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Fundstrat cofounder and BitMine chairman Tom Lee, whose company holds a massive $16 billion position in Ethereum, has turned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao's (CZ) viral Twitter humor into pragmatic investment analysis.
While retail investors try to determine the market's phase from charts, the fund under Lee's control has accumulated nearly 5% of the world's entire ETH supply.
The trigger was CZ's nighttime selfie in green tones, with the brief caption "Soon...".
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Tom Lee’s comment on CZ's viral crypto meme. Source: Thomas (Tom) Lee via X.comWhile traders searched the green filter for a hint at an "Uptober" rally or a rise in the BNB token, Tom Lee reposted the post, responding to the Binance founder with a direct question to his audience: "Agreed. Do you own enough crypto?"
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The interaction between the two industry heavyweights coincided with major shifts in the ecosystem. At the recent Korea Blockchain Week conference in Seoul, Tom Lee confirmed that the market is in an active phase of the bull cycle, supported by demand from AI systems, and maintained his $150,000 price target for Bitcoin.
CZ himself has previously urged readers not to look for hidden financial advice in his posts, stating that any alignment with price movements was coincidental, while also emphasizing the fundamental strength of BNB Chain's infrastructure.
This entire dialogue is unfolding against a stable market backdrop. By the end of September, Bitcoin is firmly holding around $83,300, Ethereum is trading near $2,698, and BNB remains close to $757, with the major assets recording net gains of 7–11% over the past 30 days.
While everyone is jokingBehind Tom Lee's rhetorical question lies a concrete corporate practice, backed by his company's status as the largest institutional holder. Publicly traded investment company BitMine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR) provides an example of aggressive long-term accumulation.
According to its official financial report dated September 28, BitMine reached a historic milestone, holding 6,001,302 ETH (around $16.2 billion).
The corporate purchasing program "Alchemy of 5%," launched in the summer of 2025, is already 98% complete, giving Tom Lee's companies control of 4.9% of Ethereum's total market supply.
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Meanwhile, around 84% of these holdings (~5.067 million ETH) have been staked, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual passive income for the company.
The heavyweights' synchronized optimism comes as October 10 approaches—the date when, last year, the market suffered the largest liquidation event in its history, totaling $19 billion. At the time, the industry consensus was that systemic failures and vulnerabilities in Binance's margin system had caused the cascading collapse.
It will soon become clear what really lies behind this multibillion-dollar humor: real groundwork for a surge or another trap ahead of a critical date.
Bitcoin (BTC) maintains its position as the premier cryptocurrency investment as ETF-driven institutional interest accelerates. Ethereum (ETH) provides essential infrastructure for decentralized finance, stablecoin operations, and asset tokenization platforms. Solana (SOL) merges growing institutional participation with one of the industry’s most rapidly expanding ecosystems. Chainlink (LINK) stands to gain significantly as tokenized traditional assets gain traction in conventional finance. Hyperliquid (HYPE) represents the highest-risk option among these selections, though its expanding derivatives trading platform offers compelling fundamental support. Those seeking the best crypto to buy now are navigating a markedly different landscape than in previous market cycles. The role of institutional participants and exchange-traded funds has expanded considerably.
Cryptocurrencies demonstrating genuine utility are beginning to separate themselves from tokens dependent primarily on speculative momentum. For investors with longer time horizons, five digital assets warrant particular attention: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Chainlink, and Hyperliquid.
Bitcoin’s recent trading activity placed it near the $84,000 level. The leading cryptocurrency posted gains exceeding 40% throughout Q3 of the year.
American spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds attracted approximately $2.4 billion in capital between September 21 and September 25. These figures indicate persistent institutional appetite despite periods of portfolio rebalancing.
Bitcoin Serves as the Foundation for Crypto Portfolios Bitcoin frequently represents the initial position for investors establishing long-term cryptocurrency exposure. Its protocol enforces a hard cap of 21 million coins.
Bitcoin (BTC) Price This immutable supply limit, paired with substantial market liquidity, distinguishes Bitcoin from alternative cryptocurrencies with smaller market capitalizations. The emergence of regulated investment vehicles has simultaneously lowered barriers to entry for retail participants.
Bitcoin is progressively viewed as an institutional asset class rather than purely a speculative trading vehicle. Strategy has expanded its treasury position to 847,666 BTC.
The return of capital flows into Bitcoin ETF products has introduced an additional demand dynamic.
Ethereum Underpins Digital Finance Infrastructure Ethereum presents a fundamentally different investment thesis compared to Bitcoin. It functions as the foundational layer supporting stablecoin networks, decentralized financial protocols, tokenized securities, and countless blockchain-based applications.
Corporate and institutional interest in Ethereum has intensified. American spot Ether ETFs have recently attracted several hundred million dollars in net inflows.
Current estimates suggest over 40 million ETH is actively staked on the network. This represents a substantial portion of circulating supply being committed to validation rather than available for trading.
Solana Draws Growing Institutional Attention Solana potentially delivers superior growth characteristics relative to Bitcoin or Ethereum, albeit with elevated risk factors. The blockchain has established itself among the most heavily utilized networks in the cryptocurrency sector.
High-speed transaction processing combined with minimal fee structures has enabled Solana to expand its decentralized finance and trading ecosystems. Institutional accessibility through regulated products continues to improve.
American Solana ETFs registered $5.4 million in net positive flows on September 29. This marked the seventh consecutive trading session with inflows.
Chainlink Bridges Blockchain Networks and Legacy Finance Chainlink delivers the oracle infrastructure and interoperability protocols enabling blockchain networks to interface with established financial systems. This functionality gains importance as equities, fixed income, and investment funds migrate to blockchain rails.
The protocol deployed CCIP 2.0 on September 28. The upgrade incorporates enterprise-grade capabilities including enhanced compliance frameworks and cross-chain security mechanisms.
According to Chainlink, CCIP has facilitated over $84 billion in cross-chain token transfers. Its partnership network now encompasses banking institutions, asset managers, and technology providers, including collaborations with Coinbase and Ondo.
Hyperliquid Presents Maximum Risk-Reward Profile Hyperliquid constitutes the most speculative selection among these options. The platform has developed into one of the cryptocurrency industry’s largest decentralized derivatives exchanges.
Data from DeFiLlama indicates the protocol maintains approximately $7.5 billion in total value locked. Trading activity reached roughly $210 billion in perpetual futures volume during the preceding 30-day period.
The majority of eligible platform fees generated by Hyperliquid are allocated to a treasury that purchases HYPE tokens. This mechanism establishes a direct correlation between trading volume and token buying pressure.
Hyperliquid simultaneously introduces greater valuation uncertainty, competitive threats, and execution challenges compared to Bitcoin or Ethereum.
These five digital assets each fulfill distinct roles within a diversified long-term cryptocurrency portfolio. Bitcoin and Ethereum establish the core positions, Solana introduces growth-oriented exposure, Chainlink provides infrastructure layer access, and Hyperliquid incorporates higher-risk, higher-reward potential.
Key Takeaways Tom Lee and Changpeng Zhao indicated optimism about an incoming crypto bull cycle Changpeng Zhao shared a meme-inspired post suggesting the market may soon recover Lee responded by challenging investors to evaluate their crypto exposure Lee maintains his ambitious price projections for Bitcoin and Ethereum Bitmine continues its weekly Ethereum acquisition strategy Tom Lee and Changpeng Zhao have reignited cryptocurrency market discussions this week. Lee serves as chairman of Bitmine Immersion Technologies, while Zhao founded the Binance exchange. Both industry leaders suggested that a significant bull market may be on the horizon.
The conversation began when Zhao shared an artificial intelligence-generated image of himself. The picture depicted him lying in bed, rendered in green night vision tones, with a drowsy yet startled expression.
The image referenced a widely recognized internet meme format. It implied that market participants might be unprepared when cryptocurrency valuations begin their next ascent.
Zhao’s social media activity also reinforced a previous statement highlighting the strong fundamentals of BNB Chain. That earlier message emphasized the sustained potential of the BNB cryptocurrency.
Lee replied to Zhao’s content with a concise question. He asked, “Agree, do you own enough crypto?”
Ambitious Projections and Continued Accumulation Lee has publicly stated his belief that the cryptocurrency sector has already entered a fresh bullish phase. He continues to stand by his long-term forecast of $150,000 for Bitcoin.
🇰🇷LATEST: Bitmine's Tom Lee says "a crypto BULL MARKET is underway.”
Tom Lee at Korea Blockchain Week 2026 outlines his reasons on why a crypto bull market is underway.
“Ethereum has been consolidating for 5 years” he adds. pic.twitter.com/Xd8n0qZIqL
— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) September 30, 2026
Additionally, he anticipates Ethereum will climb to $60,000 within the next few years. Lee has reiterated these price predictions consistently throughout recent months.
Meanwhile, Bitmine has maintained its commitment to acquiring Ethereum. The company purchased 17,362 ETH during the previous week.
This latest acquisition brought Bitmine’s cumulative Ethereum position beyond 6 million tokens. Based on present market valuations, this reserve exceeds $16 billion in value.
Bitmine has executed Ethereum purchases weekly without interruption since launching its treasury accumulation approach in June of the previous year. The company has maintained this discipline regardless of market volatility.
Digital asset prices experienced substantial recovery throughout September. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB all recorded monthly advances.
However, that upward movement decelerated recently. Rising Treasury yields applied downward pressure on cryptocurrency valuations.
Bitcoin declined approximately four percent during the preceding seven-day period but remains up more than seven percent for the month. Ethereum and BNB demonstrated comparable performance, declining weekly while maintaining monthly gains.
Bitmine’s equity also experienced weakness. The stock retreated modestly in extended trading and finished Tuesday’s standard session in negative territory.
Lee offered additional perspective on the cryptocurrency landscape during his appearance at Korea Blockchain Week. He suggested the approaching bull market may develop into the most substantial cycle on record.
He referenced cryptocurrency-related equities, which have outperformed during the third quarter. Lee interprets that performance as confirmation that a bull market has already commenced.
He also noted this cycle exhibits distinct characteristics compared to previous ones. Past cycles were propelled by ICOs, NFTs, meme tokens, and stablecoins.
For this cycle, Lee anticipates tokenization, artificial intelligence, and improved regulatory frameworks for cryptocurrency will serve as primary catalysts. He projects the market could experience a more significant breakout than previous cycles following an extended consolidation period.
Bitwise's NEAR Spot ETF records $35.5 million in net inflow on its first day of trading.
Bitwise officials announced that the U.S.’s first spot NEAR ETP, the Bitwise NEAR ETF (ticker: NRR), reached $36 million in assets under management (AUM) on its debut day, with a net inflow of $35.5 million and trading volume of $15.1 million. Earlier reports noted that Bitwise plans to internally stake the NEAR tokens held by the fund to maximize participation in NEAR’s average ~5% staking rewards.
2 minutes ago
German stablecoin startup AllUnity launches US dollar stablecoin USDAU.
EU MiCA-regulated stablecoin issuer AllUnity has announced the launch of its USD stablecoin USDAU, which maintains a 1:1 peg to the U.S. dollar through segregated reserves. The stablecoin will first be issued on Ethereum, Solana, Base, Tempo, Arc, and Polygon. This is AllUnity’s fourth fiat stablecoin, following the euro-pegged EURAU, Swiss franc-backed CHFAU, and Swedish krona-linked SEKAU. AllUnity CEO Alexander H?ptner said USDAU aims to bring U.S. dollar liquidity into the European regulatory framework, providing a USD settlement tool for European enterprises’ global trade and cross-border payments. (Cointelegraph)
2 minutes ago
Instinct just announced it would not run ads, yet immediately began curating stores and products for its users.
Beating AI News: Personal AI agent assistant Instinct has launched a new feature called Selections, which integrates recommendations from real human experts into the agent. The company partners with local chefs, designers, architects, travel guides, and other professionals, who curate restaurants, travel itineraries, and products in their areas of expertise. Instinct then delivers recommendations tailored to user preferences. For example, if a user is looking for a restaurant, Instinct will draw on a list curated by local chefs; for home goods, it will suggest options matching the user’s style and budget from products recommended by independent designers. Noah Shinn said the team aims for these recommendations to be significantly higher quality than those from standard web searches and other chatbots. Notably, Shinn recently made clear his opposition to ad-based models in his first public long-form interview. He argues that personal agents hold large amounts of user data, so allowing brands to pay agents to persuade users to purchase items they wouldn’t otherwise want would create major conflicts of interest. Instinct plans to offer free access to users, generating revenue by taking commissions from merchants for orders driven by the agent. Selections is not currently classified as an ad product. Instinct has not stated whether merchants can pay to be included in recommendation lists, nor has it disclosed whether collaborating experts are compensated. However, if Instinct does eventually rely on transaction commissions for revenue, Selections will face a pressing question: Will its recommendations be tied to how much the platform stands to earn from them? Shinn did not address this in the interview.
2 minutes ago
Bitcoin retail investor demand has fallen rapidly, reflecting the short-term inflow and subsequent withdrawal of small capital.
Crypto analyst Darkfost’s data shows that demand from Bitcoin retail investors (trading volumes between $0 and $10,000) has rapidly faded during this latest BTC rally, with the 30-day change rate shifting from over 17% to -3.5%. Darkfost notes that this indicates retail investors tend to engage in quick in-and-out trades at current market highs, which could impact BTC’s short-term volatility.
2 minutes ago
Paid launches new claim system, adjusts fee structure: 25% allocated for PAID buybacks, protocol retains 10%
Solana ecosystem project Paid has announced its new claim system is now live. The fee distribution structure has been adjusted: previously, recipients received 80% of fees while 20% went toward PAID buybacks; under the new setup, recipients get 65%, 25% is allocated to PAID buybacks, and 10% is retained by the protocol.
2 minutes ago
Bitget initiates replenishment of its protection fund, transferring 2,000 BTC from cold wallets over nearly two hours.
On-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa) reports that Bitget has started replenishing its protection fund, with the fund size now back to $200 million. In the past two hours, 2000 BTC (valued at $166 million) was transferred from Bitget’s cold wallet to the protection fund address. The latest on-chain balance stands at 2484.71 BTC, worth $206 million, indicating that Bitget’s earlier commitment to “replenish $300 million within a week” is being fulfilled.
The crypto market starts the month of October with multiple events likely to change the balance of power. Indeed, Bitcoin remains essential, however Ethereum, Solana, Chainlink, and BNB also have catalysts that would attract investors’ attention.
In brief Bitcoin remains at the center of the market, supported by flows to ETFs and the seasonality of October. Ethereum prepares a new stage of Glamsterdam with the Sepolia testnet scheduled for October 6. Solana bets on Alpenglow to significantly reduce transaction finality time. Chainlink enters October with CCIP 2.0 and new tools dedicated to interoperability. BNB Chain prepares the Jenner hard fork, expected on testnet before deployment in November. October 2026 concentrates several crypto catalysts Bitcoin closed the month of September around 84000 dollars after reaching levels unseen in many months. Moreover, the US Bitcoin ETFs have especially come back with significant inflows. Approximately 2.4 billion dollars were captured by these funds between September 21 and 25.
However, the macroeconomic context will remain crucial. On October 27 and 28, the Federal Reserve will meet. Therefore, US interest rates and mandatory yields remain capable of triggering strong fluctuations in risky assets.
Various events deserve particular attention in October :
Bitcoin behavior and flows to ETFs ; The Sepolia test of the Ethereum Glamsterdam upgrade on October 6 ; The expected deployment of Alpenglow on Solana ; The adoption of CCIP 2.0 at Chainlink ; The preparations for the Jenner hard fork of BNB Chain. Bitcoin and Ethereum remain the two references Bitcoin (BTC) remains the primary crypto to watch during October. Beyond its weight in the total valuation of the crypto market, it continues to set the pace for altcoins. Currently, institutional flows represent one of the essential indicators. Bitcoin ETFs recorded a significant return of capital at the end of September, after many more hesitant weeks.
Thus, October also benefits from a favorable reputation among investors. Bitcoin has closed this month up ten times out of thirteen between 2013 and 2025. Such seasonality, often called “Uptober”, does not necessarily guarantee an increase in 2026.
Regarding the crypto Ethereum (ETH), it has its own schedule. The network prepares Glamsterdam, its next major update expected in the fourth quarter. Starting October 6 with the Sepolia testnet fork, an important phase must occur.
The Glamsterdam upgrade should notably improve how Ethereum designs and verifies its blocks. Thus, the stakes go beyond the ETH price. The success of these tests will provide indications about developers’ ability to meet the planned schedule before transitioning to the main network.
Solana and Chainlink have technical catalysts Solana (SOL) would be one of the most watched cryptos during the month. The Solana Foundation plans the arrival of Agave 4.3 in October, with Alpenglow. This new consensus protocol aims for a finality close to 150 milliseconds, against nearly 12.8 seconds with TowerBFT.
It could be one of the most important technical changes in Solana’s history. The blockchain has already reduced its slot time and increased the maximum size of certain transactions in recent months. Alpenglow must push this latency reduction strategy much further.
Chainlink (LINK) also deserves a place in this selection. On September 28, the project launched CCIP 2.0. This new version of its interoperability protocol notably adds compliance tools, new verification options, and faster cross-chain transfers.
The timing is notable as tokenization of financial assets gains ground. Thus, the actual use of CCIP 2.0 by institutions or asset issuers will be one of the indicators to watch in October.
BNB completes the cryptos to watch in October This list is completed by BNB (BNB). BNB Chain is coming out of the Pasteur hard fork, which increased network capacities. The next project is Jenner, whose deployment on testnet is scheduled for the end of October before going live on the mainnet expected in November.
Jenner mainly aims to introduce a standard intended for assets compliant with regulatory requirements as well as an infrastructure reserving space in blocks for payments. BNB Chain thus wants to consolidate its positioning on stablecoins, payments, and tokenized assets.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Chainlink, and BNB therefore present five different profiles. However, their interest for October relies less on a promise of increase than on institutional flows, technical upgrades, and concrete developments of their ecosystems. In a market still sensitive to Fed decisions, these catalysts will however have to be confronted with the macroeconomic context.
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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.
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Leading cryptocurrencies stayed resilient on Tuesday while rising government bond yields weighed on stock markets.
Crypto Market Holds SteadyBitcoin held on to support in the mid-$82,000 region, while bulls attempted a break above $85,000. Ethereum oscillated between $2,650 and $2,740, while XRP and Dogecoin inched higher.
Cryptocurrency-related stocks also fell, with Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ:MSTR) and Bitmine Immersion Technologies Inc. (NYSE:BMNR) closing down 1.57% and 0.41%, respectively.
More than $220 million in crypto positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours, with long traders suffering most of the losses, according to Coinglass data.
Bitcoin’s open interest slid 2.20% over the last 24 hours. A fall in open interest alongside a price increase typically suggests short sellers are buying back contracts to close losing positions.
Investor sentiment leaned toward “Greed,” according to the Crypto Fear & Greed Index.
Top Gainers (24 Hours)
The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.96 trillion, up 0.30% over the last 24 hours.
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Stocks Extend LossesThe stock market continued its downward trend on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 131.59 points, or 0.26%, to close at 51,349.9. The S&P 500 dropped 0.16% to end at 7,670.84, while the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.09% to close at 26,797.54.
Bond yields climbed further, while talks aimed at ending the war in Iran made limited progress.
The returns on long-dated 10-year Treasury notes climbed to 5.29%, its highest level since 2007, while the 30-year yield rose above 5.6%, reaching its highest level since June 2002.
On-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant noted that Bitcoin profit-taking has reached its highest level since Dec. 2024, a signal that demand is “fading.”
“The bull market is intact, but the rally is showing cracks. $80,000 is the first support to watch,” CryptoQuant added.
Blockchain research firm Santiment highlighted that wallets holding 10-10,000 Bitcoin accumulated 41,025 BTC over the past 10 days, increasing their share to 67.93% of the total supply.
However, retail wallets under 0.01 BTC have remained largely “flat” since the $87,000 price peak.
“The current divergence is encouraging, but it isn’t a guaranteed price signal,” Santiment stated. “That combination has repeatedly appeared before stronger Bitcoin moves.”
Aztec Labs has relaunched zk.money, a self-custodial wallet for private crypto payments, three years after discontinuing the original product.
The new version runs on Aztec Network, the company's privacy-focused Ethereum Layer 2. Unlike a standard Ethereum wallet, zk.money does not publish users' balances, payment amounts or counterparties on a public ledger, Aztec said Tuesday.
The return comes as privacy has become a larger focus for Ethereum. Its public roadmap calls for making privacy a "first-class property" of the network, while Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has highlighted the risks of making people's financial activity publicly traceable.
"Onchain transactions between two individuals shouldn't mean publishing your financial history to the world," Aztec Labs CEO Joe Andrews said in a statement. "zk.money is a self-custodial crypto wallet where your financial history stays yours."
Why zk.money is returning The original zk.money launched in 2021 and was discontinued in 2023 as Aztec Labs shifted its focus to building Aztec Network. Aztec said the wallet reached more than 75,000 unique wallets and processed over $100 million in volume.
Andrews told The Block that demand was not the reason for shutting it down. The earlier system was difficult to expand and could not scale globally, he said.
"We sunset in 2023, not because private payments were a failed thesis, but because they needed infrastructure that did not yet exist," Andrews said. "The system back then was very hard to add features and did not scale globally."
Aztec spent the following three years building Aztec Network, a decentralized Layer 2 designed to support private applications on Ethereum, he added. The network is now overseen by the nonprofit Aztec Foundation, while Aztec Labs develops products on top of it.
"Now that the network is live and stewarded via the non-profit Aztec Foundation, our team at Aztec Labs is back shipping open-source privacy products on top of it," Andrews said. He added that the new infrastructure gives developers more room to add features using Noir, Aztec's programming language for zero-knowledge applications.
How the wallet works Users can claim a simple handle such as bob.zk.money instead of using a long wallet address, Aztec said. They can send or request payments by sharing a link.
The handles use Ethereum Name Service technology and can work with apps that support ENS. Users can also choose who can interact with their handles.
Users can send funds from Ethereum-based exchanges directly to a zk.money handle. Aztec also plans to connect the wallet with DeFi protocols on Ethereum. The company said it is working with potential partners, with integrations expected in Q4, but declined to name them ahead of future announcements.
Since the wallet is non-custodial, Aztec Labs said it cannot spend, move or freeze users' funds.
Users can access zk.money through the web or run it locally. A mobile app is also planned for Q4, though Aztec said there is no set launch date yet.
The relaunch comes after two older Aztec smart contracts were exploited in June. Aztec said the contracts were linked to separate products that had been shut down years earlier and were not part of the current Aztec Network. The new zk.money runs on the newer network and was not affected, the company said.
Aztec has raised $125 million to date, including a $100 million Series B backed by a16z crypto and Paradigm in 2022.
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Ethereum users get another way to pay privately as zk.money returns after three years. (Ethereum)Summary
Aztec Labs is relaunching zk.money, a self-custodial wallet that uses the Aztec Network to conceal payment amounts, balances and recipients while allowing transfers through readable names or links.Users can deposit DAI, USDC or USDT from Ethereum, though USDC and USDT are converted to DAI, and deposits remain publicly traceable even as subsequent activity is private.The early Alpha release caps each deposit, payment and withdrawal below $2,500, screens addresses under a sanctions policy and carries security risks because the software has not been fully audited.Pay someone from an ordinary Ethereum wallet and they can follow its public transaction history. Fortunately, users have a growing list of options to hide their data.
The latest alternative comes from Privacy developer Aztec Labs. The firm says it is bringing back zk.money, a wallet that hides payment amounts and recipients while letting people send money by name or payment link.
The firm told CoinDesk that users will be able to deposit the dollar-pegged stablecoins DAI, USDC and USDT from Ethereum. USDC and USDT are converted into DAI on the way in, leaving DAI as the only currency used inside zk.money.
On Ethereum, anyone who knows a person’s wallet address can see its balance and trace past transfers. That can expose a business’s payments to suppliers or an individual’s spending history. zk.money moves payments onto the Aztec Network, which is connected to Ethereum but hides balances, amounts and the people involved in transfers.
People can request a payment by sharing a link or send one to a readable name such as bob.zk.money, rather than copying a long wallet address. Aztec Labs says the wallet is self-custodial, so its operators cannot spend or freeze the funds held in it.
“Onchain transactions between two individuals shouldn't mean publishing your financial history to the world,” Joe Andrews, CEO of Aztec Labs, said in a statement.
Andrews added that Aztec Labs chose DAI because it considers it “the most decentralized of the mass-market stablecoins used today on Ethereum.” He said the wallet could support other assets later.
Aztec's zk.money hides payments once money is inside. (Shaurya Malwa/CoinDesk)Ethereum already has apps that hide payments, though transfers from an ordinary wallet remain public. Its developers are weighing changes for the planned 2027 Hegotá upgrade that could let privacy apps handle transaction approvals and fees with less help from outside services. Those proposals are still under consideration, while Aztec Labs is bringing back a wallet people can use on its own network.
Read More: Ethereum’s next big upgrade has 66 proposals, including a major privacy fix
What zk.money can and cannot hideMoving money into the system still leaves a public trace, however. Aztec’s documentation says a deposit from Ethereum reveals the sender and amount, even though the recipient on Aztec can remain private.
The relaunch comes with limits, however. Each deposit, payment and withdrawal must be below $2,500. All users share a $50,000 daily deposit allowance, which replenishes over time. The documentation describes those caps as a safeguard while the system is new and says raising them would require a new contract.
“The limits are in place as the system is new, experimental cryptography,” Andrews told CoinDesk. He said Aztec Labs plans to raise them as confidence grows and after a later version goes live.
A deposit costs 35 cents plus Ethereum fees, and a withdrawal costs 20 cents. Users get 100 sponsored transactions a day inside zk.money, but payments must wait if the contract covering their network fees runs out of funds or cannot cover the prevailing fee.
The wallet also screens Ethereum addresses used for deposits and withdrawals against a sanctions policy. A sealed server co-signs operations inside zk.money, though the documentation says it cannot spend a user’s funds on its own.
The original zk.money launched in 2021 and closed in 2024. Aztec Labs says it served more than 75,000 wallets and processed over $100 million before the shutdown.
Read More: DeFi privacy bridge Aztec Connect sunsets after less than a year
That network remains in its early Alpha phase.
Aztec’s documentation warns that its software has not been fully audited and that critical bugs are possible. Contributors disclosed a critical flaw in its V5 proof system in August and said a fix was planned for V6. The zk.money release does not say what safeguards apply to the relaunched wallet following that finding.
Andrews said zk.money will launch before the flaw is fixed. He said a separate system called Oxide will check payments for errors caused by bugs in the network’s software. Users will be able to move to the updated network once the fix is ready.
Aztec Labs has brought back zk.money, the privacy-focused wallet it killed off in 2023, this time running on a significantly upgraded version of its zero-knowledge Layer 2 network.
The new wallet, called Nyx, is a self-custodial privacy tool with yield-earning capabilities. It launched alongside the Aztec Network’s Alpha V5 upgrade, which went live in July 2026 and brought major performance gains: private transaction proving speed improved by more than 2x, while costs dropped roughly 50%.
Why Aztec killed zk.money in the first place The original zk.money and its companion product, Aztec Connect, were shut down in March 2023. Deposits were halted on March 21 of that year, though withdrawal support continued until approximately March 2024 to let users retrieve their funds.
The team’s reasoning was strategic: the existing infrastructure relied on centralized sequencers, which created a trust bottleneck that undermined the whole point of building privacy tools. Instead of patching a fundamentally compromised architecture, Aztec Labs chose to redirect all resources toward building a fully decentralized privacy platform from the ground up, developing client-side zero-knowledge proofs and centering the rebuild on Noir, a programming language Aztec created specifically for writing ZK circuits.
What the Alpha V5 upgrade actually changes The Alpha V5 upgrade is the technical foundation that made the zk.money relaunch possible. The headline numbers, 2x faster proving and 50% cheaper transactions, matter because they directly address the two biggest complaints users have historically had with ZK-based privacy: it’s slow and it’s expensive.
V5 supports end-to-end private execution directly on user devices. When you make a transaction through Nyx, the proof that your transaction is valid gets generated on your phone or laptop. No intermediary server ever sees your transaction details. The network only verifies the mathematical proof, not the underlying data.
Nyx was the first application built on V5, serving as both a product launch and a proof of concept. The wallet’s yield-earning features suggest Aztec is targeting users who want to participate in DeFi without broadcasting their portfolio to the world.
The AZTEC token and network decentralization The relaunch comes with a broader decentralization push anchored by the $AZTEC token, which provides governance rights and staking opportunities. The token sale concluded in December 2025, raising between $59 million and $61 million.
More than 17,000 bidders participated in the sale, and 96% of them contributed less than $10,000.
Aztec Network is currently on the second stage of decentralization, with community-operated nodes and sequencers being rolled out for user-facing applications.
What this means for Ethereum’s privacy landscape Future development plans include private smart contract capabilities on Ethereum, which would allow entire DeFi protocols to operate with transaction privacy baked in. Cross-chain privacy integrations are also on the roadmap, which could let users move assets privately across different blockchain networks.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Aztec Labs is relaunching zk.money on September 29, 2026, reviving the private payments application that was originally shuttered starting in March 2023. The comeback arrives just eight days after Aztec activated private smart contract execution on September 21, giving the relaunched app a fundamentally more capable foundation than its predecessor ever had.
What changed since zk.money went dark The original zk.money had a quiet, somewhat unceremonious exit. The sunsetting process dragged from March 2023 through May 2024, when Aztec Labs fully relinquished the domain. At the time, the project was pivoting hard toward building out its broader Layer 2 infrastructure rather than maintaining consumer-facing products.
That infrastructure work has since materialized. Aztec’s Ignition Chain, a fully decentralized Layer 2 architecture, went live in November 2025. The Alpha V5 upgrades completed in July 2026 then unlocked the feature that makes this relaunch meaningful: private smart contract execution, activated on September 21.
Transaction costs tell the story of why the timing makes sense now. Post-V5, average transaction fees on the Aztec Network sit under $0.05.
The organizational split behind the scenes Aztec’s corporate structure has also evolved in ways that matter for the relaunch. Throughout 2026, Aztec Labs and the Aztec Foundation have been formally separating their responsibilities. Labs now focuses on application development, which includes zk.money. The Foundation handles core protocol support and ecosystem stewardship.
The AZTEC token sits at the center of the ecosystem, serving governance and staking functions. As of late September 2026, its market capitalization hovers in the mid-$50 million range.
Privacy’s competitive landscape Aztec isn’t operating in a vacuum. The demand for privacy in DeFi has only grown since Tornado Cash was sanctioned by the US Treasury’s OFAC in August 2022. Several projects have tried to fill the gap. Railgun has gained traction as a privacy protocol for DeFi transactions on Ethereum, while newer entrants have explored various zero-knowledge approaches to shielded transfers.
The key differentiator for zk.money’s second act is that it sits atop a network purpose-built for private computation, not a privacy layer bolted onto a general-purpose chain.
Investors watching the AZTEC token should pay close attention to on-chain metrics in the weeks following the September 29 launch. Daily active addresses, transaction volume, and the size of the shielded pool will be early indicators of whether the relaunch is gaining genuine traction or simply generating announcement-day curiosity.
Aztec’s programmable privacy, enabled by private smart contract execution, opens the door to more complex use cases: private lending, shielded swaps, and confidential governance votes, all executed at costs low enough to compete with transparent alternatives.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Insight Beating AI Flash News: OpenAI unveiled its AI agent product Dots during its 2026 Developer Day keynote, positioning it as an always-on AI assistant that connects to apps and executes tasks in the background. OpenAI stated that Dots can "do almost anything" and learns user preferences over time. Powered by the GPT-6Astra model, Dots has its own cloud computing environment, access to a web browser, and support for over 4,000 apps. Users can interact with Dots via a text-message-like interface, or through voice on ChatGPT’s web, desktop, and mobile platforms. OpenAI added that Dots integrates with Microsoft Teams and Slack, and maintains context across different apps and devices. For example, developers can have Dots build and test app updates based on user feedback, while content creators can use it to analyze interview transcripts, find video clips, generate show summaries, and create social media content. Currently, users can only create one Dot, though OpenAI plans to support deploying multiple agents simultaneously in the future. OpenAI noted that Dots has autonomous action rules, allowing users to set restrictions requiring authorization before specific operations, and includes an "auto-review" feature to check if tasks meet safety requirements. The launch is seen as OpenAI’s response to Meta’s recent release of the MuseAI assistant. OpenAI has made Dots available to ChatGPT Pro and Business Premium users, and is testing a feature for enterprise users to create dedicated "expert" Dots. The company said that in the future, users will be able to add more Dots, and boost each agent’s operating speed and task processing scale.
6 minutes ago
Fed's Williams: Another interest rate hike may come this year, but there is no need to rush.
New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said there is no need for the Fed to rush into further action after its September interest rate hike, noting policymakers can wait for more economic data to determine the next policy direction. Williams added that if economic developments align roughly with his expectations, the Fed may need to raise the federal funds rate target range further before the end of the year to push inflation back to the 2% target more promptly. He emphasized this is only his personal forecast, with final decisions dependent on future data performance. Williams stated that amid solid economic growth and a strong labor market, inflationary pressures will remain a core focus of monetary policy. The Fed must ensure inflation does not stay persistently high due to shocks and avoid the formation of second-round inflation effects, he added. Williams pointed out that this year’s inflationary pressures stem from factors including former President Trump’s tariff policies, rising energy prices driven by the Middle East conflict, and AI investment which has also amplified some price pressures. He projected U.S. inflation will hit around 3.5% by the end of this year, then gradually decline and return to the Fed’s 2% target by 2028. Williams also forecast U.S. economic growth will come in at roughly 2.25% this year, with the unemployment rate hitting around 4% next year. He noted that immigration, an aging population, and limited productivity growth have constrained the economy’s long-term growth potential. (Jinshi)
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Tesla signs $30 billion financing arrangement, including revolving credit and delayed-draw loans.
According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, Tesla (TSLA.O) has signed multiple financing arrangements, including a $20 billion three-year delayed-draw term loan facility, an $80 billion five-year revolving credit facility, and a $20 billion 364-day revolving credit facility. The filings also show that Tesla has terminated its existing revolving credit agreement. The new five-year revolving credit facility allows the company to issue letters of credit up to $500 million, and the three-year delayed-draw term loan facility matures on September 29, 2029. Additionally, Tesla’s revolving credit facilities can be increased by up to $40 billion, reaching a total of $140 billion.
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Trump is set to appoint an AI chief, with Intelligence Director Clayton emerging as a potential candidate.
According to Beating AI Express, citing a report from AXIOS, U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton would be a suitable candidate for the role of "AI czar". When asked who he wants to appoint as AI czar, Trump stated, "I already have someone in mind." Pressed specifically about Clayton, Trump added, "Clayton is a good man. He’s right here. That’s a good idea." The exact responsibilities of this position have not yet been clarified, though Trump has previously expressed his intention to establish a new government agency called the "AI Force". During his nomination confirmation hearing in July, Clayton echoed the view of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, noting that for the intelligence community, "AI is both an opportunity and a threat". Trump told reporters outside the White House that he hopes to finalize the candidate within the next three to four days.
6 minutes ago
Sources familiar with the matter: U.S.-Iran talks make little progress, with neither side willing to make concessions.
According to Axios, citing three sources familiar with the negotiations, Qatari mediators this week sought to push for a diplomatic breakthrough between the U.S. and Iran, but made little progress as neither side was willing to compromise. This deadlock has further reinforced concerns on both sides that military conflict could escalate again. U.S. officials believe that after the midterm elections, Trump may order the resumption of large-scale military operations. Two sources said Qatari officials will continue their mediation efforts but are growing frustrated with both the U.S. and Iran. One source stated: "No significant progress was made in Monday’s talks, which are at a stalemate. Iran put forward some demands that the U.S. cannot accept, while the U.S. believes it has the upper hand and thus sees no need to compromise." Other regional mediators, including Pakistan and Egypt, have also urged Iran to make concessions on the nuclear issue. However, another insider said Iran has stated that it will consider making relevant concessions only if the U.S. agrees to restore the memorandum of understanding signed in June.
6 minutes ago
Trump signs an 'ethically binding' AI document, renames AI to SI.
Beating AI News Flash: U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he signed an artificial intelligence (AI)-related document with executives from multiple tech companies in Washington on Tuesday, describing the document as "ethically binding". The meeting gathered U.S. tech industry leaders to discuss AI development and governance issues. Trump called the document "somewhat like a constitution", noting it is signed by the world’s most prominent tech figures and can provide a protective mechanism for AI development. He added that the administration is considering establishing a supervisory committee, possibly consisting of around 10 people, to oversee developments in the AI field. Trump also stated that he has officially renamed "artificial intelligence (AI)" to "Super Intelligence (SI)". Previously, Trump had said the U.S. does not need new targeted regulations specifically for AI, and during the UN General Assembly, he opposed the creation of a "globalized framework" to control artificial intelligence.
Ethereum has set the date: Glamsterdam, its next major update, will activate on the Sepolia testnet on October 6 at 13:53 UTC. Operators have one week to update their clients or face exclusion from the network. This is the final rehearsal before the mainnet, targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026.
In brief Sepolia will activate Glamsterdam on October 6 at 13:53:36 UTC (epoch 353024), a now confirmed date. Node operators must update their execution and consensus clients before activation. The mainnet and Hoodi have no date yet; the next update, Hegotá, is targeted for 2027. Sepolia, final dress rehearsal before the mainnet Until recently, the date was still conditional: tests on private networks had revealed finality flaws and a pricing bug. It is now included on the official Ethereum Foundation calendar: activation planned at epoch 353024, slot 11296768, i.e. October 6, 2026 at 13:53:36 UTC. A testnet is used to publicly rehearse updates before the mainnet.
All testnet operators must update the software of both layers before the deadline. On the execution side, the Foundation lists Besu 26.9.0, Geth 1.17.6, and Reth 2.7.0; on the consensus side, Lodestar 1.49.0, Prysm 7.2.0, and Teku 26.9.1.
Prysm validators must also review their configuration: the default gas limit increases to 60 million. ETH holders have nothing to do: the deadline only concerns Sepolia.
ePBS, access lists, gas, what Glamsterdam changes for Ethereum The main novelty is called ePBS. The separation between block proposers and builders already exists but through external actors. EIP-7732 embeds it into the protocol: the proposer publishes a builder commitment, who then reveals the block, and the network manages payment. The goal: limit dependence on these intermediaries and give validators more time to verify execution.
Glamsterdam adds block-level access lists (EIP-7928): these list the accounts and storage slots used, allowing state reading and validating transactions in parallel.
The update also adjusts gas pricing (EIP-8037 and 8038) to better reflect the cost of creating and accessing data: a project aimed at increasing the network’s execution capacity. Contracts relying on fixed gas limits will therefore need to be tested and sometimes corrected.
Hoodi, mainnet, Hegotá, the next schedule The focus now shifts to Hoodi, the other network testnet: developer notes mention October 27, without formal decision. The mainnet remains targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026, without a date. Meanwhile, the Foundation has opened its bug bounty program for the Glamsterdam specifications. The formula remains tested: one major update event per year, which Ethereum news follows step by step.
Looking ahead is Hegotá, the following update. Vitalik Buterin estimated on Sunday that this could be the last normal fork of the network, before a shift to recursive STARKs, formal verification, and post-quantum cryptography.
One week of preparation, then a full-scale test. If Sepolia finalizes without incident, the fourth quarter window for the mainnet will become clearer; otherwise, the entire schedule will shift, starting with the Hegotá update, expected in 2027.
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Fenelon L.
Passionné par le Bitcoin, j'aime explorer les méandres de la blockchain et des cryptos et je partage mes découvertes avec la communauté. Mon rêve est de vivre dans un monde où la vie privée et la liberté financière sont garanties pour tous, et je crois fermement que Bitcoin est l'outil qui peut rendre cela possible.
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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.
Ethereum entered September after one of its strongest monthly performances of 2026. The original altcoin gained about 32.6% in August, rising from roughly $1,860 at the start of the month to a high near $2,556 before closing around $2,466.
The rally continued into September, although price action became more volatile. ETH opened the month near $2,419 and briefly fell to about $2,358 on Sept. 3 before recovering through the middle of the month.
The strongest moves came later in September. ETH rose 6.7% on Sept. 18 to around $2,612, followed by another 4.9% gain on Sept. 21 that pushed the price above $2,775. The token briefly reached approximately $2,805 that day, its highest level of the month.
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By Sept. 29, ETH was trading around $2,690. Despite the pullback from the monthly high, the token remained roughly 11% above its September opening level. The main question is, will there be an Uptober rally for Ethereum?
Ethereum rally: Institutional buying and profit-takingThe September price structure has been characterized by a sharp recovery followed by consolidation rather than a sustained one-way advance.
ETH has spent much of the past week between approximately $2,650 and $2,750, leaving the $2,700 to $2,800 area as an important zone for traders watching the next move.
Market sentiment has also improved from the September lows, although it remains mixed. One sentiment tracker put the average September reading at 59 out of 100, classified as "Neutral." Sentiment briefly reached "Greed" around Sept. 20 before weakening again.
Institutional demand has provided another source of support. Data from Arkham Intelligence shows that BlackRock's spot Ethereum ETF products have purchased more than $1.5 billion worth of ETH over a 20-day period.
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The firm's ETHA fund accounted for approximately $1.27 billion of those purchases, while the newer ETHB product recorded around $296.5 million in ETH inflows during the same period.
BlackRock held approximately 3.56 million ETH, worth about $8.69 billion, as of Sept. 17, according to the data cited.
At the same time, some long-term holders have begun realizing gains following Ethereum's rally.
One early Ethereum investor recently reactivated a wallet that had been dormant for about nine years. The address originally acquired 3,000 ETH at an average price of $18.80 in 2017, for a total investment of approximately $56,500.
The wallet owner has since sold 2,000 ETH at an average price of about $3,096, generating approximately $6.19 million in proceeds. Another 1,000 ETH, worth roughly $2.67 million at the cited price, remains in the wallet.
Other large transactions have also pointed to profit-taking. During the final week of September, an investor whose Ethereum position dates back to 2023 transferred more than 112,000 ETH, valued at approximately $300 million, to Bitfinex. Separately, about 42,005 ETH, worth roughly $111.9 million, was reportedly sold through an over-the-counter transaction.
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According to CryptoRank's quarterly data, Ethereum's Q3 2026 return stood at approximately 72.7%, which would make it the strongest third-quarter performance in the dataset. That follows declines of 29.1% in Q1 and 25.3% in Q2.
Ethereum price prediction: Can ETH break above $2,800?Technically, Ethereum's structure has improved substantially since the June lows. ETH has moved above its previous $2,400 to $2,550 consolidation range, while shorter-term moving averages have risen below the current price.
The $2,350 to $2,400 area now represents an important short-term support zone, while a larger cluster of longer-term moving averages sits between approximately $2,180 and $2,250.
The next significant resistance area is around $2,700 to $2,800. ETH's ability to establish itself above this range could determine whether the September recovery develops into a broader fourth-quarter advance.
Momentum indicators remain elevated but have not reached the extreme levels seen during some previous rallies, suggesting that the latest move has not yet produced the same degree of overheating.
Technical analyst Ali Martinez, known as Ali Charts, has pointed to a previous breakout from a similar formation that was followed by a 31% gain over three days. In his analysis, a move above $2,474 could open a path toward $3,000. This remains a technical scenario rather than a guaranteed price target.
Source: Ali Martinez/XOn-chain data has also provided a potentially supportive signal. Large holders previously withdrew more than $300 million worth of ETH from exchange addresses to cold wallets, reducing the amount of immediately available supply on exchanges.
For October, the main question is whether September's recovery can develop into a broader fourth-quarter rally. The "Uptober" narrative remains popular across crypto markets, but Ethereum's historical October performance has been mixed, meaning seasonality alone does not provide a reliable signal for the month ahead.
As of Sept. 29, Ethereum's market structure is considerably stronger than it was at the beginning of September.
However, ETH still faces resistance around $2,700 to $2,800, while profit-taking by large holders and the ability of institutional demand to continue absorbing supply could influence the next phase of the rally.
The BUIDL fund is sitting at the top of the US Treasury debt RWA screener on RWA.xyz for 30-day returns, according to the provided dashboard data. Its 1M return stands at 371.98%, while active addresses and holders are also rising.
The RWA.xyz asset screener shows 92 US Treasury debt-based RWA counts, with BUIDL ranking first for 30-day returns.
The fund reports a 371.98% 1M return, alongside 374.69% over three months and 377.64% year-to-date and since inception. Its inception date was March 20, 2024.
BUIDL’s AUM stands at $2.2 billion, with the dashboard showing a 20% decline. Redemptions are available daily.
BUIDL Metrics Show More Wallet ActivityReturns aren’t the only metric moving. BUIDL Metrics show rising active addresses, while the number of holders is also increasing. That adds another layer to the picture as the tokenized Treasury fund continues to operate across multiple blockchain networks.
BUIDL is available across Tempo, Arbitrum, BNB Chain, Optimism, Avalanche C-Chain, Solana, Aptos, Polygon and Ethereum.
BUIDL Keeps Daily Subscriptions And RedemptionsThe fund has a $5 million minimum investment and is available to U.S. Qualified Purchasers. It distributes income daily, while subscriptions and redemptions are also processed daily.
The fund structure is a British Virgin Islands Limited Company, with Securitize serving as its platform and transfer agent.
It charges a 0.50% management fee, while performance, subscription and redemption fees are listed at 0%.
With BUIDL leading the provided US Treasury debt RWA return data, rising holders and active addresses add another notable signal to its onchain footprint.
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Aztec Labs has relaunched zk.money on the Aztec Network, bringing back its private payment wallet after a three-year absence and offering users self-custody of their funds.
Summary
The original zk.money served more than 75,000 unique wallets and processed $100 million in volume before it was retired in 2023. Aztec Labs says the new wallet keeps balances, transfer amounts, and transaction parties off the public ledger. Users can request payments through links and receive funds through readable zk.money handles. The wallet runs on Aztec Network, the company’s privacy-focused Ethereum layer-2. In a Sep. 29 announcement shared with crypto.news, Aztec Labs said that users can access the relaunched wallet through the zk.money website or a frontend run on their own device. A mobile app is planned, while the website is available for users to claim a handle now.
The company said zk.money hides wallet balances, payment amounts, and the parties to a transfer from the public ledger. Users also control who can interact with their tag, according to the announcement.
For payments, the wallet replaces long Ethereum addresses with names such as bob.zk.money. Users can send or request funds by sharing a link, and Aztec Labs said the tags use Ethereum Name Service technology that resolves wherever ENS CCIP is supported.
zk.money offers private transfers with user-held funds On Ethereum’s public ledger, an address can expose its balance and transaction history to anyone who looks it up. Aztec Labs said zk.money gives account holders a way to make payments without publishing those details.
“Onchain transactions between two individuals shouldn’t mean publishing your financial history to the world,” Joe Andrews, CEO of Aztec Labs, said in the announcement. He described zk.money as a wallet where users retain control of their financial history.
Aztec Labs also said people can send funds to zk.money tags directly from exchanges on Ethereum. For a U.S. user holding crypto on an exchange, the feature provides a route to a private wallet if the exchange supports sending the relevant asset to the tag. The announcement did not name participating exchanges or specify which assets they support.
According to the company, zk.money uses self-custodial wallets and immutable smart contracts, with no privileged administrator role that can move or freeze a user’s funds. The distinction matters to anyone transferring assets from an exchange account: after the transfer, Aztec Labs says control of the funds rests with the wallet holder.
The release describes future connections with Ethereum decentralized finance protocols, but it does not announce a specific integration. For now, the stated payment options are links, zk.money tags, and transfers from Ethereum exchanges.
Aztec Network provides the wallet’s private transaction layer The first zk.money launched in 2021 and reached more than 75,000 unique wallets, with $100 million in transaction volume, according to Aztec Labs. The company retired it in 2023 while it worked on the infrastructure for a general-purpose private network. The returning wallet runs on that network rather than the original product’s infrastructure.
In July, crypto.news covered Aztec’s v5 alpha release, which introduced a system for applications to use private and public data within the same Ethereum layer-2 environment. Aztec Labs said the design performs private computations on a user’s device and submits cryptographic proofs for verification without revealing the underlying transaction details.
The v5 release also described how applications could combine confidential user information with public blockchain activity. Aztec presented that capability as a way for developers to build private smart contracts, including applications that interact with shared financial services.
Separately, in May, the company acquired ZKPassport’s identity tools and said its app and code would remain open source. ZKPassport lets users prove selected details from an identity document without disclosing the entire document. Its tools had been used for sanctions checks during Aztec’s December 2025 token sale, according to the earlier report. Aztec Labs has not announced a ZKPassport feature in the relaunched zk.money wallet.
Earlier Aztec products faced separate contract incidents The relaunch follows security investigations involving older Aztec products. In June, Aztec Labs investigated a $2 million transfer from an immutable contract tied to a discontinued payments product launched in 2021.
At the time, the Aztec Foundation said the affected product had no links to smart contracts for the current Aztec Network or the AZTEC token. Aztec Labs said it held no administrator keys for the old system and could not pause or upgrade its contract.
Days earlier, an attacker had drained about $2.1 million from a separate, retired product called Aztec Connect, according to coverage of the exploit. Aztec Labs said users and assets on the current network were unaffected by that incident.
Aztec Labs said the two exploited contracts belonged to deprecated products and were separate from the current Aztec Network. The relaunched zk.money runs on that network and was not affected by either incident.
For the new zk.money, Aztec Labs again describes the absence of a privileged administrator as a feature of its self-custodial design. Users can reach the wallet through the web interface or a locally run frontend, while the company says a mobile app will follow.
Bitcoin continues, in my opinion, to show a generally positive structure, even though the market remains very volatile. After the recent rise, I would not be surprised to see BTC correct further before resuming. A drop towards the 82,000-79,000 dollars zone remains quite possible and, in my eyes, this would not mean that the bullish trend is over. On the contrary, this type of movement is necessary and healthy for the market.
After a strong rise, many traders arrive late, use too much leverage, and become vulnerable to a quick correction. A return towards 80/79K could therefore allow the market to clean some of these positions before attempting a new upward move.
87,400 and 82,000 dollars remain important levels On the upside, I am particularly watching the 87,400 dollars zone. On the downside, I am watching the 82,000-79,000.
ema 50 at 79,000 and the important levels I am watching If Bitcoin manages to clearly surpass this level of 87K and stay above it, this would strongly reinforce the scenario of a new bullish continuation. But before that, it is quite possible that the market continues to move sideways or undergo some abrupt movements.
It is precisely during these periods that many traders make the mistake of wanting to anticipate every candle. Personally, I prefer to wait for the market to confirm, I will look to open longs around 79k BTC.
Ethereum can also become interesting Ethereum is also in an area to watch. For me, the 2,800 dollar region is important.
If ETH manages to return above this level with strength, it could create an interesting movement, especially because many short positions are still present in the market.
If these traders start to close their shorts, this can quickly add buying pressure.
Altcoins continue to offer great opportunities In my latest article, I advised you to take a look at some altcoins and here we are. This month, some of the best opportunities did not come only from Bitcoin.
Cryptocurrencies like ZEC, ZAMA, NEAR and other altcoins have offered particularly interesting movements.
It is precisely several of these assets that have allowed me, through my futures operations and by deliberately using a small account, to surpass 14,000 dollars of profits for the month.
September operations CryptoCedric For me, this shows an important thing: it is not always necessary to have a huge capital to achieve good results.
What matters much more is to select the right assets, wait for the right levels, and above all, manage risk properly.
Be careful not to chase the price NEAR, for example, has seen a very significant rise in a short time.
Even though I remain positive on some of these projects in the medium term, I do not like to buy after a vertical rise just because everyone starts talking about it. I generally prefer to wait for a correction.
Zcash has also been one of the strongest assets recently. The trend remains interesting, but after such progress, it becomes even more important to protect profits and watch for signs of a slowdown. Being bullish on an asset does not mean holding a position no matter what.
Protecting capital remains a priority It is probably one of the most important lessons I have learned over the years.
When a position begins to show signs of weakness, I sometimes prefer to reduce my exposure and keep cash.
If the market clearly becomes bullish again afterward, I absolutely do not mind entering again, even slightly higher.
The goal is not to sell exactly at the top and buy exactly at the bottom. The goal is mostly to avoid unnecessarily large drawdowns.
My current scenario For now, my view remains generally positive.
I think Bitcoin can still experience volatility and potentially return towards 80,000 dollars before resuming. Above, 87,400 dollars remains for me the important zone to break.
Ethereum could also become much more interesting above 2,800 dollars, while altcoins continue to offer some of the best opportunities in the market.
This month is a good example: assets like ZEC, ZAMA, SOL, ONDO, or NEAR have largely contributed to my performance and allowed me to surpass 14,000 dollars in profits on my futures operations with a relatively small account.
The market therefore remains interesting, bullish, but one must accept a simple reality: even in an uptrend, the path is never perfectly linear.
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CryptoCedric
Cedric Cerezo is a professional cryptocurrency trader, market analyst, mentor, and international speaker. Recognized for winning two world cryptocurrency trading competitions, he specializes in Bitcoin market structure, on-chain analysis, institutional capital flows, and trading psychology. His research combines technical analysis with macroeconomic and blockchain data to deliver high-conviction market insights for investors and industry professionals.
Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) could be setting up for a run toward $6,000 to $10,000 if it clears its long-standing $5,000 resistance as institutional adoption and evolution toward a “world computer” strengthen the long-term bull case, according to Milk Road analyst John Gillen.
Does ETH’s Road To $10,000 Start at $3,000?Speaking on the Milk Road podcast, Gillen identified $2,500 as the key level Ethereum needed to reclaim and hold, arguing that acceptance above it puts $3,000 in focus.
From there, the bigger test comes around $5,000, an area Ethereum has struggled to sustainably break in previous cycles.
For a longer-term target over the next two years, John said he is directionally looking toward $10,000 to $12,000, while stressing that the outcome depends heavily on ETH’s ability to maintain its share of institutional and on-chain activity.
The analyst believes an Ethereum breakout could have implications well beyond as it serves as crypto’s largest "blue-chip" altcoin.
A sustained move above $5,000 could attract speculative capital into the broader altcoin market.
Bitcoin’s recent breakout above $83,000 and its 50-week moving average is evidence that bullish momentum has strengthened after months of consolidation.
However, he cautioned that the setup is not yet guaranteed.
How ETH’s “World Computer” Vision Is StrengtheningJohn also highlighted Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s push to expand Ethereum beyond its role as a blockchain toward a broader decentralized "world computer."
The thesis is that ETH could increasingly provide computational, economic and security infrastructure for applications extending beyond basic blockchain transactions.
John argued that Ethereum’s development over the past five years is beginning to catch up with the ambitious expectations investors priced into ETH during earlier bull cycles.
He pointed to Ethereum’s transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, continued network upgrades and growing institutional adoption across areas including stablecoins and tokenized assets.
The key question now is whether Ethereum can retain a large share of that activity as financial institutions move more assets on chain.
That could ultimately determine the difference between a $6,000, $12,000 or even higher ETH price.
Ethereum will activate the Glamsterdam upgrade on Sepolia on Oct. 6, targeting block production, state growth and execution limits while laying the groundwork for higher layer 1 capacity, the Ethereum Foundation said in a recent blog post.
The deployment, which combines the Gloas consensus-layer upgrade with the Amsterdam execution-layer upgrade, is the next major step in the network’s L1 scaling roadmap after Fusaka.
The fork would likely be Ethereum’s largest fork since the Merge, according to Ethereum Foundation core developer Parithosh Jayanthi, speaking to CoinDesk. He said the upgrade could change key assumptions about the network and set the stage for further scaling.
Activation dates for the validator-focused public testnet, Hoodi, and mainnet have yet to be determined, the Foundation noted.
The Glamsterdam upgrade follows years of work to make the network’s base layer faster without sacrificing decentralization.
Higher transaction demand has exposed limits in sequential execution, while reliance on specialized block builders has created concerns around block-production centralization and MEV. Meanwhile, simply increasing Ethereum’s gas limit would accelerate state growth and raise the hardware burden for validators.
The headline features are enshrined proposer-builder separation, which moves proposer-builder interactions into the Ethereum consensus protocol, and block-level access lists, which allow clients to process state reads and validation more efficiently. Glamsterdam will also change gas accounting and pricing to better reflect execution and state-growth costs.
Longer term, the roadmap points toward statelessness and Verkle trees, stronger privacy capabilities and continued improvements to rollup data availability and interoperability.
ETH has surged 14% over the past two weeks as crypto and other risk assets rallied. While the upcoming upgrade could fuel further interest in ETH, the recent rise in Treasury yields is creating a tougher backdrop for the rally and could keep price gains volatile.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
In brief Aztec Labs relaunched zk.money, a privacy wallet it shut down three years ago, on its privacy-first Ethereum layer-2, Aztec Network. Users send stablecoins to tags like bob.zk.money. Payments inside the wallet are private, but deposits from Ethereum remain public. Transactions are capped at $2,500 during the early rollout. The original zk.money drew more than 75,000 wallets and $100 million in volume. Three years after pulling the plug, Aztec Labs is bringing zk.money back from the dead.
The privacy-focused Ethereum developer relaunched the self-custodial wallet Tuesday, letting users send and receive stablecoins without broadcasting balances, amounts, or recipients to the world.
Myriad: Where does Ethereum go next? Click to make your prediction.Users claim a tag such as bob.zk.money, which resolves through the Ethereum Name Service, or ENS, to a deposit address, according to Aztec's posts on X.
"Onchain transactions between two individuals shouldn't mean publishing your financial history to the world," Aztec Labs CEO Joe Andrews said in a statement.
The wallet runs on Aztec Network, which the company's developer documentation describes as a privacy-first Ethereum layer-2, a separate network that settles back to Ethereum.
Private functions run on the user's own device, which generates zero-knowledge proofs. These are cryptographic receipts that confirm a transaction is valid without revealing its details.
The private payments via zk.money, though, have their limits. Deposits from Ethereum remain public, Aztec noted, while payments made inside zk.money stay hidden. Users can send USDC, USDT or DAI from an exchange or Ethereum wallet.. Early caps also apply, since transactions are limited to $2,500 each, and all users share a $50,000 daily deposit ceiling.
Because the wallet is self-custodial, Aztec says it can't spend or freeze user funds, and no privileged administrator controls it.
The original zk.money debuted in 2021 and drew more than 75,000 wallets and $100 million in volume, Aztec said, before the team shelved it to build its own network. Back in 2021, Aztec raised $17 million in a Paradigm-led round. It also expanded zk.money with Aztec Connect, a toolkit for plugging its privacy tech into DeFi protocols.
The relaunch comes as privacy climbs Ethereum's agenda. Developers are weighing proposals for next year's Hegotá upgrade that would let privacy pools pay their own transaction fees without intermediaries.
And in a post this weekend, co-founder Vitalik Buterin said special-purpose apps could get "very strong privacy" through zero-knowledge proofs as part of his "cryptographic world computer" vision.
Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
In brief Aztec Labs relaunched zk.money, a privacy wallet it shut down three years ago, on its privacy-first Ethereum layer-2, Aztec Network. Users send stablecoins to tags like bob.zk.money. Payments inside the wallet are private, but deposits from Ethereum remain public. Transactions are capped at $2,500 during the early rollout. The original zk.money drew more than 75,000 wallets and $100 million in volume. Three years after pulling the plug, Aztec Labs is bringing zk.money back from the dead.
The privacy-focused Ethereum developer relaunched the self-custodial wallet Tuesday, letting users send and receive stablecoins without broadcasting balances, amounts, or recipients to the world.
Myriad: Where does Ethereum go next? Click to make your prediction.Users claim a tag such as bob.zk.money, which resolves through the Ethereum Name Service, or ENS, to a deposit address, according to Aztec's posts on X.
"Onchain transactions between two individuals shouldn't mean publishing your financial history to the world," Aztec Labs CEO Joe Andrews said in a statement.
The wallet runs on Aztec Network, which the company's developer documentation describes as a privacy-first Ethereum layer-2, a separate network that settles back to Ethereum.
Private functions run on the user's own device, which generates zero-knowledge proofs. These are cryptographic receipts that confirm a transaction is valid without revealing its details.
The private payments via zk.money, though, have their limits. Deposits from Ethereum remain public, Aztec noted, while payments made inside zk.money stay hidden. Users can send USDC, USDT or DAI from an exchange or Ethereum wallet.. Early caps also apply, since transactions are limited to $2,500 each, and all users share a $50,000 daily deposit ceiling.
Because the wallet is self-custodial, Aztec says it can't spend or freeze user funds, and no privileged administrator controls it.
The original zk.money debuted in 2021 and drew more than 75,000 wallets and $100 million in volume, Aztec said, before the team shelved it to build its own network. Back in 2021, Aztec raised $17 million in a Paradigm-led round. It also expanded zk.money with Aztec Connect, a toolkit for plugging its privacy tech into DeFi protocols.
The relaunch comes as privacy climbs Ethereum's agenda. Developers are weighing proposals for next year's Hegotá upgrade that would let privacy pools pay their own transaction fees without intermediaries.
And in a post this weekend, co-founder Vitalik Buterin said special-purpose apps could get "very strong privacy" through zero-knowledge proofs as part of his "cryptographic world computer" vision.
Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
The relaunched zk.money hides balances and recipients for stablecoin payments, and it goes live before a fix for a critical proving-system flaw Aztec disclosed in August.
Aztec revives private payments wallet, capping transfers at $2,500
Posted September 29, 2026 at 7:39 pm ET.
Aztec Labs relaunched zk.money on Tuesday, bringing back its self-custodial wallet for private stablecoin payments on Aztec Network, a layer 2 on Ethereum built for private transactions. Every deposit, payment and withdrawal must stay below $2,500, and the wallet is live before Aztec ships a fix for a critical flaw it found in the network’s proving system this summer.
A payment on Ethereum is visible to anyone who looks up either address, along with each wallet’s balance and history. A payment between two zk.money users puts no amount and no name on a public chain, according to the wallet’s documentation.
“Onchain transactions between two individuals shouldn’t mean publishing your financial history to the world,” Aztec Labs CEO Joe Andrews said in a statement.
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Tags Instead of Addresses Each user picks a name like bob.zk.money, and ENS points that name to a deposit address. Anyone can pay that tag in USDC, USDT or DAI from an exchange or an Ethereum wallet. Deposits and withdrawals are still public on Ethereum; what happens between them is not.
The wallet holds only DAI, so USDC and USDT are swapped on arrival. On top of the per-transaction cap, all users draw from one shared $50,000 daily deposit allowance. A deposit costs 35 cents, a withdrawal 20 cents, and each user gets 100 sponsored transactions a day. The Ethereum address a deposit comes from and the one a withdrawal goes to are screened against a sanctions policy.
Live Before the V6 Fix Aztec disclosed on Aug. 7 that contributors had found a critical vulnerability in its Alpha V5 proving system on July 27. An attacker could get a bad transaction accepted, and the post said the flaw puts V5 funds at risk. It asked teams planning V5 deployments to pause and said the fix would come with V6, planned for later in 2026.
Andrews said zk.money would launch before that fix. The wallet relies on a separate protocol, Oxide, whose sealed servers co-sign every send and withdrawal. According to the trust model, taking funds out “needs a soundness fault in the Aztec Network and a compromised enclave at the same time.” The caps are meant to limit losses in that case.
Aztec said the first version, launched in 2021, drew more than 75,000 wallets and handled $100 million. Ethereum developers are separately weighing a proposal for native private transfers in the Hegotá upgrade.
“We sunset in 2023, not because private payments were a failed thesis, but because they needed infrastructure that did not yet exist,” Andrews said in an interview.
Related Listen: Zcash, Ethereum, Aztec, Canton and More: Which Chain Will Win the Privacy Race?
AI-assisted content: This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and was reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by a member of the Unchained editorial team before publication.
Bitcoin is holding key support at $83,000, with analysts arguing that Treasury yields surging to a 24-year high have yet to derail crypto markets.
Notable Statistics:
Coinglass data shows 80,621 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours for $292.56 million. SoSoValue data shows net inflows of $31.07 million from spot Bitcoin ETFs on Monday. Spot Ethereum ETFs saw net inflows of $17.1 million. In the past 24 hours, top gainers include Bitway, Curve DAO and Aave. Notable Developments:
XRP Compresses Around $1.50: What Does Technical Analysis Say?Bitcoin Plummeted After the Last 4 Midterm Elections: Will History Repeat?Bitcoin’s Rally Breaks Analyst’s Bear Thesis: What Happens Next?XRP or Solana: Which ETF Is Really Winning? The Answer Is ‘Very Simple,’ Bitwise CIO SaysBitcoin ETF Inflows Surge but ETH Still Outperforms: What Is Going On?Rising Bond Yields Stop Bitcoin’s Rally. These 3 Indicators Signal It May Resume SoonCoinbase Wins CFTC Approval for Its Own ClearinghouseTrader Notes:
Scott Melker’s interview with Andrew Parish, Tillman Holloway and Mark Yusko highlighted that ETFs, options and futures have transformed Bitcoin into an institutional yield opportunity, potentially changing traditional cycle dynamics.
Yusko argued rising Treasury yields aren’t necessarily bearish for Bitcoin, saying global liquidity matters more than rates.
Since late 2023, the 10-year Treasury yield has risen roughly 135 basis points while Bitcoin has approximately doubled.
Yusko estimates Bitcoin’s fair value at $104,000 to $105,000, leaving BTC undervalued in the $80,000s.
Image: Shutterstock
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The RWA distributed asset value has reached $38.45 billion, while rising active addresses point to increasing activity around real-world assets. The latest data also puts Ethereum, BNB Chain and Solana at the front of the RWA market.
Ethereum leads with 2,696 RWA count and $16.5 billion in distributed total value. That gives Ethereum a 42.74% market share, putting it well ahead of the other major chains.
BNB Chain follows with 2,561 RWA count and $5.7 billion in distributed total value, representing a 14.73% market share.
Solana ranks third, with 1,682 RWA count and $4.3 billion in distributed total value. Its market share currently stands at 11.25%.
US Treasury Debt Remains The Largest Asset ClassAcross asset classes, US Treasury debt holds the top position with $14.7 billion in distributed total value and 99 RWA count.
Commodities come next at $5.0 billion, with 91 RWA count. Active strategies rank third, representing $4.0 billion across 47 RWA count.
Stocks tell a different story. The asset class currently has 5,918 RWA count, far higher than the other listed categories, while its distributed total value still stands lower at around $3.1 billion compared to other classes.
RWA Activity Keeps Expanding Across Major ChainsThe combination of $38.45 billion in total distributed asset value and rising active addresses shows that RWA activity is spreading across blockchain networks.
Ethereum remains the largest contributor, while BNB Chain and Solana hold the next two positions. For the RWA distributed asset value, the latest figures show a market led by major chains but expanding across multiple asset classes.
Story Ends Here
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For most of crypto’s history, Bitcoin has been the undisputed king of derivatives markets. On Hyperliquid, that hierarchy just flipped.
Ethereum’s open interest on the decentralized perpetual futures exchange has surpassed Bitcoin’s, with ETH reaching approximately $3.02 billion compared to BTC’s roughly $2.80 billion. On a platform that now accounts for an estimated 8.7% to 10.9% of global perpetual futures open interest, that gap is more than a rounding error.
What the flip actually tells us Open interest measures the total value of outstanding derivative contracts that haven’t been settled. It’s not volume, which tracks how much changes hands in a given period. OI is more like a headcount of how many traders are still sitting at the table with live bets.
Throughout 2026, ETH and BTC have been locked in a tight contest for the top OI spot on Hyperliquid, with leadership seesawing between the two assets. The current ETH lead suggests a rotation in trader sentiment that’s worth watching, particularly because it’s happening on a venue that’s increasingly representative of broader market positioning.
Hyperliquid’s rise from niche to notable Hyperliquid launched around 2023 with a simple pitch: deliver centralized-exchange speed and features on a fully decentralized platform. Built on its own Layer-1 blockchain, the exchange runs an on-chain central limit order book, or CLOB, rather than the automated market maker model that most DEXs rely on. That architecture lets it offer up to 50x leverage across its markets.
Total open interest on Hyperliquid hit approximately $18 billion as of late September 2026, a record high for the platform, representing nearly a tenth of all global perpetual futures open interest.
The October 2025 launch of the HIP-3 framework opened the door to tokenized traditional assets, including equity indices like the S&P 500, commodities, and individual stocks. Some of these tokenized asset markets have occasionally overtaken BTC itself in open interest on the platform.
Why this matters beyond Hyperliquid The risk side of the equation deserves attention. Concentrated open interest on a single decentralized venue means that any smart contract vulnerability, oracle failure, or liquidity crisis could cascade quickly. Hyperliquid’s CLOB model is more capital-efficient than AMM-based alternatives, but it also concentrates matching and settlement risk in ways that are still relatively untested at this scale.
For traders watching the ETH-BTC dynamic specifically, the open interest flip is a useful sentiment gauge but not a directional signal on its own. Higher ETH OI can precede sharp moves in either direction, since it reflects both long and short positioning.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
TLDR ETH is trading at $2,706.58, up 2.12% on the day, after recently nearing the $2,800 area. The token holds above its 7-, 20-, 50- and 200-day moving averages, but the MACD shows cooling momentum. Analyst Ali Charts says ETH may be forming a bull flag, with $2,640 as key support and $3,000 as a possible target. Retail traders are 71.7% long, while top traders are more balanced at 58.2% long. Spot Ethereum ETFs have seen steady inflows, with cumulative net inflows at $13.94 billion. Ethereum is trading near $2,700 as traders watch whether the latest pause turns into a breakout or a pullback.
At the time of writing, ETH was priced at $2,706.58, up 2.12% on the day. Earlier data showed the token at $2,675.94, down 0.47% over 24 hours.
The token recently climbed toward the $2,800 area before easing back. It reached $2,721.42 during the day before pulling away from that level.
Ethereum Price on CoinGecko Price Holds Above Moving Averages ETH is trading above its 7-, 20-, 50- and 200-day simple moving averages. The 200-day simple moving average sits at $2,108, nearly $600 below the current price.
On the daily TradingView chart, ETH is also above its 20-day exponential moving average of $2,604.39. The 50-day, 100-day and 200-day EMAs sit at $2,426.84, $2,265.83 and $2,259.76.
Momentum readings are softer. The MACD histogram shows -3.00, with the MACD line at 85.75 below the signal line at 88.75. This points to cooling short-term momentum after the recent rally.
The Relative Strength Index is at 64.34, which is below overbought levels. The upper Bollinger Band sits at $2,834.77.
Immediate resistance stands at $2,739.54, with a stronger resistance zone at $2,772.50. Immediate support is at $2,655.50, and strong support sits at $2,604.42.
Crypto analyst Ali Charts said in a post on X that ETH appears to be forming a bull flag on lower timeframes. He named $2,640 as key support and said the setup favors bulls as long as that level holds.
According to Ali Charts, an hourly close above $2,700 could open a path toward $3,000. A drop below $2,640 would weaken the setup.
ETHEREUM READY TO BREAK OUT$ETH appears to be forming a bull flag on the lower timeframes. As long as $2,640 continues to hold as support, the setup favors the bulls.
Now I’m watching $2,700.
An hourly close above that level could confirm the breakout and open the door to… https://t.co/qU9lyw2FVa pic.twitter.com/KqBIVYyGNC
— Ali Charts (@alicharts) September 28, 2026
Derivatives and ETF Data The taker buy/sell ratio is running at 1.69. This means aggressive buyers are outpacing sellers by nearly 1.7 to 1.
One data set shows open interest at $6.14 billion, up 1.31% in 24 hours, with funding rates at 0.0070%. CoinGlass data shows total Ethereum open interest between roughly $30 billion and $35 billion in recent sessions.
Daily trading volume has often landed between $40 billion and $80 billion. Open interest saw a larger spike around September 22.
Positioning data shows 71.7% of retail traders are long. Top traders are more balanced, at 58.2% long and 41.8% short.
Blockchain.news analyst Peter Zhang gave a 55% chance to a bull case. In that scenario, a daily close above $2,772.50 would target $2,834.77, with $2,900 to $3,000 possible within 14 to 21 days.
His bear case, at 45%, sees a drop to $2,655.50 or $2,604.42. A daily close below $2,604.42 would put the 50-day SMA at $2,420.88 in view.
Spot Ethereum ETFs have recorded steady net inflows. They took in $104.63 million on September 23, $66.01 million on September 24 and $86.95 million on September 25.
The largest recent inflow came on September 21 at $269.98 million. Cumulative total net inflows now stand at $13.94 billion.
As capital inflows into altcoins accelerate in the cryptocurrency market, on-chain data suggests the market may be approaching a more critical phase.
Cryptocurrency analytics company CryptoQuant stated that alongside the strong rise in the altcoin market, some early warning signs have also emerged.
At this point, CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost noted that 87% of altcoins listed on Binance have entered an uptrend, but there are early warning signs for the current rally.
Key Indicator for Altcoins Rises by 45%! According to the analyst’s assessment, the Total2 indicator, which tracks altcoin market capitalization including Ethereum, has attracted over $371 billion in inflows since June 2026. During this period, the indicator is said to have risen by approximately 45 percent.
The expansion driven by capital inflows into the altcoin market is also reflected in the long-term trend indicators of altcoins. In this regard, the analyst noted that while approximately 80% of altcoins listed on Binance in August were trading below the 200-day moving average, this figure has dropped to 13% following the recent surge.
However, approximately 87% of altcoins have risen above the 200-day moving average. The analyst noted that this shift indicates a strong surge in market enthusiasm, but cautioned that such broad-based movements historically do not last forever.
“…While 80% of altcoins on Binance traded below this level in August, today only 13% remain below it.”
This means that 87% of the altcoins on the platform have reversed their previous trends and entered an upward momentum. This shift indicates a kind of euphoria prevailing among altcoins. Historically, this type of dynamic is not sustainable and eventually loses momentum.”
Altcoin Transfers to Exchanges Increased! The analyst noted that while altcoins are expanding, there’s also been an increase in transfers of altcoins to centralized exchanges. He highlighted this as another notable development, stating that the weekly average of altcoin deposits has surpassed 22,700 on Binance and 8,300 on Coinbase. Approximately 32,000 transactions were recorded on other exchanges.
According to the analyst, these levels of altcoin deposits to exchanges mark the highest levels seen since the previous market peak in October 2025.
Downward Divergence in RSI! One of the most important warnings in the analysis is the bearish divergence in the Total2 RSI indicator. According to the analyst, this technical outlook suggests that while the price continues to rise, the momentum indicator is not strengthening to the same extent.
The analyst notes that the coincidence of increased altcoin transfers to exchanges and this divergence in the RSI is a situation that needs to be closely monitored. According to the analyst, while on-chain data shows that the altcoin rally is continuing, the increased transfers and the divergence in the RSI indicate that the upward momentum may be starting to weaken.
*This is not investment advice.
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Bitcoin trades around the $83,900 mark on Tuesday and Ethereum trades around $2,680 as the crypto markets consolidated. The cryptocurrency was trading at the $83,915 mark and Ethereum was trading at the $2,708 mark.
In the past 24 hours, Bitcoin and Ethereum were up 1.37% and 2.36% respectively. Among the major altcoins, BNB, XRP, Solana, Tron, Dogecoin, and Cardano gained up to 3.56%, whereas Hyperliquid was down 1.06%.
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Avinash Shekhar, Co-founder & CEO, Pi42 said Bitcoin is trading around the $83,500 mark after giving back some of its recent gains, as rising US Treasury yields, higher oil prices and expectations of further monetary tightening keep risk appetite in check.
He further said, "For Bitcoin, the $82,000-$83,000 zone remains an important near-term support area, while a move back above $85,000 could help restore momentum towards the recent highs."
The global crypto market capitalisation was up 1.08% to $2.87 trillion, according to data on CoinMarketCap.
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CoinSwitch Markets Desk said BTC is consolidating around $83K as investors reassess risk amid higher oil prices, with crude holding above $100 on renewed US-Iran tensions. Institutional demand remains robust, with spot Bitcoin ETFs drawing $2.45 billion in net inflows last week, their strongest run since October 2025.
Over the last week, Bitcoin and Ethereum were down 2.34% and 1.20% respectively. Among the major altcoins, BNB, XRP, Tron, Hyperliquid, and Dogecoin corrected up to 7%, whereas Solana and Cardano were up 1.99% and 2% respectively.
Prateek Gupta, Head of Business, Mudrex said Bitcoin is consolidating around $83,000 after giving back much of last week's breakout above $86,000, as renewed US-Iran tensions pushed oil toward $108/barrel and Treasury yields to their highest since 2007.
Gupta further said that the move looks more like risk-off pressure and profit-taking than a fundamental reversal. However, liquidation risks are rising, with Binance showing $4.35 billion in long positions below current levels versus $1.65 billion in shorts above.
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Nischal Shetty, Founder, WazirX: Bitcoin trades near $83,022 in a short-term pullback within a constructive daily structure. Immediate support lies around $81,700-$82,000, while $83,200-$83,500 forms resistance. Holding support could stabilise momentum; reclaiming resistance may restore buyer control, whereas a breakdown would shift attention toward the secondary $80,900-$81,200 support region during the next trading session.
Harish Vatnani, Head of Trade, ZebPay: ETH is consolidating within a short-term descending channel after rejecting near $2,800. Price is repeatedly facing resistance at the descending trendline, while $2,580 acts as the key support zone.
Riya Sehgal, Research Analyst, Delta Exchange: Overall, the market is seeing volatility and repeated rebounds and rejections, but the move remains closer to macro-driven deleveraging and consolidation than a broad sell-off.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
Glamsterdam will bring proposer-builder separation, block-level access lists and new gas pricing, while its mainnet date remains unset.
Ethereum developers have scheduled the network’s next major upgrade, Glamsterdam, to activate on the Sepolia testnet on Oct. 6.
Sepolia node operators must update both their execution-layer and consensus-layer clients before the activation, the Ethereum Foundation said Monday.
One of Glamsterdam’s changes is enshrined proposer-builder separation. It will move the handoff between specialized block builders and validators into Ethereum’s protocol, reducing reliance on outside middleware.
Glamsterdam will introduce block-level access lists, which record the accounts and storage locations used during each block.
The upgrade will also change gas pricing to better reflect the cost of creating and accessing data on Ethereum. Contracts that rely on fixed gas stipends or hardcoded gas limits may require changes, the foundation said.
Developers have not set dates for its rollout on the validator-focused testnet Hoodi or on mainnet.
Developers are targeting 2027 for Hegotá, the upgrade expected to follow Glamsterdam.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said Sunday that Hegotá could be the network’s last “normal” fork before development shifts toward recursive STARKs, automated formal verification, optimized consensus and quantum-safe cryptography.
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.
Glamsterdam will bring proposer-builder separation, block-level access lists and new gas pricing, while its mainnet date remains unset.
Ethereum developers have scheduled the network’s next major upgrade, Glamsterdam, to activate on the Sepolia testnet on Oct. 6.
Sepolia node operators must update both their execution-layer and consensus-layer clients before the activation, the Ethereum Foundation said Monday.
One of Glamsterdam’s changes is enshrined proposer-builder separation. It will move the handoff between specialized block builders and validators into Ethereum’s protocol, reducing reliance on outside middleware.
Glamsterdam will introduce block-level access lists, which record the accounts and storage locations used during each block.
The upgrade will also change gas pricing to better reflect the cost of creating and accessing data on Ethereum. Contracts that rely on fixed gas stipends or hardcoded gas limits may require changes, the foundation said.
Developers have not set dates for its rollout on the validator-focused testnet Hoodi or on mainnet.
Developers are targeting 2027 for Hegotá, the upgrade expected to follow Glamsterdam.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said Sunday that Hegotá could be the network’s last “normal” fork before development shifts toward recursive STARKs, automated formal verification, optimized consensus and quantum-safe cryptography.
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.
Ethereum has scheduled its Glamsterdam upgrade to activate on the Sepolia testnet on Oct. 6 at 13:53:36 UTC, moving its next major scaling package into public-network testing before a future mainnet rollout.
Summary
Ethereum will activate Glamsterdam on Sepolia October 6 at 13:53:36 UTC, with mainnet unscheduled currently. Glamsterdam adds protocol-level proposer-builder separation and block access lists designed to support higher Layer-1 throughput. Sepolia node operators must update both execution and consensus clients before the scheduled network activation. Gas pricing changes may break contracts relying on fixed stipends, hardcoded limits, or gas assumptions. Hoodi remains tentatively discussed for October 27, while developers have not confirmed its activation yet. The Ethereum Foundation announced that Glamsterdam will activate at epoch 353,024 and slot 11,296,768. Hoodi and mainnet activation dates remain undecided, meaning the Oct. 6 event applies only to Sepolia.
The upgrade combines changes known as Amsterdam on Ethereum’s execution layer and Gloas on the consensus layer. Its largest additions change how blocks are built, how validators check them and how clients handle state during transaction processing.
Node operators on Sepolia need compatible versions of both their execution and consensus software before activation. Ordinary ETH holders and Ethereum mainnet users do not need to take action for the Sepolia upgrade.
How will Glamsterdam make Ethereum easier to scale? Glamsterdam introduces enshrined proposer-builder separation, known as ePBS, through EIP-7732. The change moves the relationship between block proposers and specialized block builders directly into Ethereum’s protocol.
Today, block builders commonly construct execution payloads and communicate with validators through external infrastructure. Under ePBS, a proposer includes the builder’s commitment to an execution payload, after which the builder reveals the full payload.
Ethereum’s protocol then handles the payment between the builder and proposer. The Ethereum Foundation says the structure reduces dependence on trusted middleware for block-builder payments while separating consensus validation from execution validation.
Validators gain more time to verify execution payloads because the consensus and execution checks occur separately. A payload timeliness committee determines whether builders revealed their payloads and associated blob data within the required time.
Glamsterdam will introduce another major component through EIP-7928, which creates block-level access lists. The lists record which accounts and storage locations a block uses, together with state changes produced by transactions.
Ethereum developers say this allows clients to read state from disk and process parts of transaction validation in parallel, while making state-root calculations more efficient. The official roadmap describes Glamsterdam as an upgrade intended to prepare Ethereum for increased Layer-1 capacity.
As crypto.news previously reported, Ethereum developers had been targeting the Oct. 6 Sepolia fork while private devnet testing continued. The date was initially treated as conditional while developers worked through consensus and execution bugs uncovered in earlier tests.
Sepolia’s Oct. 6 date is now confirmed The public testnet schedule has since moved beyond that tentative stage. Ethereum’s Sept. 21 All Core Developers Testing notes state that Sepolia is confirmed for Oct. 6 at epoch 353,024 and 13:53:36 UTC.
The Ethereum execution-specification team released its first mainnet fixture set containing Amsterdam changes on Sept. 23. Developers said the package followed an in-depth review of the 15 execution-layer EIPs included in Glamsterdam.
Client releases are arriving ahead of the fork. Go Ethereum version 1.17.6, for example, explicitly includes the Sepolia Amsterdam activation timestamp and instructs Sepolia node operators to upgrade before Oct. 6.
Besu released version 26.9.0 on Sept. 25, while Nethermind 2.0.0 arrived earlier in the month. The Foundation’s current release table lists compatible execution clients including Besu 26.9.0, Erigon 3.7.0, go-ethereum 1.17.6, Nethermind 2.0.0 and Reth 2.7.0.
On the consensus side, listed Sepolia versions include Lodestar 1.49.0, Prysm 7.2.0 and Teku 26.9.1, with more client releases expected as teams finish compatibility work.
Prysm operators face an extra configuration detail. Prysm 7.2.0 defaults to a 60 million gas limit after activation, while validators that want to propose blocks with a 200 million gas limit need to configure that setting through the newer proposer controls.
Glamsterdam changes how Ethereum charges for gas The upgrade reaches beyond block construction. Several included EIPs change Ethereum’s gas accounting to better match the resources consumed when contracts create or access state.
EIP-8037 raises and separately measures the cost of state creation, while EIP-8038 changes the cost of accessing state. Other proposals adjust transaction gas, calldata costs, access lists and block-level gas accounting.
Application developers therefore need to test contracts under the new rules. The Ethereum Foundation has warned that applications relying on fixed gas stipends, hardcoded gas limits or assumptions about how much gas remains during execution could require changes.
Earlier testing already showed why the process matters. As crypto.news reported, Glamsterdam devnets uncovered bugs involving consensus finality and EIP-8037 implementation, prompting client teams to continue testing before confirming the public fork.
Ethereum even launched a temporary testnet called Platåberget in August to give developers more time to test Glamsterdam behavior. The Foundation warned that software relying on hardcoded maximum gas limits, including some wallets, indexers and gas estimators, could break without updates.
What happens after Ethereum’s Sepolia upgrade? Hoodi is expected to be the next public testnet stage if Sepolia performs as expected. Developer meeting notes list Oct. 27 as a tentative Hoodi target, with a go-or-no-go discussion scheduled after the Sepolia activation, but the Foundation has not formally scheduled Hoodi yet.
Mainnet remains without an activation date. Ethereum.org currently places Glamsterdam in the fourth quarter of 2026 while explicitly noting that the date is unconfirmed.
The Ethereum Foundation has opened its bug bounty program to Glamsterdam specifications and EIPs. Client implementations become eligible as compatible releases are formally added, giving security researchers another route to report issues before mainnet deployment.
After Glamsterdam, Ethereum’s roadmap turns toward Hegotá in 2027. The next fork is expected to cover another set of protocol changes while developers work toward longer-term plans involving native account abstraction, stronger cryptographic verification and quantum-resistant infrastructure.
In related coverage, Vitalik Buterin said Hegotá could be Ethereum’s final conventional-looking fork before development increasingly moves toward recursive STARKs, automated verification, privacy and redesigned consensus systems.
Ethereum’s protocol team has separately set a December 2029 target for quantum resistance across the execution, consensus and data layers. The Hegotá roadmap currently includes work tied to that longer-term transition, although many individual proposals remain under review.
For Glamsterdam, the next fixed milestone is Sepolia at 13:53:36 UTC on Oct. 6. Node operators running Sepolia must install compatible execution and consensus clients before that activation or their nodes will no longer follow the upgraded network rules.
The Ethereum Foundation confirmed the public testnet date for the Glamsterdam upgrade. As a result, ETH has overtaken BTC in futures open interest on Hyperliquid on Tuesday.
Ethereum Foundation Confirms Glamsterdam Sepolia Upgrade Date In a blog post, the Ethereum Foundation announced that the Glamsterdam upgrade will activate on the Sepolia testnet at epoch 353,024 on October 6 at around 13:53 UTC. The foundation added that Hoodi and mainnet dates are still undecided.
Glamsterdam combines the Amsterdam execution layer upgrade with the Gloas consensus layer upgrade. Major changes include proposer-builder separation (ePBS) and block-level access lists (BALs), which change how blocks are produced and validated to support higher L1 throughput.
The Glamsterdam also adjusts gas accounting to better reflect resource usage, such as increasing and separately metering the cost of creating state as well as updating state-access costs.
Glamsterdam is framed as one of the largest L1 scaling upgrades since the Merge. The network will have higher throughput, more efficient validation, and a cleaner block production market.
As CoinGape reported earlier, the Ethereum Foundation targets to make the Layer 1 blockchain network quantum-resistant across execution, consensus, and data layers by 2029. After Glamsterdam, the Hegota upgrade will set the stage for it.
The Hegota upgrade is not a quantum-resistant fork. It is the upgrade that determines whether later post-quantum forks happen on time. Meanwhile, Vitalik Buterin remains optimistic on blockchain cybersecurity, rejecting claims that AI hacking can crash Bitcoin and Ethereum networks.
ETH Flips BTC in Futures Open Interest Ethereum has surpassed Bitcoin in perpetual futures open interest on Hyperliquid over the last 24 hours. Data revealed ETH open interest near $3.12 billion, rising more than 2.5% in 24 hours. Meanwhile, BTC open interest climbed 1.6% to $2.81 billion on Hyperliquid.
Ethereum Futures Open Interest on Hyperliquid Investors are rotating to ETH amid factors such as spot Ethereum ETF inflows, bullish price predictions by analysts, and major Glamsterdam and Hegota upgrades. ETH/BTC has finally broken out of a nearly 5-year downtrend and is about to close its 3rd straight green month.
Experts, including Michael van de Poppe, Ali Martinez, and Peter Brandt expect ETH rally next. Whales and institutions are also buying ETH massively.
ETH/BTC Breaks Out After 5-Year Downtrend Coinglass data also showed ETH futures open interest rising almost 2% in the last 4 hours. ETH futures OI climbed more than 2% on Binance, 0.56% on CME, and 7% on Bybit.
To track these market-moving derivatives metrics and open interest changes in real time, traders should utilize the best crypto research tools.
Ethereum core developers have announced that the network’s upcoming major upgrade, known as Glamsterdam, is set to activate on the Sepolia testnet on October 6. This next phase in Ethereum’s development is designed to introduce several technical adjustments aimed at improving the network’s efficiency and security.
Key features of GlamsterdamOne of the critical changes included in Glamsterdam is the enshrined proposer-builder separation, a mechanism that integrates the handoff between specialized block builders and validators directly into the Ethereum protocol. This adjustment is expected to lessen Ethereum’s dependency on external middleware solutions during block production.
Glamsterdam will also implement block-level access lists, aimed at enhancing transparency by recording which accounts and storage locations are utilized within each block.
Additionally, the upgrade will modify gas pricing, making the costs more accurately reflect the resources required to create and access data across the Ethereum network. The Ethereum Foundation has cautioned that smart contracts depending on fixed gas stipends or hardcoded gas limits might require updates as a result of these changes.
Glamsterdam’s enshrined proposer-builder separation will move the block handoff process into Ethereum’s protocol, reducing dependence on outside middleware and supporting greater security for users and validators.
Preparation and rollout timelineNode operators running the Sepolia network must update both their execution-layer and consensus-layer clients before Glamsterdam’s scheduled activation date. The Ethereum Foundation emphasized the importance of these updates to ensure network integrity during the transition.
No timeline has been finalized for Glamsterdam’s deployment on the validator-oriented testnet, Hoodi, or for its launch on the Ethereum mainnet. Developers are currently focused on monitoring the Sepolia testnet rollout before committing to subsequent deployment phases.
Sepolia is one of Ethereum’s principal testnets, providing an environment for developers to trial upgrades and applications before they are implemented on the blockchain’s mainnet.
Mini dictionary: Sepolia — A key Ethereum testnet used for staging and monitoring new protocol upgrades in an environment that closely mimics the main Ethereum network.
Looking beyond GlamsterdamAfter Glamsterdam, developers are targeting a 2027 rollout for the next major upgrade, Hegotá. According to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Hegotá may be the last “normal” network fork ahead of a new era focusing on technologies such as recursive STARKs, deeper automation through formal verification, consensus optimization, and advances in quantum-safe cryptography.
These future upgrades are expected to push Ethereum towards enhanced scalability and advanced cryptographic techniques, which could further reinforce the blockchain’s resilience and security.
In related developments, Ethereum Institutional has indicated support for a proposal from Ethlabs to reduce block times, signaling ongoing discussions within the community about future network efficiency improvements.
Ethereum has cleared the level analyst John Gillen says mattered most. According to him, ETH’s move above $2,500 opens the way to $3,000 next, with a possible run toward $10,000 to $12,000 over the next two years if key conditions hold.
Gillen was careful not to lock in a single number. He said Ethereum is “much harder to predict than Bitcoin” because its price swings sharply and does not follow a set pattern.
Price Path Gillen Is Watching
Gillen laid out a step-by-step roadmap:
$2,500: The key resistance Ethereum has now broken and held. He said this level must not be lost.$3,000: The next target, which he expects to arrive “pretty quickly.”$5,000: The historical ceiling Ethereum has reached twice without breaking through.$6,000 to $10,000: His expected range once ETH clears and holds above $5,000.$10,000 to $12,000: His stretch target for the next 24 months.Above $5,000, he said, Ethereum enters price discovery, where nobody can say with confidence where the top sits.
Why Ethereum Could Finally Break Out
Gillen said Ethereum’s early rallies between 2015 and 2021 were priced on promises: a world computer and a base layer for global finance. The past five years have been about delivering on them.
He pointed to the network’s switch from proof of work to proof of stake without any downtime, along with a steady stream of institutions launching products on Ethereum. The network leads in tokenized assets, stablecoins and agentic finance, he said, holding roughly 55% to 70% of that market.
According to Gillen, ETH is now pushing toward the top of its five-year range and turning a long downtrend against Bitcoin.
The $6,000 vs $20,000 Question
The biggest variable, in his view, is where institutional money settles over the next two years. It could land on Ethereum, move to private permissioned chains, or flow to rival public networks.
Ethereum can still reach $10,000 without dominating, Gillen said. If it keeps the lion’s share, he believes the case becomes “very strong,” and that is the difference between a $6,000 ETH, a $12,000 ETH and a $20,000 ETH.
What It Could Mean For Altseason
Gillen does not think Ethereum has to lead the next altcoin rally, but he called it the blue-chip altcoin. If ETH gets above $5,000 to $6,000 and holds there, he expects $2 trillion to $6 trillion to enter the crypto market in a short time.
His rough outlook has total crypto market value climbing from about $3 trillion toward $10 trillion if the bull market confirms, which would mark the first full altseason since 2021.
Story Ends Here
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ETH Withdrawals Resume as Part of Phased Recovery@Bitget restored $ETH withdrawals on September 29, the second stage of a carefully staged comeback after a security breach that forced the exchange to freeze all withdrawals five days earlier.
The $BTC reopening had preceded it by one day,
Net Inflows Signal Retained User ConfidenceEarly flow data from the $ETH reopening offered a broadly positive signal for the exchange. Rather than a rush to the exit, the numbers suggest that a meaningful portion of users chose to keep funds on the platform, at least in the immediate aftermath of the reopening.
The recovery roadmap does not end with $ETH.
Sources
Crypto Times: Bitget Reopens ETH Withdrawals, Reports 651 ETH Net Inflow
The Block: Bitget Starts Phased Withdrawal Resumption Following $388 Million Exploit
Bitget Official: Withdrawal Service Update, September 24, 2026
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is up roughly 8% over the past month, but Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) has outpaced it with an 11% advance, as signs of capital rotation and a bullish technical setup strengthen the case for ETH.
Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex on Monday described sentiment around Bitcoin as “warm,” with softer prices still supported by strong underlying demand of heavy ETF inflows.
Still, the exchange cautioned that "one strong week is not a trend yet."
Bitfinex highlighted that on Sept. 29 ETH spot trading volume was 300% that of Bitcoin, the highest ratio since September 2025.
Bitcoin ETF Demand Surges — Is FOMO A Risk?Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $2.77 billion in net inflows from Sept. 17 through Sept. 27, marking seven consecutive positive U.S. trading sessions and helping underpin Bitcoin’s recovery above $85,000.
Strong ETF demand points to renewed investor appetite and provides an important source of buying pressure.
Santiment Intelligence cautioned that rapidly accelerating inflows following a significant price rally can eventually signal FOMO and increase the risk of an overheated market.
"Healthy demand is encouraging. Euphoric demand is where risk starts rising," the on-chain analytics firm said.
Ethereum ETF flows, meanwhile, have been more mixed in recent weeks, although August 2026 recorded their strongest monthly inflows in more than a year.
Ethereum’s technical structure is drawing attention.
Crypto analyst Ali Martinez on Monday said Ethereum is forming a bull flag, with $2,640 serving as key support. An hourly close above $2,700 could confirm a breakout from the pattern and put $3,000 in sight. Widely followed trader ZeroHedge similarly noted that ETH has slipped into a bearish-to-neutral phase on the four-hour chart but argued that the higher-time-frame picture remains constructive. Ethereum’s relative strength comes as SharpLink CEO Joseph Chalom described Ethereum as his bet on the emergence of new financial rails.
He argued that Ethereum’s key advantage over Bitcoin is programmability, with majority infrastructure for stablecoins, tokenization, DeFi and agentic applications is being built on ETH or ETH-compatible networks.
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Below are key pre-market news for US stocks on Tuesday: 1. Executives from AI giants including NVIDIA (NVDA.O) and Anthropic will discuss AI risks with Trump; 2. Anthropic’s IPO prospectus has been released, showing it generated $4.59 billion in revenue in 2025, a roughly 12-fold year-over-year increase, with future computing power investment expected to remain astronomical; 3. AMD will acquire World Labs for $8.2 billion, with Fei-Fei Li set to serve as AMD’s chief scientist; 4. The "Big Short" investor Michael Burry is accelerating bets on an AI crash, stating the bubble could burst earlier than expected; 5. Tesla has postponed the unveiling event for its next-generation Roadster from October 1 to October 15. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase cut Tesla’s price target from $445 to $415; 6. US spot Bitcoin ETFs and spot Ethereum ETFs both recorded net capital inflows for 7 consecutive trading days; 7. Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) said it may collaborate with S&P Dow Jones Indices to explore innovations in new products such as tokenized option contracts.
CME Nine-Asset Crypto Basket Is 86.29% Bitcoin and Ethereum
Ahmed Barakat
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Ahmed Barakat is a journalist and copywriter based in Georgia with a growing focus on blockchain technology, DeFi, AI, privacy, digital assets, and fintech innovation.
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Nine crypto coins are now traded inside a single, financially settled futures contract on CME Group’s platform, but Bitcoin and Ethereum together make up 86.29% of that basket. The Nasdaq CME Crypto Index (NCI) and its micro-sized companion give institutions a way to hedge or gain exposure to a nine-asset crypto basket through one trade instead of managing separate spot positions.
CME Crypto BasketCME’s published contract specifications describe NCI futures and Micro NCI futures (MCI) as financially settled against the Nasdaq CME Crypto Settlement Price Index, meaning no delivery of underlying tokens and no custody chain to manage at expiry. That structure is the point: a desk that wants crypto-market exposure, or a hedge against a multi-token portfolio, no longer needs nine separate futures legs or nine separate spot wallets to get there.
CME positions the contracts as tools for portfolio hedging, macro overlays, and directional exposure across the crypto market. Because the index settles financially rather than physically, a fund running long spot Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a handful of altcoins can offset that book with a single short position in NCI futures rather than stacking hedges across separate crypto futures markets for each asset.
That’s the operational pitch: fewer legs, one margin account, one settlement price. It also puts the product in the same regulated lane as CME’s existing single-asset Bitcoin and Ether futures, giving institutions a familiar clearing and margining framework instead of a bespoke basket built from nine separate spot custody relationships.
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The Basket Is Still a Bitcoin TradeThe Nasdaq CME Crypto Index itself is built to be dynamic, broadly representative of the market, and readily trackable by investors, per Nasdaq’s own index methodology. Constituent selection runs through a list of Core Exchanges, including Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, and LMAX Digital, and Core Custodians such as Coinbase, Fidelity, and BitGo.
The Nasdaq MarketSite display.The index is free-float market-cap weighted and rebalanced and reconstituted quarterly, which is why its composition and weights shift over time rather than staying fixed at launch. As of the September 1 snapshot, the basket held nine assets in the following order:
ComponentSymbolWeight (%)BitcoinBTC74.47EthereumETH11.82XRPXRP5.18SolanaSOL3.73HyperliquidHYPE3.39CardanoADA0.46ChainlinkLINK0.43Stellar LumensXLM0.31Bitcoin CashBCH0.22That distribution tells the real story. Nine-asset breadth on paper translates into an 86.29% combined weighting toward Bitcoin and Ethereum, with the remaining seven tokens, including Hyperliquid. HYPE itself has drawn attention amid broader derivatives activity, accounting for the last 13.71%.
So, a trader buying NCI futures for diversification is, in practice, buying a leveraged Bitcoin position with a thin Ethereum and altcoin garnish.
Discover: The Best Token Presales
What the CME Crypto Structure Solves?The single-trade design genuinely removes friction. Managing nine separate spot positions across nine wallets and multiple custodians is operationally expensive and introduces counterparty risk at every leg.
Collapsing into one CME-cleared futures contract standardizes margin, settlement, and reporting under a framework that already handles single-asset Bitcoin and Ether futures.
What it doesn’t solve is correlation. Bitcoin and Ether tend to move together during broad risk-on and risk-off swings, and with the two combining for well over four-fifths of NCI’s weight, the index’s volatility profile will track Bitcoin far more closely than any equal-weighted crypto basket would.
For traders seeking a hedge against a genuinely diversified altcoin book, rather than a compact wrapper for BTC and ETH exposure, the nine-asset label overstates how much the contract actually diversifies away idiosyncratic token risk.
Nasdaq’s methodology also means the composition described here is a snapshot, not a fixed allocation. Quarterly rebalancing and reconstitution can add or drop constituents and shift weights as market capitalization and liquidity change, so a desk building a hedge around today’s 74.47% Bitcoin weighting should expect that number to move by the next quarterly reset.
For now, the index remains a Bitcoin and Ethereum product with a long tail attached, and CME’s futures wrapper makes that concentrated exposure easier to trade, not necessarily easier to diversify.
Trade Bitcoin and Ethereum on Bybit and Get a Chance to Win Our $1,000 USDT Airdrop
According to Axios, sources familiar with the matter disclosed that OpenAI’s enterprise sales have more than doubled since July. Data indicates that OpenAI’s annualized revenue run rate has risen by over 70% since the start of the third quarter, now standing at nearly $70 billion. Over the same period, its business-to-business (B2B) revenue from enterprise clients has grown by more than 100%. For its consumer segment, OpenAI’s third-quarter new revenue exceeded the total new revenue it generated in all of 2025. However, Axios noted that specific spending details for OpenAI have not yet been disclosed.
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Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a "no-action letter" to Tesla today, clearing the way for a voting plan that empowers retail investors. "This is what equity should look like," Tenev noted. When millions hold shares in a public company, they should be able to vote their holdings more conveniently. Currently, Robinhood has helped multiple companies directly engage with shareholders, offering messaging services, retail investor voting programs, and real-time earnings Q&A sessions accessible directly within the app. More features will be launched in the future.
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Per BIT (bit.com) market data, U.S.-listed Oracle (ORCL.N) saw a 5% intraday gain during trading hours.
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According to CNBC, James Comer, chairman of the U.S. House Oversight Committee and Republican representative from Kentucky, is expanding his investigation into insider trading in prediction markets and has asked three online platforms to outline their measures to combat such conduct. In letters sent Tuesday, Comer requested documents and information from the CEOs of Hyperliquid Labs, Crypto.com, and Aristotle Exchange Inc. — which owns the PredictIt platform — asking them to detail their identity verification processes and how they identify and prevent insider trading on their respective platforms. Comer stated in a declaration: "As online prediction platforms continue to evolve and grow more mainstream, some bad actors are exploiting non-public information to place bets, earning thousands of dollars. The House Oversight Committee is investigating whether these platforms are meeting their legal obligations and taking sufficient steps to identify and prevent insider trading before it occurs."
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According to a Wall Street Journal report, the Trump administration has rolled out an artificial intelligence-powered tool, which its developers claim will act as the federal government’s "digital steward" designed to modernize the relationship between citizens and the government. The tool will be hosted on the website America.gov, which officially launched on Tuesday, serving as a test of the Trump administration’s digital ambitions. Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb and head of the White House National Design Studio, said the online portal will be the federal government’s new digital gateway. He noted that as the technology evolves, America.gov will eventually become a unified entry point for all federal public services, setting "a standard worthy of a superpower".
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Ethereum Price Prediction: Could Faster Chainlink Transfers Drive ETH Demand? Ethereum (ETH) presales
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ETH trades near $2,665, moving flat over 24 hours, sitting in a tight range that’s testing trader patience. A Chainlink upgrade rolled out this week is being pitched as a fresh prediction catalyst for Ethereum price and blockspace, but the mechanics are more nuanced than the headlines.
CCIP 2.0 Could Turn Ethereum Into the Settlement Layer for Everything
Ethereum already handles a huge share of cross-chain activity, but its ~12–15 minute full finality has been a bottleneck for faster payments and high-frequency transfers.
CCIP 2.0 of @chainlink changes that:… pic.twitter.com/RbbAwwBbGA
— Ethereum Daily (@ETH_Daily) September 29, 2026 Chainlink’s CCIP 2.0, launched less than 24 hours ago, introduces configurable settlement speeds and support for Ethereum’s Fast Confirmation Rule (FCR). The result: cross-chain confirmation times that previously took roughly 13 minutes can now drop to 12–24 seconds for eligible transactions, according to Chainlink’s technical documentation.
The catch? Faster settlement is opt-in, and the default configuration still waits for full Ethereum finality. Faster rails could pull more volume through Ethereum-anchored bridges and Layer 2 routes.
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Ethereum Price Prediction: Can ETH Hit $2,700 This Week?ETH is consolidating between $2,635 support and $2,700 resistance, with the current $2,665 print sitting comfortably inside that band. Holding $2,635 keeps a retest of $2,700 in play; losing it opens the door to a slide toward $2,500. A separate technical read flags resistance at $2,750–$2,820, with a daily close above $2,820 potentially triggering a run at $3,000.
Three scenarios worth tracking:
Bull case: CCIP 2.0 adoption accelerates, Layer 2 volume ticks up, ETH clears $2,700 and $2,820 on rising volume. Base case: Range-bound chop between $2,635 and $2,700 continues while the market waits for institutional confirmation of CCIP integrations. Bear case: $2,600 fails, momentum stalls, downside opens toward $2,500. For deeper context on the setup, this recent Ethereum price analysis covering ETF inflows and whale accumulation lays out additional bullish drivers worth weighing against the current range. The near-term structure remains unresolved, as a break in either direction will likely set the next multi-week trend.
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LiquidChain Targets Early Mover Upside as Ethereum Tests Key LevelsTraders who bought ETH near $2,600 aren’t wrong to feel validated by this range hold. But let’s be honest about the math: a move from $2,665 to $3,000 is just a 12% upside on an asset with a market cap north of $300 billion. That’s a solid swing trade, not a portfolio-altering one.
For capital chasing asymmetric exposure to cross-chain infrastructure themes(the same theme driving the CCIP narrative) early-stage projects offer a different risk-reward.
LiquidChain ($LIQUID) is building a Layer 3 execution environment that fuses Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana liquidity into a single unified layer. Rather than forcing developers to deploy separate contracts per chain, LiquidChain’s Deploy-Once Architecture lets builders ship once and access liquidity across all three ecosystems through Single-Step Execution and Verifiable Settlement.
The presale has raised almost $980K at a current token price of just $0.01496.
Research LiquidChain before the presale window closes.
Every major crypto spot ETF had a good day on September 28. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP products each recorded net inflows simultaneously, according to data from SoSoValue, bringing the day’s combined total to roughly $65 million.
Where the money went Bitcoin ETFs led on the day with $31.07 million in net inflows, which was actually the lowest single-day figure for Bitcoin ETFs during that month. Ethereum followed at $17.10 million, Solana at $12.70 million, and XRP at $3.96 million.
Those daily numbers look small against the cumulative picture. Bitcoin spot ETFs have now absorbed $57.58 billion in total net inflows since launching in January 2024, with total net assets sitting at $107.82 billion. That represents 6.42% of Bitcoin’s entire market cap sitting inside regulated ETF wrappers.
Ethereum’s cumulative net inflows stand at $13.96 billion against $17.69 billion in total assets. XRP ETFs, which launched in late 2025, have already accumulated $1.79 billion in cumulative inflows. Solana’s tally sits at $1.62 billion.
Solana and XRP products only came to market in 2025, after Bitcoin’s January 2024 launch and Ethereum’s May 2024 follow-on.
The week ending around September 25 set the stage for this. Bitcoin ETFs pulled in approximately $2.39 billion that week alone, the largest single-week figure of 2026, enough to push Bitcoin ETFs’ 2026 net flows into positive territory after earlier redemptions had dragged the year-to-date figure negative. Solana set a single-day inflow record of $86.7 million on September 25, just three days before the synchronized four-asset inflow day.
Why Solana and XRP are picking up institutional interest The issuer lineup for these products includes BlackRock, Fidelity, Bitwise, and Grayscale, competing on fees and product structure.
Solana ETFs carry an additional feature that Bitcoin and Ethereum products currently lack: staking integration. Some Solana ETF structures pass through staking yield to holders, which turns a passive index exposure into something closer to a yield-bearing position.
XRP’s trajectory is its own story. The asset spent years in regulatory limbo following the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple. With that resolved and ETFs now live, pent-up demand from investors who were waiting for a regulated vehicle is the most straightforward explanation for $1.79 billion in cumulative inflows in a relatively short window since the late 2025 launch.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Kaye Quema. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Altcoin traders are repeating behavior last seen before the October 2025 market top. Spot volume and exchange deposits have both climbed to levels unseen since the run-up to that peak.
Meanwhile, a separate gauge of altcoin strength shows the rally has yet to meet the formal definition of altcoin season.
Traders Crowd Into Altcoins at a 2025 PaceGlassnode reported on September 28 that total crypto spot volume now runs nearly 4 times Bitcoin (BTC) spot volume. The ratio sits at its highest level since September 2025.
A higher reading means more trading is taking place outside Bitcoin. According to Glassnode, this kind of risk appetite has often coincided with local Bitcoin tops.
“Demand for higher risk like this has often lined up with local tops in BTC,” it said.
Altcoins Taking a Bigger Share of Spot Trading. Source: X/GlassnodeAnalyst Darkfost said Total2, the altcoin market cap including Ethereum (ETH), has absorbed over $371 billion since June. That equals a 45% rise in a few months.
The data also shows the rally spreading across the market. In August, 80% of Binance-listed altcoins traded below their 200-day moving average. Only 13% remain below it now.
The share of altcoins above that trend line stood at 70% on September 20, BeInCrypto reported. The latest data puts it at 87%.
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Exchange Deposits Echo the Last Market TopDarkfost also found that altcoin exchange deposits have reached their highest level since October 2025, when the market last peaked.
Weekly deposit transactions now average over 22,700 on Binance and 8,300 on Coinbase. Roughly 32,000 more are spread across other exchanges.
The analyst paired the deposit data with an emerging bearish divergence on the Relative Strength Index (RSI) of Total2. Such a divergence can signal that upward momentum is fading.
“This shift points to a form of euphoria taking hold across altcoins. Historically, however, this kind of dynamic isn’t sustainable and eventually runs out of steam,” the analyst said.
Still, Darkfost noted that deposit volumes remain modest compared with the start of the previous bull cycle. Earlier this month, BeInCrypto also found altcoin leverage repeating the pattern seen before the October 2025 crash.
Money Chases a Few Stories Beneath the BreadthThe breadth readings mask an uneven split in where money has flowed this week, CoinGecko data shows. Quant (QNT), among Monday’s top gainers, has surged about 269% over 7 days.
The rally followed The Clearing House picking its Overledger technology for a tokenized deposit network. Hedera (HBAR) has jumped nearly 27% in 24 hours.
Meme coins have moved the other way. Dogecoin (DOGE) has fallen almost 9% over the week, while Pepe (PEPE) has lost about 21%. Privacy coins have also cooled, with Zcash (ZEC) down roughly 12% in 24 hours.
These uneven gains fit with an Altcoin Season Index still at 53.
The Altseason Gauge Stays Stuck in NeutralBlockchaincenter’s Altcoin Season Index moved from Bitcoin Season to Neutral on September 2. The index tracks how many of the top 50 coins beat Bitcoin over 90 days. A reading of 75 or above confirms an altcoin season.
Altcoin Season Index. Source: BlockchaincenterCrypto commentator Ash Crypto offered a more bullish read. He said the OTHERS/BTC monthly chart, which excludes the top 10 assets, broke a 4-year downtrend.
ALTCOINS ARE SHOWING ONE OF THEIR MOST BULLISH SETUPS IN YEARS.
The OTHERS/BTC monthly chart is flashing some major signals:
– Broke out of a 4 year downtrend.
– Formed a new uptrend after the 2026 breakout.
– Confirmed a bullish momentum cross.
– Closely mirrors the setup seen… pic.twitter.com/qNkz2ftaCg
— Ash Crypto (@AshCrypto) September 28, 2026 He added that the chart confirmed a bullish momentum cross and closely mirrors the setup before the 2021 altcoin season.
The index still needs 22 more points to confirm an altcoin season. Whether it gets there before the warning signs from Glassnode and Darkfost play out is the question heading into October.
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BitMine’s stock price is holding steady in a tight range, with technical indicators pointing toward a potential bullish scenario. The company is on track to achieve its goal of owning 5% of all Ethereum in circulation. As of the latest trading session, BMNR stands at $27.82, maintaining a strong recovery from its year-to-date low of $12.80.
Technical outlook strengthens with golden cross signalAnalysis of the daily chart shows BMNR bottomed out at $12.95 in June before beginning a gradual uptrend, mirroring Ethereum’s surge from $1,500 to $2,695. The stock recently broke through a key resistance level at $26.90, not seen since August 27.
BMNR has created a bullish flag formation on the chart, combining a steep rally followed by a consolidation channel. Of particular note, the stock is approaching a golden cross formation, where the 50-day and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages converge—a pattern not seen since July of the previous year and typically viewed as a positive momentum indicator.
BMNR’s price remains above the Supertrend indicator, suggesting bullish market control. Should the stock break further upward, traders are eyeing the next resistance at $34.31, which was BMNR’s January high. This would represent a potential climb of 24% from current levels.
Ethereum accumulation nears milestoneInvestor attention has increasingly focused on BitMine’s acceleration in Ethereum purchases. The company added to its ETH holdings last week and now owns over 6 million coins, equating to roughly 4.9% of the circulating Ethereum supply, currently at around 122.1 million. Only a small addition is needed for BitMine to reach its targeted 5% stake.
BitMine has used a dollar-cost averaging approach for the past 15 months, acquiring Ethereum through both highs and lows in price. With 5.1 million of these coins staked, the company’s annualized staking revenue has reached approximately $358 million. The final returns could rise further if Ethereum’s value increases.
BMNR’s strategic approach has shifted the company from a dilutive model to generating significant revenue streams via staking income, alongside strengthening its market presence within the Ethereum ecosystem.
Tom Lee reported that the ongoing uptrend in the crypto market began in late June and stated, “We continue to see affirming signs that a crypto bull market is underway… Institutions are still underweight crypto and we expect them to be adding to their exposure in the final months of 2026.”
Broader crypto investments and valuationsBMNR’s upward momentum has also been supported by improvements in related cryptocurrency ventures. EightCo (ORBS) stock rallied to $1.20, a level not reached since mid-April, and currently holds WLD tokens valued at over $112 million, Ethereum worth $39 million, and a $90 million stake in OpenAI. The OpenAI holding could increase if new capital is raised at a $1.2 trillion valuation.
BitMine’s current market capitalization stands at $16.6 billion, close to the appraised value of its Ethereum portfolio at $16.2 billion. Additional assets include 213 Bitcoin, $180 million in Beast Industries, and $672 million in cash and liquid securities. This asset composition has led some analysts to consider the stock undervalued on a sum-of-parts basis.
As technical formations like the golden cross draw market attention, investor focus has expanded to other dynamic areas of the cryptocurrency landscape—notably the rapidly evolving meme token sector. In the meme token market, an internet trend can transform into millions of dollars of interest within days. According to data shared by Fomo App, a trade involving “Niu Lai”—which turned an initial $99 investment into approximately $370,000, stands out as a striking example of this activity. In this market, tracking not only prices but also the timing and token choices of investors is crucial. Fomo App brings token discovery and trading together on a single platform, featuring social feeds, investor rankings, and trade notifications. Discover Fomo App to follow the world of meme tokens alongside investor activity.
Morgan Stanley: The Federal Reserve may raise interest rates by a smaller margin than market expectations.
Morgan Stanley interest rate strategists stated in a report that following the Federal Reserve’s September rate hike, they project additional increases in December and March next year. However, current market pricing points to a more aggressive rate hike trajectory over the coming year. The strategists highlighted that uncertainty surrounding the Fed, economic growth, corporate bond issuance, and oil price movements is boosting expectations of further monetary policy tightening over the next 12 months. Still, Morgan Stanley argues the Fed’s actual tightening will not align with market expectations, as key factors shaping the central bank’s policy path will only become clearer later this year. Per data from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), money markets are currently pricing in a total of 100 basis points of Fed rate hikes over the next 12 months.
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U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have posted net inflows for eight consecutive days, adding $31 million yesterday.
According to Farside data, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows for the eighth consecutive trading day yesterday, totaling $31 million.
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U.S. Ethereum spot ETFs have posted net inflows for seven consecutive days, with a net inflow of $17.1 million yesterday.
According to Farside data, U.S. Ethereum spot ETFs posted net inflows for the seventh consecutive trading day yesterday, totaling $17.1 million.
2 minutes ago
SharpLink staked another 42,074 ETH today, worth $112.8 million.
According to Lookonchain’s monitoring, SharpLink, the second-largest Ethereum treasury firm, staked an additional 42,074 ETH today, valued at $112.8 million. The firm currently holds 892,127 ETH (worth $2.4 billion) and has earned staking rewards of 27,945 ETH (valued at $75 million).
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Multiple positive catalysts have propelled NMR and HBAR to lead gains in the altcoin market, with the two tokens surging over 40% and 27% respectively.
According to HTX market data, NMR leads the altcoin market, surging over 40% in 24 hours, hitting a high of $15.5 before trading at $14.1 as of press time. The rally is more of a catch-up move by capital under the "AI + institutional narrative": earlier, established institutional-linked tokens like QNT had rallied first, with some traders viewing NMR as a peer asset. Its price broke out of the $9–$10 consolidation range with significant volume, trading volume expanding notably from prior levels. Fundamentally, Numerai currently manages around $700 million in assets, has repurchased approximately $3.2 million worth of NMR over the past year, and has switched to a new on-chain staking mechanism. HBAR also leads the altcoin market, jumping over 27% in 24 hours, briefly breaking above $0.13 before trading at $0.122. On the news front, Hedera’s IDTrust identity solution was added to the IBM Cloud catalog, targeting enterprise clients and AI Agent identities; a Hedera council member appeared on NVIDIA’s Open Agent Safety-related list, which the market interpreted as its entry into the AI security sector. Combined with positive factors including RWA rumors such as Lloyds Bank’s tokenized Treasury bonds and BlackRock’s money fund shares going on-chain, plus its inclusion in a UK wholesale digital market working group, multiple tailwinds have driven HBAR’s rise.
SharpLink Gaming(@Sharplink) staked another 42,074 $ETH($112.8M) today. SharpLink now holds 892,127 $ETH($2.4B) and has earned 27,945 $ETH($75M) in staking rewards.
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