGecko’s 2026 crypto revenue ranking, but the more revealing numbers sit beneath the headline figure.
The perpetual futures platform generated $429.04 million from January 1 through September 15, ahead of Pump.fun at $322.21 million. CoinGecko’s methodology excludes Tether and Circle because their scale would distort the comparison, while Grayscale is removed because its revenue comes from AUM-based sponsor fees rather than protocol usage.
Current DeFiLlama data provide another way to measure Hyperliquid’s economics. The protocol holds about $7.04 billion in TVL, generated $65.33 million in revenue over the past 30 days and processed roughly $240.17 billion in perpetual volume during the same period. DeFiLlama puts annualized revenue at approximately $696 million.
Those figures allow Hyperliquid to be evaluated on something more useful than a revenue leaderboard.
Hyperliquid Generates About $9.30 Monthly Revenue Per $1,000 in TVL Using DeFiLlama’s current $7.04 billion TVL and $65.33 million in 30-day revenue, Hyperliquid generated revenue equivalent to approximately 0.93% of TVL in one month.
Put differently, every $1,000 of value locked corresponded to roughly $9.30 in protocol revenue over the latest 30 days.
That is not an investment yield for depositors or HYPE holders. It is a simple capital-efficiency ratio showing how much protocol revenue is being produced relative to capital sitting within the ecosystem.
Trading volume shows an even larger difference in scale.
Hyperliquid processed around $240.17 billion in perpetual volume over 30 days, equivalent to roughly 34 times its current TVL. Revenue represented approximately 0.027% of that notional volume, or about $272 for every $1 million traded.
The calculations help explain why perpetual exchanges can generate substantial revenue without requiring TVL to grow at the same rate as trading activity. Capital can be repeatedly reused as positions are opened, closed and adjusted.
DeFiLlama currently shows $7.14 billion in open interest as well, roughly equal to Hyperliquid’s combined TVL.
Trading Businesses Dominate the Revenue Ranking Hyperliquid is not an isolated case in CoinGecko’s dataset.
Pump.fun generated $322.21 million, Axiom Pro $132.09 million and GMGN $126.03 million. Polymarket contributed another $115.48 million, while perpetual exchange edgeX generated $84.37 million.
Together with Hyperliquid, those six trading or trading-adjacent businesses generated about $1.21 billion.
That is roughly 75% of the $1.61 billion produced by the top 10 projects.
The comparison requires some caution. CoinGecko explicitly notes that the categories are a best-effort classification rather than a formal taxonomy. It also includes businesses such as Paxos and World Liberty Financial whose revenue can come largely from interest earned on reserves rather than transaction fees.
Hyperliquid’s revenue is more closely connected to trading activity.
Its own composition reinforces that point. DeFiLlama records $137 million of perpetual fees in Q3 to date, compared with $3.77 million from spot trading. Builder-code fees contributed another $18.47 million.
Perpetuals therefore remain the central economic engine rather than one product among several equally important businesses.
Bitcoin Breakout Puts the Model Under Stress The September 21 market provides a useful live test of that model.
Bitcoin trades at $85,018.48 at the time of writing, up 4.75% on the day. Source: TradingView The breakout came after Bitcoin spent most of the previous month consolidating between approximately $75,000 and $82,000 following its August surge.
Derivatives positioning unwound rapidly as the upper boundary broke.
CoinGlass data in the market snapshot showed $598.92 million of positions liquidated over 24 hours, affecting 127,206 traders. Shorts represented $504.64 million of the total, meaning approximately 84 cents of every liquidation dollar came from bearish positions.
Bitcoin alone accounted for $275.33 million.
The shorter window was even more concentrated: $268.72 million of $285.42 million in four-hour liquidations came from shorts.
The data are consistent with forced short covering amplifying Bitcoin’s advance. They do not establish that liquidations caused the broader rally.
For a perpetual exchange, however, the important variable is the activity surrounding the move. Hyperliquid itself recorded approximately $35 million in liquidation volume over the latest 24 hours, according to DeFiLlama, alongside billions of dollars in daily perpetual trading.
Hyperliquid’s Revenue Now Has a Valuation Attached to It HYPE’s valuation provides a second quantitative test.
DeFiLlama currently places Hyperliquid’s circulating market capitalization around $20.3 billion, with annualized protocol revenue near $696 million.
On those figures, the circulating market capitalization is roughly 29 times annualized revenue.
The fully diluted comparison is much higher. With FDV around $87 billion, the ratio approaches 125 times annualized revenue.
These are not conventional price-to-sales multiples. Protocol revenue, token economics and shareholder revenue are not equivalent concepts, and future token supply materially changes the FDV calculation. They are better used as standardized reference points for tracking how the market values Hyperliquid relative to the economic activity it captures.
The revenue trend itself also deserves attention.
CoinGecko found that crypto projects averaged $1.08 billion in monthly revenue during January-August 2026, down 10.14% from the same eight months of 2025. Hyperliquid reached the top of the ranking despite that industry-wide decline.
That creates a more concrete set of metrics to follow after Bitcoin’s breakout: 30-day perpetual volume, revenue per dollar of volume, revenue relative to TVL and the valuation multiple attached to that revenue.
If volume retreats after the current liquidation wave while revenue efficiency holds, Hyperliquid’s lead would look less dependent on isolated volatility. If both fall sharply together, the $429 million year-to-date figure would tell a different story about the durability of its 2026 performance.
Alexander Zdravkov is a crypto journalist and market analyst specializing in digital assets, blockchain technology, and the rapidly evolving cryptocurrency market. He entered the industry more than four years ago, drawn to the speed of innovation in crypto and the potential of blockchain-based financial systems to reshape traditional markets. His work focuses on understanding the forces behind crypto market movements, from Bitcoin and altcoin cycles to institutional adoption, regulation, exchange-traded products, stablecoins, DeFi, and emerging blockchain ecosystems. Rather than simply following price action, Alexander looks at liquidity, investor positioning, market structure, and macroeconomic conditions to identify developing trends and explain what they could mean for digital assets. With a degree in International Relations, he brings a broader perspective to cryptocurrency coverage by connecting developments in the sector with monetary policy, geopolitics, regulation, and global capital flows. This allows him to examine crypto not as an isolated market, but as an increasingly interconnected part of the global financial system. Over the course of more than five years in financial journalism, Alexander has written over 5,000 articles covering cryptocurrencies, blockchain, traditional markets, and the global economy. His reporting spans Bitcoin, Ethereum and altcoins, DeFi protocols, institutional crypto adoption, regulation, market infrastructure, security incidents, and major developments shaping the wider digital asset industry. His approach is centered on giving readers context behind the numbers and headlines, explaining not only what is happening in crypto markets, but why it matters and what could come next.
Multicoin Capital Co-founder: Solana’s market cap will surpass Ethereum’s in this cycle.
Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani said that driven by factors like stronger usability and functionality, more crypto companies will build on Solana rather than Ethereum in the future. Solana’s market capitalization will overtake Ethereum’s “in this market cycle,” he noted, adding that Ethereum’s advantage as the default smart contract network for crypto firms may gradually weaken. Samani claimed that “hardly anyone actually uses Ethereum these days,” and its leading position remains mainly due to stablecoins, as well as stablecoins borrowed using ETH as collateral. Samani expressed a pessimistic view on Ethereum’s value capture ability. He stated: “This is an asset worth $300 billion to $400 billion, but its value capture ability is questionable, or may not exist at all, and it has no growth whatsoever.” Samani further said he doesn’t understand why investors are willing to hold ETH at its current valuation, noting there are many “more reasonably priced” investment opportunities in the market. He believes more crypto companies will shift to Solana, calling it “the most feature-complete network” that can help enterprises looking to integrate their operations reduce operational complexity. Although SOL’s current market cap is less than one-fifth of Ethereum’s, its weekly and monthly network fees have both exceeded Ethereum’s.
6 minutes ago
Crypto Whale Sets 10 Major Goals: Strategy’s Continuous BTC Buying Is a Key Signal
Crypto whale with the social media handle "先定 10 个大目标" posted on social media that "Bitcoin broke through $85,000 today. I've long maintained that Strategy's continuous buying is a key signal." Today's reports note that Strategy announced it added 950 BTC to its holdings last week, bringing its total BTC position to 846,000 coins.
6 minutes ago
Crypto whale sets 10 major targets, 4x leveraged long BTC position posts over $12 million in unrealized profit
According to Binance's live trading data, the whale codenamed "First Set 10 Big Goals" is currently going long on BTC with 4x leverage, holding an unrealized profit of $12.17 million. Earlier reports noted that the same whale stated today it will hold this trend position until Bitcoin reaches $120,000.
6 minutes ago
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 2% to its highest level in over a month.
According to market data from BIT (bit.com), the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 2% to a high point in over a month. Arm (ARM.O) gained over 8%, AMD (AMD.O) climbed more than 7%, Micron Technology (MU.O) rose nearly 5%, and Qualcomm (QCOM.O) edged up nearly 2%.
6 minutes ago
US stocks open, with all three major indices rallying across the board.
According to market data from BIT (bit.com), US stocks opened with the Dow Jones up 0.49%, the S&P 500 rising 0.6%, and the Nasdaq gaining 0.7%. Intel (INTC.O) jumped 8%, Micron Technology (MU.O) rose 3%, and Meta Platforms (META.O) climbed nearly 3%.
6 minutes ago
Ondo rolls out physical conversion feature for stocks and tokenized assets.
According to official announcements, Ondo has announced that Ondo Stocks now supports physical conversion between underlying stocks, tokenized stocks, and ETFs, and has added a primary market issuance channel via Alpaca’s Instant Tokenization Network (ITN). Qualified institutions can use their existing stock assets to mint corresponding Ondo Stocks tokens, or redeem tokens to receive the underlying stocks. Specifically, after an institution initiates minting, its held underlying stocks are transferred via internal bookkeeping from an Alpaca account to Ondo’s Alpaca account, after which the corresponding tokens are issued on supported blockchains; the redemption process follows the reverse steps. This mechanism eliminates the need for manual approval for each transaction, making it easier for institutions to convert between traditional stock assets and on-chain tokenized assets, and is expected to boost secondary market liquidity for Ondo Stocks and narrow bid-ask spreads. Currently, this feature is only available to institutions approved by Alpaca, and is not a universal function of Ondo Stocks. Participating institutions must hold valid accounts with both Ondo and Alpaca, and complete the relevant onboarding and approval processes; the conversion function is now live on Ethereum and BNB Chain.
Bitcoin Volmex Implied Volatility Index (BVIV) perpetual contracts officially launched on Hyperliquid on Monday, offering on-chain exchange users a way to bet on the magnitude of Bitcoin’s price fluctuations rather than its price direction. Widely dubbed the “Bitcoin VIX,” the BVIV index tracks the real-time implied or expected volatility of the cryptocurrency over the next 30 days. It is similar to the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) VIX index, which measures the 30-day implied volatility of the S&P 500 index. The newly launched perpetual contracts allow traders to go long or short on the volatility index directly, eliminating the need to express volatility views indirectly via options—thus avoiding high capital requirements and the need for specialized derivatives trading expertise.
Bitcoin has to climb nearly 20% in four days for the biggest bets on the options market boards to pay off. Traders stacked them anyway.
Roughly $16.07 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) options expire Friday. The heaviest bullish positions sit at $90,000 and $100,000. Bitcoin trades near $81,292.
\Bitcoin Options Market for Contracts Expiring Friday. Source: DeribitThe Money Sits Well Above the PriceA call pays out when the price rises past a set level. A put pays out when it falls. Friday’s expiry holds 121,676 calls against 68,333 puts, Deribit data shows. That works out to a put/call ratio of 0.56. Close to two bullish contracts for every bearish one.
The single biggest call cluster sits at $85,000, about 5% above the current Bitcoin price. Stacks at $90,000 and $100,000 follow. A few reach $125,000, which would take a 54% rally.
The largest put cluster sits at $70,000, a level Bitcoin cleared last week.
Bitcoin (BTC) Price Performance. Source: TradingViewEvery Call Has a Seller on the Other SideHere is what the chart does not show. Open interest counts contracts still alive. It says nothing about who is winning. Somebody bought each of those calls. Somebody sold them.
Max pain for Friday sits at $73,000. That is the price at which the largest number of contracts would expire worthless. Bitcoin sits 10% above it.
BeInCrypto reported Monday that Bitcoin hit an eight-month high after $262 million in short liquidations.
Watanabe Says October, MEXC Says WaitSota Watanabe founded Astar Network and runs Startale Group, the firm building Sony’s Soneium blockchain. In his opinion, October is poised to be a good month.
Vugar Usi Zade, chief executive of the exchange MEXC, is less sure. Bitcoin shrugged off a Federal Reserve rate hike and the collapse of the CLARITY Act, a US bill that would have set crypto market rules, he said.
Spot Bitcoin funds took in $593 million across Thursday and Friday. Strategy (MSTR) stock rose 17% on the week.
For the fourth quarter of 2026, the market needs multiple episodes to consider a trend reversal.
He named oil market tensions as the likeliest trigger to flip sentiment. ETF flows this week will show who blinks.
Pre-market key news for U.S. stocks on Monday: 1. Wall Street expects the U.S. to issue roughly $1 trillion in short-term debt; 2. Apple and Google are hiring for stablecoin-related positions, exploring new opportunities in crypto business; 3. Bitcoin surpassed $85,000 today, hitting a new high since February; 4. Federal Reserve official Goolsbee stated that if there is conclusive evidence inflation is falling to 2%, he has no objection to interest rate cuts; 5. Strategy increased its BTC holdings by 950 units last week at an average price of $79,670; Bitmine added 27,562 ETH last week, bringing its total ETH holdings to approximately 5.983 million.
Bitcoin’s derivatives market looks nothing like it did a few years ago. Options now account for nearly 50% of total notional open interest across Bitcoin derivatives, roughly double their share from earlier periods when they hovered around 25%. The shift represents one of the most significant structural changes in crypto trading since the asset class went institutional.
A joint report from Glassnode and Bybit, titled “The State of Crypto Derivatives,” lays out the transformation in stark terms. Dated futures, once the backbone of crypto derivatives trading, have seen their volume collapse by 97% from peak levels hit in 2021. The instruments that replaced them tell a story about what traders actually want: perpetual futures for directional bets and options for everything else.
The death of dated futures and the rise of options Perpetual futures, which have no expiry and use funding rates to stay tethered to spot prices, turned out to be a better fit for a market that trades 24/7 and doesn’t operate on quarterly cycles.
The Glassnode-Bybit report found that options gained market share in four out of five distinct market regimes since 2019. The most aggressive expansion happened during prolonged bear markets, which makes intuitive sense: when prices are falling, the ability to buy downside protection or structure event-specific trades becomes a lot more valuable than a leveraged long.
Bybit’s climb through the options ranks The report also tracks competitive dynamics among exchanges, and Bybit’s trajectory stands out. The exchange now holds a 28% market share of Bitcoin options volume across four tracked venues. That’s up from under 10% when it first launched options trading.
Bybit’s options open interest tells a similar story, growing from $529 million to $2.33 billion. The exchange has been even more dominant in adjacent categories. It has led Ether options volume for 143 consecutive days and holds a leading position in tokenized gold perpetuals.
What this means for market structure When half your derivatives market is options rather than futures, the entire character of trading changes. Options traders tend to think in probabilities and distributions rather than simple directional bets. They price in specific events, like halving cycles, regulatory decisions, or macroeconomic catalysts, with precision that futures simply can’t match.
A derivatives market where options represent nearly half of open interest looks a lot more like traditional commodity or equity markets. As the options market grows, dealer hedging activity can dampen spot market volatility during normal conditions while potentially amplifying it around key strike prices and expiration dates.
The toolkit available in crypto derivatives is now sophisticated enough to support strategies that were previously only possible in traditional markets. Collar strategies, risk reversals, calendar spreads, and volatility trades are all viable in a market where options liquidity has reached this scale.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Strategy has resumed Bitcoin purchases after a two week pause, spending $75.7 million on 950 BTC while deploying another $174 million to repurchase its STRC preferred stock.
Summary
Strategy bought 950 BTC for $75.7 million after a two week pause, raising its holdings to 846,000 BTC. The company spent another $174 million repurchasing 1.77 million STRC preferred shares during the same week. Strategy made no ATM sales during the period, while its deployable USD Cash fell nearly 20% to $1.05 billion. Strive separately acquired 1,355 BTC, increasing its corporate Bitcoin holdings to 26,355 BTC. According to a Form 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Sept. 21, Strategy acquired the Bitcoin between Sept. 14 and Sept. 20 at an average price of $79,670 per coin, including fees and expenses.
The purchase increased the company’s holdings to 846,000 BTC, acquired for a total of $63.80 billion at an average cost of $75,416 per Bitcoin.
Bitcoin was trading near $84,925 at the time of publication, putting the market value of Strategy’s holdings at roughly $71.85 billion. Based on the company’s reported acquisition cost, the position carried an unrealized gain of approximately $8.05 billion.
Strategy shares gained 7.4% to $165.20 in Monday premarket trading as Bitcoin traded above the price paid for the latest acquisition.
Strategy returns to Bitcoin buying after two week pause The latest purchase ended two consecutive reporting periods without any new Bitcoin acquisitions.
Strategy last returned to Bitcoin buying at the end of August, when it purchased 4,603 BTC for $369.7 million at an average price of $80,318. The transaction raised its holdings from 840,447 BTC to 845,050 BTC.
Unlike the latest transaction, that purchase was financed through Strategy’s at the market common stock program. The company sold 4.53 million MSTR shares for $602.8 million in net proceeds, allocating $369.7 million to Bitcoin and $151.8 million to STRC repurchases.
Buying activity then stopped for two weeks as Strategy directed more cash toward its preferred securities.
During the first week of the pause, the company spent $176.3 million repurchasing 1.81 million STRC shares while leaving its Bitcoin holdings unchanged. Its board simultaneously doubled the Digital Credit Securities Repurchase Program from $1 billion to $2 billion.
Another $139.3 million was spent on 1.42 million STRC shares during the following reporting period, while Strategy again bought no Bitcoin and made no sales through its at the market programs. As crypto.news previously reported, the company entered that period with 845,050 BTC and $1.30 billion in deployable USD Cash.
The latest 950 BTC purchase has returned Strategy’s holdings to 846,000 BTC, the same total it reported at the end of the second quarter before Bitcoin sales during July and August reduced the balance.
STRC buybacks remain larger than Bitcoin spending Strategy continued repurchasing STRC even as Bitcoin accumulation restarted, spending $174 million on approximately 1.77 million shares between Sept. 14 and Sept. 20.
The amount was more than twice the $75.7 million allocated to Bitcoin during the same period.
STRC, formally known as Strategy’s Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, has a stated amount of $100 per share. The company has used repurchases and its dividend policy in an effort to keep the security trading close to that level.
Strategy had spent roughly $950.8 million repurchasing nearly 9.96 million STRC shares between July 20 and Sept. 13. The security had recovered toward $100 after falling near $70, reaching above $99 during intraday trading earlier this month before pulling back.
Monday’s latest repurchases pushed Strategy’s spending on STRC further above $1 billion since the current sequence of buybacks began.
The company has said purchases below STRC’s $100 stated amount allow it to retire preferred securities for less than their stated value while reducing future dividend requirements.
STRC was trading at $98.85 during Monday’s premarket session, up 0.35%.
Strategy retained $875.1 million in authorization for further preferred stock repurchases after the latest transaction. Its separate MSTR common stock repurchase program remained untouched, leaving the full $1 billion authorization available.
Strategy uses existing cash without ATM sales Funding for the latest transactions came directly from Strategy’s cash balance, as the company made no sales through its at the market offering programs between Sept. 14 and Sept. 20.
Strategy used $75.7 million of USD Cash for the Bitcoin acquisition and another $174 million for STRC repurchases, bringing combined spending on the two transactions to $249.7 million.
The absence of ATM sales meant Strategy did not issue common or preferred shares to replenish the cash used during the reporting period.
Deployable USD Cash fell to $1.05 billion as of Sept. 20, down nearly 20% from $1.30 billion a week earlier. The balance had stood at $1.44 billion on Sept. 7 and $1.61 billion at the end of August as repeated STRC repurchases drew down the account.
Strategy maintains USD Cash separately from its USD Reserve. The cash account can be used for Bitcoin purchases, capital management and other corporate purposes, while the reserve is primarily intended to cover preferred stock dividends and interest on outstanding debt.
Its USD Reserve declined to $5.04 billion from $5.10 billion during the latest reporting period after $57.4 million was used for preferred dividends and debt interest.
Combined, Strategy held approximately $6.09 billion in USD assets at the end of Sept. 20.
Strive expands Bitcoin treasury to 26,355 BTC Another publicly traded Bitcoin holder disclosed a purchase on Monday as Strive acquired 1,355 BTC, increasing its treasury to 26,355 BTC.
The purchase followed a series of recent additions to Strive’s balance sheet. The company had reached 25,000 BTC earlier this month after acquiring 469 BTC for approximately $36.6 million at an average price of $77,954 per coin. That transaction was funded through proceeds from its SATA preferred stock.
Strive had previously purchased 1,800 BTC for roughly $143 million in late August, taking its holdings to 23,156 BTC before subsequent acquisitions pushed the treasury higher.
Its latest filing places the company’s holdings at 26,355 BTC, keeping Strive among the largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holders.
ASST shares gained 6.44% to $32.03 in Monday premarket trading following the disclosure.
MSTR shares surged approximately 7% during Monday’s premarket session as Bitcoin exceeded the $85,000 threshold. The leading cryptocurrency reached $85,166, marking its strongest performance since late January. Strategy acquired 950 Bitcoin during the previous week for $75.7 million, paying an average of $79,670 per coin. This acquisition increased Strategy’s total Bitcoin reserves to 846,000 BTC, representing approximately $63.8 billion in cumulative investment. Cryptocurrency-related stocks including Coinbase and Robinhood experienced similar upward momentum in early trading. Strategy (MSTR) shares climbed approximately 7% during Monday’s premarket session, hitting around $164 compared to Friday’s closing price of $153.92. The rally coincided with Bitcoin’s impressive surge above the $85,000 mark.
Strategy Inc, MSTR
The world’s premier cryptocurrency peaked at $85,166 on Monday morning, representing its strongest price level since January 29. Bitcoin gained more than 5% over the preceding 24-hour period and has posted gains in four of the last five trading sessions.
This upward trajectory continues a recovery pattern that commenced when Bitcoin hovered near $75,000 on September 15. The digital asset reclaimed the $80,000 level last Friday before breaching $85,000 on Monday.
Strategy provided shareholders with additional positive news through a company-specific announcement. The Bitcoin-focused treasury operation revealed it had resumed cryptocurrency purchases following approximately three weeks of inactivity.
Strategy Expands Bitcoin Treasury with 950 BTC Addition The company acquired 950 BTC during the September 14-20 timeframe for roughly $75.7 million. Including all associated fees and expenses, the average acquisition cost came to $79,670 per Bitcoin.
This latest transaction elevated Strategy’s cumulative Bitcoin holdings to 846,000 BTC. The entire cryptocurrency portfolio carries an aggregate acquisition cost of approximately $63.8 billion, with an average per-coin cost of $75,416.
With Bitcoin trading near $85,000 on Monday, the company’s position commanded a market value of roughly $72 billion. This valuation represented unrealized gains exceeding $8 billion compared to Strategy’s total investment basis.
The company financed this purchase using USD Cash reserves rather than issuing additional common stock. Strategy refrained from selling any MSTR shares through its at-the-market offering program during this period.
Additionally, Strategy repurchased approximately 1.77 million STRC preferred units for $174 million. The company maintained around $5.04 billion in its USD Reserve alongside $1.05 billion in USD Cash at period’s end.
Broader Cryptocurrency Market Momentum Elevates Related Equities Bitcoin’s upward movement generated positive momentum across cryptocurrency-linked stocks during Monday’s premarket hours. Coinbase shares advanced approximately 5.3%, while Robinhood registered gains of roughly 5%.
Strategy had already posted a 16.4% gain during the previous week before Monday’s premarket surge. Shares concluded Friday’s session at $153.92 as Bitcoin itself appreciated about 5.3% over the same weekly timeframe.
The sustained Bitcoin rally has persisted despite recent setbacks including the Clarity Act’s failure and a Federal Reserve interest rate adjustment. Recent regulatory changes have featured temporary SEC exemptions designed to facilitate certain tokenized-stock trading activities.
Short position liquidations have contributed to the price momentum. According to CoinGlass data referenced by The Block, cryptocurrency markets witnessed over $750 million in liquidations across 24 hours, with approximately $648 million stemming from short positions.
Despite Monday’s eight-month high, Bitcoin remains significantly below its October 2025 record near $126,000. Current price levels sit roughly 33% beneath that all-time peak.
The most recent Strategy disclosure confirms the company’s Bitcoin balance now stands at 846,000 BTC following its first acquisition since August’s conclusion. The corporation maintains over $6 billion in combined USD Reserve and USD Cash positions.
Bitcoin bulls are celebrating today as the world’s most popular crypto moves higher. Currently, $BTC is up by over 5%, topping $85,000 for the first time since last January.
Last week, the CLARITY Act, crypto market infrastructure legislation, failed in the Senate on a cloture vote. The vote needed 60 supporters to avoid a potential filibuster that would kill the bill. Unfortunately, no Democrats voted yea, and a few Republicans crossed the aisle to vote the bill down, once again leaving digital asset regulation in limbo. While a defeat for the industry and consumers, many insiders quickly pivoted to saying the legislation isn’t really needed, since federal regulators will move forward regardless. Apparently, investors are embracing this thesis as buyers step in, pushing prices higher.
Bitcoin’s price rise is also pushing crypto-adjacent shares higher. Currently, Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) is trading up by almost 6%, pushing shares over the $200 mark -the first time above this price since May.
Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) , the original Bitcoin proxy firm, is cheering too. Its recent Bitcoin purchases now look prescient as shares jump about 8%. Michael Saylor, Strategy’s chairman and the reason the firm is in Bitcoin in the first place, posted on September 19th about why the defeat of the CLARITY Act was a good thing for Bitcoin. This morning, Saylor said his company purchased an additional 950 BTC while repurchasing $174 million of Strategy shares.
Circle (NYSE:CRCL), a stablecoin issuer and infrastructure firm, saw its shares up by over 6% in early trading. This follows an increase of over 7% last Friday.
So what is really driving Bitcoin higher? Arthur Hayes, the BitMEX co-founder who now leads Flop Labs, believes the Federal Reserve rate increase puts more cash in the hands of wealthy investors, who then buy financial assets like Bitcoin.
Others see it as a relief bounce, with tangible support from regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission and its Innovation Exemption, which shows it will act decisively even as Congress fails to do its job.
Somewhat ironically (and perhaps hypocritically), a group of Democrat Senators who downvoted the CLARITY Act issued a statement last week declaring their support for digital asset legislation. Perhaps CLARITY will return.
PANews September 21 news, according to SoSoValue data, as of 8:00 a.m. ET on September 21, 2026, global listed companies (excluding mining companies) shifted their Bitcoin allocation from net selling the previous week to net buying last week, with a single-week net buying amount of $183 million. Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) bought 950 BTC at a price of $79,670 last week, spending about $75.7 million, bringing its total holdings to 846,000 BTC — its first purchase in two weeks. Japanese listed company Metaplanet did not buy Bitcoin last week, marking ten consecutive weeks without purchases. In addition, two other companies announced Bitcoin purchases or holdings last week. Ethereum asset company Bitmine announced after 8:00 a.m. ET on September 14 that it had purchased 1 BTC, without disclosing the specific purchase amount, bringing its total holdings to 212 BTC; asset management company Strive announced on September 21 that it spent about $108 million last week to buy 1,355 BTC at a price of $79,475, bringing its total holdings to about 26,355 BTC.
As of press time, the global listed companies (excluding mining companies) included in the statistics held a total of 1,156,080 BTC, an increase of 2.67% compared with the previous week, with a current market value of about $98.65 billion, accounting for 5.8% of Bitcoin's circulating market value.
TLDR: Strategy BTC holdings climbed to 846,000 after the company acquired another 950 BTC. Strategy also repurchased $174 million worth of its STRC preferred stock. The company reported $5.10 billion in USD Reserve and $1.30 billion in USD Cash. Strive acquired 1,355 BTC for $107.7 million, lifting its holdings to 26,355 BTC. Strategy BTC holdings rose to 846,000 after the company announced it acquired 950 additional coins. The company also repurchased $174 million worth of STRC preferred stock.
As of September 20, Strategy held approximately $6.09 billion in USD assets alongside its bitcoin. The update follows a week in which the company made no bitcoin purchases or sales.
Separately, Strive reported that it bought 1,355 BTC. Both updates came through recent company disclosures and public statements.
Strategy BTC Position and Preferred Stock Buyback Strategy previously disclosed holdings of 845,050 BTC. Those coins were acquired at an average price of $75,412 each. The total acquisition cost came to approximately $63.73 billion, including fees and expenses. With the latest purchase, Strategy BTC holdings moved from 845,050 BTC to 846,000 BTC.
Earlier, during a market downturn, unrealized losses on the company’s bitcoin holdings exceeded $10 billion. Strategy Inc., based in Tysons Corner, Virginia, outlined its activity through September 13 in a Form 8-K filing.
The filing followed the company’s September 14 announcement. STRF, STRC, STRK, STRD, and MSTR shares all trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
According to the filing, Strategy repurchased 1,420,467 shares of STRC stock between September 8 and September 13. STRC is the Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock.
Other series include the 10.00% Strife, 8.00% Strike, and 10.00% Stride preferred stocks. The aggregate purchase price was $139.3 million.
No other preferred securities or MSTR shares were repurchased. During the same period, Strategy did not sell any shares under its at-the-market program.
In addition, the latest Strategy BTC announcement separately cites a $174 million STRC repurchase. As of September 13, $1.05 billion in aggregate purchase price remained available under Strategy’s digital credit securities repurchase program.
A separate $1.0 billion in aggregate purchase price remained available for MSTR stock repurchases. The company said it used $139.3 million of USD Cash to fund STRC repurchases during that period.
USD Reserve and Strive’s Bitcoin Purchase Strategy maintains a USD reserve to support dividends on its preferred stock and interest on its outstanding debt. It also holds USD cash for broader bitcoin treasury company purposes. Those purposes include acquiring bitcoin, expanding the reserve, and other capital management uses.
As of September 13, the USD Reserve was $5.10 billion, and USD Cash was $1.30 billion on the same date. Strategy reported these balances in its September 14 update on repurchases and bitcoin activity.
Separately, Strive CEO Matt Cole said the company acquired 1,355 BTC for $107.7 million. The average price was $79,475 per coin. According to Cole, the purchase brought Strive’s total holdings to 26,355 BTC.
Cole also said Strive began accepting warrant exercises last week. The company has received $21.2 million in gross proceeds so far. Including these funds, SATA accounts for 57.7% of its total capital raised, Cole said.
Vivek Ramaswamy’s corporate Bitcoin treasury Strive acquired an additional 1,355 BTC for $107.7 million. After the latest purchase, the total Bitcoin holdings have reached 26,355 BTC. Moreover, ASST stock price also jumped more than 6% on Monday, extending its monthly rally to over 135%.
Strive Expands Bitcoin Treasury to 26,355 BTC According to an official announcement on September 21, the Bitcoin treasury firm purchased 1,355 BTC at an average price of $79,475 per coin between September 14 and 18. These BTCs were purchased using warrants, SATA, and ASST shares sold at-the-market (ATM) offerings.
Strive CEO Matt Cole said “Warrant exercises began last week, generating $21.2M in gross proceeds. Including those proceeds, 57.7% of total capital raised came from SATA proceeds.“
Strive acquired an additional 469 $BTC for $36.6M at an average cost of $77,954 per bitcoin, bringing total holdings to ₿25,000.
100% of the capital raised came from SATA, which now has over $1B notional outstanding.
We increased amplification ratio to 53.5%.$ASST $SATA pic.twitter.com/Nu3EYIBS4R
— Matt Cole (@ColeMacro) September 14, 2026
With the latest buy, its total Bitcoin holdings increased to 26,355 BTC worth $2.24 billion. Notably, cash and cash equivalents increased to $229.60 million.
Recently, Strive surpassed crypto exchange Bullish to become the 5th-largest Bitcoin treasury company in the world. Notably, Strive is even buying more BTC than Michael Saylor’s Strategy recently as the latter focuses on increasing cash reserves and STRC buybacks.
Vivek Ramaswamy’s Strive last acquired 469 Bitcoin for $36.56 million. The firm remains committed to acquire more BTC every week.
ASST Stock Rallies 135% in a Month ASST stock jumped more than 6.5% to $32.10 during the pre-market trading hours on Monday. This signals positive sentiment among investors as Bitcoin price jumped above $85,000 to a 9-month high today, triggering a crypto market recovery.
The stock has rallied more than 135% in a month and 103% year-to-date (YTD). The Bitcoin treasury’s CEO Matt Cole said ASST was the best “2nd-best-performing stock in the U.S.” after it surged over 135% in the past month.
Meanwhile, SATA preferred stock holds above $100 par value. It pays a daily dividend at an annualized rate of $13 per SATA share and an effective yield of 13% as of the latest market close.
Bitcoin price has also jumped 6% to over $85K, with a 24-hour low and high of $80,413 and $85,386, respectively. Moreover, trading volume has increased by 58% in the last 24 hours, indicating massive interest among traders.
Polymarket data shows a rise in prediction market participants expecting Bitcoin price to reach $100,000 by December.
Leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin started the week with a strong move, with its price surpassing $85,000 for the first time in months.
While the question now is whether the uptrend will continue, important assessments have come from Glassnode analysts and CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju.
Closing Short Positions Accelerated the Rise! Glassnode, an on-chain analytics company, stated in its latest assessment that Bitcoin has increased its upward momentum by breaking through the liquidation zone of short positions accumulated between $82,000 and $86,000.
Glassnode data indicates that a significant amount of short position liquidity has accumulated in Bitcoin between $82,000 and $86,000.
According to Glassnode analysts, the fact that Bitcoin did not experience the expected sharp pullbacks in that region led investors who had taken short positions to buy BTC to close their positions. These transactions, triggering further liquidations as the price rose, contributed to the acceleration of the movement.
“As expected, Bitcoin quickly broke through the short liquidation wall.”
Short positions accumulated between $82,000 and $86,000 over the months, but the rejection at that level was insufficient.
Now these short positions have become fuel, because these traders need to buy back BTC.”
Bitcoin Crosses Critical Threshold Again! CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju, in an analysis posted on his X account after the rise, stated that one of Bitcoin’s long-term trend indicators has once again crossed above a critical level.
According to Ju, Bitcoin has once again surpassed its 365-day moving average, which is around $83,000, and the price is trading above $84,000.
According to Ju, this moving average is one of the key levels that market participants monitor to assess whether the Bitcoin bear market has ended. CryptoQuant had previously considered a significant breakout above the 365-day moving average as an important signal confirming a new bull market.
Ju concluded by stating that if Bitcoin manages to stay above this level, buying pressure from trend-following investors and institutional investors could increase.
“Bitcoin reclaimed the 365MA at the $83,000 level and is currently sitting above $84,000.”
This is the line everyone is watching for the end of the bear market. If it holds, momentum will start to drive traders and institutions crazy with FOMO.
This is where things get fun.”
*This is not investment advice.
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