Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Today, we are introducing Injective Stockdrop. A brand new platform designed to reward loyal community members with tokenized stocks as they burn INJ forever.

This Wednesday, Injective is taking the INJ Community BuyBack one step further with Stockdrop, a first-of-its-kind event that brings community-driven burns, ecosystem revenue, and Stock Token rewards together in a single experience.
The Community BuyBack already puts the Injective community at the center of one of the most powerful tokenomics systems in crypto. Participants commit INJ, earn a pro rata share of revenue generated across the Injective ecosystem, and help permanently remove every committed INJ from circulation.

Combined with the INJ Supply Squeeze, these recurring burns create compounding deflationary pressure and position INJ among the most deflationary assets in crypto. The more the ecosystem grows, the more powerful the system can become.

Now participation unlocks even more. Every address that commits INJ to the Community BuyBack will also have a chance to receive a tokenized stock directly on Robinhood Chain. Different Stock Tokens will be available, including Stock Tokens linked to companies such as NVIDIA, AMC, and more. Connect your participating wallet after the BuyBack to reveal yours.

Help burn INJ, earn Community BuyBack rewards, and get a bonus Stock Token live on Robinhood Chain.

Powered by INJ.

What is the Injective StockdropStockdrop gives every address that participates in the Community BuyBack the chance to receive a Stock Token starting with Robinhood Chain.

Many different Stock Tokens are available. After the BuyBack concludes, connect the wallet used to contribute to the Community BuyBack to reveal your results. If you got a Stock Token, claims can be done right on the Injective Hub.

Claims for Stockdrop open at the same time as claims for Community BuyBack rewards - at the conclusion of the buyback and burn. The Stockdrop claim window remains open for one week.

How it Works1. Participate in the Community BuyBack

Kicking off September 23, visit Injective Hub, secure a slot, and commit INJ during the event window.
The existing Community BuyBack mechanics remain the same. Participants commit INJ and receive a pro rata share of the revenue generated across the Injective ecosystem. The committed INJ is then permanently burned following the event's conclusion.

2. Return when claims open

When the Community BuyBack concludes, return to Injective Hub. Click on the Stockdrop banner on the top of the Community BuyBack page.

3. Connect the same Injective wallet

Connect the wallet used to participate in the Community BuyBack. This will verify participation and display the Stock Token allocated to that address, if applicable.

4. Review your Stockdrop

The page will show the allocated Stock Token and the matching EVM address that will receive it on Robinhood Chain. Review the Stock Token and receiving address carefully before continuing.

5. Share on X & Claim

Select “Claim” to reveal the Stock Token allocated to your address. Next, share your social card displayed on X, paste the link to your X post in the space provided, and then sign to request your Stock Token. 
No funds leave your wallet, and there is no fee to submit the request. The signature is not a token transfer or an approval to move your assets.

6. Receive the Stock Token on Robinhood Chain

Requests are reviewed and fulfilled in batches. Once approved and distributed, the Stock Token will arrive at the matching EVM address shown during the claim process.

The request status will change to show that it is queued for review. No additional signature is required while the request is being reviewed.

Stockdrop and the Community BuyBackStockdrop adds a new reward to one of Injective's core community events.

The Community BuyBack is a recurring onchain event that lets participants commit INJ in exchange for a pro rata share of ecosystem revenue. At the end of each round, the committed INJ is permanently burned while the revenue basket is distributed to participants.

Now, participating addresses receive both:

Their normal pro rata share of ecosystem revenueA chance to receive a Stock TokenThe BuyBack reward varies with each participant's INJ commitment. The Stockdrop is fixed at one Stock Token per address, independent of the amount committed.

FAQWho receives a Stockdrop allocation?

Every address that commits INJ to the Community BuyBack will also have a chance to receive a Stockdrop allocation.
Claim and delivery remain subject to the applicable product terms and jurisdictional restrictions.

When can I claim?

Claims open when the Community BuyBack concludes. The Stockdrop reward claim window remains open for one week.

Do I need to use the same wallet?

Yes. Connect the same wallet address used for the Community BuyBack so the Stockdrop page can verify participation and display the matching EVM receiving address.

Which Stock Token will I receive?

Different Stock Tokens are available spanning major publicly traded companies. Connect your participating wallet after claims open to reveal the Stock Token allocated to your address, if applicable.

Does signing the request move funds from my wallet?

No. The claim flow asks you to sign a message. No funds leave your wallet, and there is no fee to submit the request.

Will I receive the Stock Token immediately?

No. Claim requests enter a review queue and are fulfilled in batches.

Where will I receive the Stock Token?

The Stock Token will be delivered on Robinhood Chain to the matching EVM address displayed during the claim process.

How many Stockdrops can I receive?

Each address can receive only one Stock Token, regardless of the amount of INJ committed.

Is the Stockdrop separate from my Community BuyBack revenue?

Yes. The Stockdrop is an additional reward. It does not replace or reduce the pro rata Community BuyBack revenue allocated to the participant.

Will I need gas?

No. There is no fee to sign and submit the Stockdrop claim request. Stock Tokens will be sent directly to eligible addresses on Robinhood Chain.

Note: Onchain activity on Robinhood Chain may require gas, refer to official Robinhood Chain docs for more information.

Participate in the next INJ Community BuyBack, then return to Injective Hub after the event’s conclusion to reveal and request your Stockdrop.

Join the Community BuyBack

Important Product and Jurisdiction InformationINJ Stockdrop is an Injective community program and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or officially connected with Robinhood Markets, Inc. Robinhood and related marks are trademarks of their respective owners.

Participation in Injective Stockdrop requires your agreement to the Injective Hub’s Terms of Service at injhub.com. Your participation in the Injective Stockdrop shall serve as your agreement to the Injective Hub’s Terms of Service.  Decisions regarding this program are made in the sole discretion of the Injective Foundation and, by participating in the program, you agree to accept such decisions without any right of appeal and to hold the Injective Foundation harmless.

Robinhood Stock Tokens provide economic exposure to underlying securities but do not grant any legal or beneficial rights in, or against the issuer of, those underlying securities. Stock Tokens are not registered under U.S. securities laws and may not be offered, sold, or delivered, directly or indirectly, in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons. Offers and sales of Stock Tokens are subject to restrictions in other jurisdictions, including, without limitation, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.

About InjectiveInjective is the first blockchain purpose-built for finance, enabling users, institutions, and AI agents to trade, tokenize, and transact at scale. Proudly made in America, Injective provides foundational blockchain infrastructure for global markets, with embedded financial primitives spanning stablecoins, real-world assets, payments, and programmable perpetuals through a unified onchain engine. Injective is used by Fortune 500 companies, banks, fintechs, and governments to power an open economy where any asset can be accessed anytime, from anywhere. Builders can deploy across multiple virtual machines like WASM and EVM, connect to native financial modules, and launch markets with deep liquidity from day one. INJ is the native token powering the rapidly growing Injective ecosystem and the new internet economy.

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Privacy Layer Added to Sui's Payment Stack@SuiNetwork is set to roll out Confidential Transfers before the end of 2026, according to an announcement from @EmanAbio, the network's co-founder and Chief Product Officer. The feature is designed to enhance privacy for both human users and AI agents transacting on the chain.

The move is a deliberate step away from the full opacity offered by traditional privacy coins. Rather than hiding all transaction data, Sui's approach keeps sender and receiver addresses visible on-chain while shielding transaction amounts and account balances. Users retain the ability to voluntarily disclose those details to auditors when required, a design that is aimed squarely at institutional and compliance-sensitive use cases.

The feature first entered public beta on Devnet in June 2026, though it remains unaudited and is not yet production-ready. A Testnet launch is targeted for later this year, with mainnet deployment to follow after testing and security audits are complete.

Building on Sui's Gas-Free Payments InfrastructureConfidential Transfers are intended to complement, not replace, the gas-free stablecoin settlement system Sui launched in May 2026. That protocol-level update allows users and businesses to send supported stablecoins peer-to-peer with zero transaction fees and no requirement to hold native SUI tokens. Supported assets include USDC, USDsui, suiUSDe, AUSD, FDUSD, USDB, and USDY.

Together, the two features form the basis of Sui's broader payments proposition: free settlement layered with optional confidentiality. The network has already lined up early partners to explore integration with Confidential Transfers, including Bridge, a stablecoin issuer and payments platform, and compliance analytics firms TRM Labs and Merkle Science. That compliance-first framing sets Sui apart from earlier privacy-focused chains, which typically prioritised anonymity over regulatory acceptance.

For @SuiNetwork, transaction privacy is increasingly framed as a prerequisite for real-world adoption, particularly as enterprises weigh exposing sensitive payroll, treasury, and supplier payment data on public ledgers.

Sources:
Crypto Times: Sui Adds Confidential Transfers for Private Crypto Payments
Sui Blog: Sui Launches Gasless Stablecoin Transfers
Crypto Briefing: Sui Network Launches Confidential Transfers in Public Beta on Devnet

Dutch police have arrested two men accused of using counterfeit EURC tokens to buy real Rolex watches in an unusual cryptocurrency fraud scheme.

The suspects allegedly targeted sellers on Marktplaats, a major Dutch online marketplace. 

They arranged payments for luxury watches with EURC before transferring fake crypto that seemed to be genuine. 

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According to NL Times, citing the Oost-Nederland police unit, several victims reported being defrauded in August 2025. 

The sellers believed they had received legitimate EURC and handed over their Rolex watches. 

Fake crypto used for real Rolex watchesEURC is a legitimate euro-denominated stablecoin. However, blockchain users can encounter unofficial tokens that imitate the names and symbols of legitimate crypto. 

Police said the counterfeit cryptocurrency used in the alleged scheme was difficult to distinguish from genuine EURC. 

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Authorities have not publicly detailed exactly how the counterfeit tokens were created. 

Two suspects, aged 24 and 45, were arrested on Wednesday, Sept. 9. 

The 45-year-old suspect has since been released from custody but remains under investigation.

Police warn crypto usersAuthorities advised people to rely on payment methods they understand and trust.

The investigation remains ongoing. Police are currently examining whether the two suspects may be connected to additional cryptocurrency fraud cases.

Sei’s breakout is accelerating after weeks of failed attempts near $0.052. This suggests a shift from a consolidation phase to an upward momentum.

After weeks trading below the $0.052 resistance, buyers pushed the price of the token to $0.06285. In turn, the token gained over 25% in 24 hours. Daily volume surged alongside the price to $203.44 million, a 289% spike according to CoinMarketCap data.

This suggested broader market participation behind the move rather than just speculation.

However, the breakout price has risen well beyond the prior trading range. Therefore, this leaves very little support for Sei [SEI] above $0.052. The RSI stood at 87.64, which also reinforced the imbalance, indicating that momentum has reached extreme levels.

Source: TradingView Ultimately, even though the overall trend of Sei’s breakout remains bullish, buyers may find it difficult to sustain their recent gains. A hold at $0.052 will continue to validate the construction of the trendline, but another drop could put pressure on demand to absorb selling pressure.

Canary’s ETF targets SEI staking SEI’s sharp breakout is now being reinforced by a proposed ETF structure that could change how new demand affects supply. Canary Capital’s amended S-1 proposes staking roughly 90% of the ETF’s SEI holdings.

This could lead to the majority of tokens acquired through purchases being removed from open circulation. Currently there are approximately 4.2 billion tokens out of the total of 10 billion tokens, or approximately 42% of the circulating supply, that are already staked.

Source: X Hence, the ETF will also limit an already small number of available and tradable tokens rather than open up new avenues. Additionally, all future staking reward payments will go directly into the fund, thereby increasing the yield invested in SEI directly.

Moreover, BitGo will serve as the sole custodian, simplifying operations while concentrating custody exposure. Larger inflows could tighten liquidity further and amplify SEI’s response to demand.

Can the ETF narrative sustain SEI momentum? While ETF headlines have fueled sentiment, derivatives markets continue to drive a significant portion of current activity. Open Interest (OI) sits near $95 million, while funding remains moderately positive around 0.01%.

Source: CoinGlass Thus, as the OI and funding levels suggest, traders are positioning for further gains, yet derivatives could also amplify a reversal. More importantly, the proposed ETF has not started attracting actual creations because approval and listing remain pending.

In other words, the recent increase in premium continues to rely on expectations for the proposed ETF rather than direct ETF demand. A stronger shift toward spot trading would give the rally a firmer base.

Consequently, without it, fading ETF optimism could encourage leveraged traders to exit, putting recent gains under pressure.

Final Summary

Ethena’s synthetic dollar USDe briefly printed $0.9202 on Binance’s USDE/USDT spot pair on September 22, 2026.

The wick happened at roughly 1 p.m. Beijing time. It snapped back to near $0.9996 within minutes.

That is an 8% gap, brief, yes, but loud enough to revive questions about USDe depeg risk for a token sitting on a $4.9 billion float and increasingly used as institutional-grade collateral.

What the Tape Actually Shows The flash wick was called out in real time on X by Wu Blockchain, the first English-language report of the event.

Ethena’s USDe Briefly Plunges to $0.92 on Binance Before Rapid Recovery

Ethena’s synthetic dollar USDe briefly fell as low as 0.9202 USDT on Binance’s USDE/USDT spot pair at around 1 p.m. on Sept. 22 before quickly recovering to about 0.9996 USDT.

The move came shortly before… pic.twitter.com/POaWv1LD2T

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) September 22, 2026

Chinese crypto accounts had flagged the move seconds earlier, timestamping the low at around 13:04 Beijing (05:04 UTC).

Trading on Binance spot and futures stayed open throughout. Only wallet deposits and withdrawals were paused, and that freeze did not begin until 06:00 UTC / 14:00 CST, roughly an hour after the wick.

Wu was explicit: there is no confirmed link between the price wick and Binance’s scheduled wallet maintenance.

Binance had announced the infrastructure upgrade on X on September 16, stating funds were safe and spot markets would remain live.

Binance will undergo a system upgrade on September 22, 2026, from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (estimated duration: 3 hours).

Your funds remain safe, and core services such as Spot and Futures trading will not be affected.

More info → https://t.co/TkzvB7G1w7 pic.twitter.com/9EokGXloIZ

— Binance (@binance) September 16, 2026

That timeline matters. The wick landed before the freeze, not because of it. Still, the combination of thinning liquidity ahead of a known transfer halt and residual memory of the October 10, 2025 crash is enough to explain why traders reacted.

That prior incident is the reference point every USDe holder will pull. As Binance compensation after the 2025 USDe depeg shows, the exchange paid out after USDe fell to ~$0.65 on Binance spot during last year’s Black Friday crash, while on-chain pools barely moved.

The same venue-risk dynamic is on the table today. Global aggregators still showed USDe near $0.999 after Tuesday’s snap-back, confirming this was a local order-book event, not a protocol failure, at least as of writing.

Why the Stakes Are Higher Now Than in 2025 This is not the same USDe that depegged in October 2025. Ethena has spent the year since pushing it well beyond DeFi.

Ethena’s synthetic-dollar design was built on delta-hedged positions across derivative venues, not cash reserves. That structure held in 2025. But the distribution layer around it has changed significantly.

Ethena’s neobank arm is now live. The Ethena Pay neobank rollout brought USDe to retail balances across 48 countries, treating it as an everyday dollar substitute.

On the institutional side, BlackRock’s Aladdin integration of USDe and the $1 billion FalconX facility for USDe backing assets both went live in 2026.

An 8% CEX wick does not automatically break any of those integrations. But it does reprice the question of what happens to collateral and margin books if a single-venue dislocation catches leveraged positions off guard.

Competition is also closing in. Circle’s bitcoin-backed USDC loans and banks’ planned USD stablecoin from Goldman Sachs, Citi, and BofA give institutions alternatives with a very different risk profile. A wick like Tuesday’s keeps those conversations alive.

Bitcoin

22 September 2026 | 09:30 X has added a trade button to Bitcoin and stock cashtags for eligible US users. The feature begins on X, but the order is completed through a separate financial platform.

The button connects X posts with outside trading accounts X Business announced Cashtag Partners on September 21, presenting it as a way to connect financial conversations with trading.

Introducing Cashtag Partners for stocks and crypto 🚀

X is the best source of financial news for traders and investors, and we’ve made it easier than ever to connect financial conversations with the ability to trade. https://t.co/52cqDNqwix

— Business (@XBusiness) September 21, 2026

Eligible users can select a cashtag such as $BTC, view market information and related posts, and then choose a trading partner. According to CoinDesk’s report, the available partners include Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Interactive Brokers and Moomoo.

The current rollout is limited to the United States. X has not announced when the feature will reach other countries or confirmed that every US account will receive access immediately. Availability may also differ by state, asset and partner because each exchange or broker applies its own account and geographic restrictions.

The launch advances the direction covered in our earlier report on X’s crypto and trading super-app plans. X provides the discovery and entry point, while regulated financial companies supply the accounts and execution infrastructure.

What happens after a user taps “Trade”

1. Select the cashtag
The user opens the market page attached to a symbol such as $BTC.

2. Choose a partner
X presents an exchange or brokerage through which the asset may be traded.

3. Sign in or open an account
The selected partner performs its own identity checks and determines whether the user is eligible.

4. Review and place the order
The partner supplies the executable price, processes the order and handles the resulting cash or assets.

The price shown on X may not be the price a buyer receives A chart or market price displayed beside a cashtag is informational. It is not necessarily an executable quote.

When the user reaches the selected platform, the final price can depend on that venue’s order book, spread and fees. It can also change during the handoff, particularly when the market is moving quickly.

The order type matters as well. A market order generally executes at the best prices currently available, while a limit order allows the buyer to set the maximum price they are prepared to pay. Neither option guarantees that the price previously displayed on X will still be available.

Any Bitcoin purchased through the feature is held or withdrawn under the selected exchange’s rules. It does not sit inside the user’s X profile, and an X account does not replace an exchange or brokerage account.

Several commercial details remain unanswered The announcement explains the basic user journey, but it leaves important parts of the partnership model undisclosed.

X has not yet explained: When Cashtag Partners will become available outside the United States Whether every eligible US account will receive the feature at the same time How participating exchanges and brokers are ordered on the screen Whether X receives referral payments when users open accounts or trade Whether additional partners can join and under what conditions Those omissions matter because the order in which platforms appear could influence where users trade. Any referral arrangement would also help explain how X plans to turn financial conversations into revenue. Until X publishes those terms, however, it would be speculative to describe the links as either paid placements or neutral rankings.

A shorter route leaves less time to check the original claim The new button reduces the number of steps between seeing a financial post and reaching an order screen. That convenience also makes the quality of the original information more important.

A trade link does not verify that the post beside it is accurate. It does not mean X, Coinbase or another partner endorses the author’s price prediction. It only provides a faster route to a platform where the user can act.

Three checks before placing an order Check the source: determine whether the post links to an official filing, announcement or verifiable dataset. Check the quote: compare the executable price and fees on the partner platform with the reference price shown on X. Check the order: confirm the asset, amount and order type before submitting it. Cashtag Partners does not turn X into a crypto exchange. It turns the platform into a distribution gateway positioned between financial attention and the companies that execute trades.

That distinction is commercially significant. X can influence where a user begins the process without operating the trading account itself. The partner receives the customer and handles the transaction; X controls the moment when interest is most likely to become action.

This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Partner availability, fees and geographic restrictions may change.

Author

Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.

Whitehat operators have moved 52.37 BTC linked to the July Coldcard wallet exploit into an address associated with a recovery trust created to return rescued Bitcoin to verified owners.

Summary

Whitehat operators moved 52.37 BTC linked to Coldcard exploit wallets into a recovery trust address. The transfer represented 2.8% of tracked exploit funds, according to Galaxy Digital researcher Alex Thorn. Crypto Recovery Trust says verified owners can submit claims and provide evidence for returned assets. Coinkite says patched firmware fixes future seed generation but cannot repair already weakened wallet seeds. Current recommended Coldcard firmware is version 5.6.2 for Mk4/Mk5 and 1.5.2Q for Q devices respectively. Galaxy Digital Head of Research Alex Thorn said the Bitcoin came from the tracked Wave 2 cluster and footprints labeled AA, AU and AX, with the consolidation recorded in Bitcoin block 967,948. Thorn said the amount represented 2.8% of the exploit funds his team was tracking.

❄️COLDCARD WHITE HAT MOVES FUNDS TO TRUST 🏳️

52.37 BTC comprised of coins from Wave 2, Footprints AA, AU, AX consolidated into a fresh address with an OP_RETURN "claim:cryptorecoverytrust dot com" in block 967,948

these white hatted funds represent 2.8% of the coldcard exploit pic.twitter.com/c5eYeQMxHQ

— Alex Thorn (@intangiblecoins) September 21, 2026 The destination transaction carried an OP_RETURN message pointing to “claim:cryptorecoverytrust dot com,” according to Thorn. Galaxy Research separately identified activity in the same block involving 20 inputs and 480 outputs and published transaction ID 38b524ccb8ca260ec705ab980982144857c477658fa39591870ee8cb09bcea47.

Coldcard recovery moves rescued Bitcoin into a trust The transfer places part of the recovered Bitcoin under the Crypto Recovery Trust, a Wyoming statutory trust established to hold digital assets recovered from compromised wallets while ownership claims are checked.

Crypto Recovery Trust states that its role is to reunite recovered assets with their rightful owners through a formal claims process. Its website identifies the legal entity as the Recovered Digital Asset Statutory Trust of Wyoming and names Agentic Trace LLC as trustee.

The Digital Asset Recovery Trust, or DART, had already disclosed recovery work connected with the Coldcard incident before the latest consolidation. DART reported that it and independent whitehat researchers had secured just over 50 BTC from vulnerable addresses as of Aug. 17, moving the funds before malicious actors could reach them.

DART said recovered Bitcoin was placed in the trust instead of researcher-controlled wallets or operational accounts. Its process includes blockchain analysis, proof-of-ownership checks and sanctions screening before assets can be returned. Funds involving competing claims, sanctions restrictions or criminal proceedings may follow separate legal procedures.

The Sept. 21 movement provides a newer on-chain view of those recovery efforts. Thorn tied the 52.37 BTC specifically to previously identified exploit clusters, while describing them as whitehat-controlled funds. His 2.8% calculation refers to Galaxy’s tracked exploit total and should not be read as an official Coinkite loss figure.

Coldcard exploit began with a seed-generation flaw The Coldcard incident began July 30 after attackers exploited weakened Bitcoin wallet seeds created by affected firmware. Coinkite’s current incident record explains that a firmware integration defect caused the seed-generation path to resolve to MicroPython’s Yasmarang software pseudorandom generator instead of the intended hardware random number generator.

Attackers did not need to remotely control the hardware wallets. Coinkite says they regenerated vulnerable private keys offline after the reduced randomness made affected seed phrases easier to search. The company describes the incident as a firmware seed-generation failure, not a remote takeover of Coldcard devices.

Independent technical research has traced the weakness to firmware changes dating from 2021. One public investigation estimated that older Mk3 devices could produce roughly 40 bits of effective entropy under affected conditions, while Mk4, Mk5 and Q models retained approximately 72 bits instead of the intended security level.

Early losses were smaller than the totals later associated with multiple attack waves. As crypto.news previously reported, the Coldcard firmware build error and first-wave Bitcoin losses involved roughly 594 BTC taken from around 500 wallets within approximately 25 minutes.

Later tracking identified additional wallets and attack waves. A separate crypto.news investigation into the five-year Coldcard entropy flaw and four attack waves estimated 1,816 BTC had moved from more than 5,200 addresses as analysts expanded the identified scope.

Loss estimates therefore vary depending on which attack waves, clusters and recovery transactions are included. Coinkite’s current security status page does not publish a single definitive total for all stolen Bitcoin.

Coinkite says firmware updates cannot repair old seeds Coinkite released emergency fixes on July 31 for affected firmware lines. The company’s download archive shows Mk4/Mk5 version 5.6.0 and Q version 1.5.0Q as the first standard releases correcting future seed generation, while separate patches covered older Mk2/Mk3 devices and Edge firmware.

Security work continued after the initial patch. Current recommended standard releases are Mk4/Mk5 5.6.2 and Q 1.5.2Q, both issued Sept. 3. Edge users are directed to 6.6.1X for Mk4/Mk5 and 6.6.1QX for Q.

Coinkite stresses that installing fixed firmware does not change an existing seed. A wallet generated under vulnerable firmware can remain exposed even after the device receives the latest update because the weakness exists in the seed itself.

Users with affected seeds are instructed to generate a corrected replacement seed and migrate funds, unless they meet the company’s stated independent-dice exception. Coinkite says at least 50 fair, independent and privately recorded six-sided dice rolls added under the relevant workflow provide at least 128 bits of additional entropy, though users uncertain about the conditions are told to migrate.

Victims can submit ownership claims to the recovery trust The recovery process now centers on verifying who controlled addresses from which whitehats swept Bitcoin. Crypto Recovery Trust lets claimants search for recovery information, track a submitted claim and provide additional supporting evidence through its website.

DART says the trust was structured to segregate recovered Bitcoin from researcher and operating funds while ownership is established. Attorneys from Steptoe’s national security practice advise the trustee, according to DART’s disclosure, because some returned assets may require sanctions, law-enforcement or competing-ownership reviews.

The whitehat researchers involved in DART’s earlier recovery work did not request a bounty, according to the organization. DART said other vulnerable assets and possible recovery leads remained under review after its August tally, leaving open the possibility that further Coldcard-linked funds could enter the claims process.

For wallets that still rely on seeds created under affected Coldcard firmware, Coinkite’s current instructions remain unchanged: install and verify a fixed firmware release, create a new seed under the corrected process, and move funds away from the vulnerable seed.

Prediction market protocol Trueo has announced it is migrating from Base, Coinbase's Ethereum Layer 2 network, to the Ethereum mainnet. The move has drawn a public endorsement from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who welcomed the project as a new competitor in decentralized prediction markets.

Why Trueo Is Moving to Ethereum Mainnet The team cited Ethereum's network effects, deeper liquidity, integration potential, and stronger decentralization guarantees as the driving rationale.

For existing users, the transition is designed to be frictionless.

Buterin Praises the Project's Approach

The endorsement fits a broader stance Buterin has taken on the prediction market sector. He has also argued that prediction markets are drifting toward pure speculation, and Trueo's focus on decentralized, permissionless infrastructure appears to align closely with that vision.

The migration adds to a broader narrative of projects returning to Ethereum's base layer as the network's fee environment and developer tooling continue to mature. For Trueo, landing on Layer 1 with the public backing of Buterin himself is a notable early signal as it competes for users and liquidity in an increasingly crowded prediction market space.

Sources:
PANews: Trueo migrates from Base to Ethereum mainnet, Vitalik praises commitment to decentralization
ChainCatcher: Prediction market platform Trueo to migrate from Base to Ethereum mainnet
Crypto Briefing: Vitalik Buterin engages with Trueo prediction market amid oracle design debate

21Shares is extending its single-asset lineup into two different niches: DeFi through ETHFI and privacy-focused crypto through ZEC. Both products charge 2.50% annually, creating a considerably higher cost hurdle than the issuer’s core Bitcoin and Ethereum products. Zcash now has exchange-traded investment vehicles in Europe and the U.S., while ETHFI tests demand for listed exposure to individual DeFi protocols. 21Shares is pushing its European crypto lineup further beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum with exchange-traded products tied to ether.fi’s ETHFI token and Zcash.

The 21Shares ether.fi ETP, ticker ETHFI, and 21Shares Zcash ETP, ticker ZCASH, began trading on Euronext Paris and Euronext Amsterdam on September 22. Both are physically backed, meaning the products hold the underlying cryptoassets rather than using derivatives to replicate their performance. Each charges a 2.50% annual product fee.

That fee is a meaningful part of the investment case. By comparison, 21Shares’ Ethereum Staking ETP charges 1.49%, while its Core Bitcoin and Core Ethereum products currently carry a 0.10% fee under an extended waiver through June 2027. The new ETPs therefore sit at the more expensive end of the issuer’s range, consistent with the economics of narrower single-asset products.

For an investor comparing the ETP with a hypothetical fee-free direct holding, a 2.50% annual charge creates a 2.5-percentage-point performance drag before trading costs and other factors. The wrapper removes private-key management, but that convenience comes at a material price.

ETHFI Brings a DeFi Protocol Token Into a Brokerage Account The ether.fi product packages exposure to a token whose investment case has been changing alongside the protocol itself.

ether.fi began as a liquid-restaking platform but has expanded into a broader set of onchain financial services spanning staking, lending, swaps, payments and spending products. 21Shares argues that the protocol’s revenue mix is increasingly shifting beyond staking, giving ETHFI exposure to a wider financial ecosystem rather than a single DeFi activity.

The ETP changes the route investors use to obtain that exposure. Instead of opening a crypto account, acquiring ETHFI and managing a wallet, investors can hold the security through the same type of brokerage account used for conventional investments.

21Shares’ product page currently reports approximately $11 million in assets under management and a 2.50% product fee. It also reports a variable staking yield that accrues daily to the ETP’s net asset value. The yield is not fixed and should not be treated as a guaranteed offset to the management fee.

The underlying risk remains tied to ETHFI. Easier custody does not remove token volatility, protocol-specific risks or ether.fi’s dependence on maintaining activity across its expanding suite of products.

Zcash Gets a European Exchange-Traded Wrapper The ZCASH product targets a very different thesis.

Zcash is built around optional transaction privacy, allowing users to use shielded transactions that can limit the information publicly exposed onchain. ZEC also has a maximum supply of 21 million coins, giving the asset a scarcity structure that resembles Bitcoin at the issuance level while serving a different use case.

The launch is particularly timely because regulated investment access to ZEC has expanded rapidly.

Grayscale launched its U.S.-listed Zcash product on NYSE Arca in August, giving American investors a regulated route to spot ZEC exposure. 21Shares is now extending exchange-traded access in Europe through Euronext Paris and Amsterdam. The products operate under different regulatory structures, but together they give Zcash listed investment vehicles on both sides of the Atlantic.

That is notable for a privacy-focused cryptocurrency, a category that has historically faced more friction with centralized exchanges and regulated financial intermediaries than Bitcoin or Ethereum.

The question is whether easier brokerage access creates persistent demand or simply captures interest generated by ZEC’s recent market performance.

The Same ETP Wrapper Covers Two Different Bets Launching ETHFI and ZCASH together should not obscure how different the underlying exposures are.

ETHFI is primarily a protocol bet. Its investment case increasingly depends on whether ether.fi can turn its staking base into sustained activity across lending, payments, swaps and other financial services.

ZEC is primarily a privacy and monetary-asset bet. Demand depends more heavily on the value investors place on transaction privacy, cryptographic development and a capped token supply.

Both shift custody away from the investor. Buyers avoid managing wallets and private keys, but instead rely on the ETP issuer, institutional custodians and securities-market infrastructure.

Neither wrapper removes crypto volatility. The ETP simplifies access to the underlying asset; it does not transform its economic risk into that of a conventional equity or bond.

That makes future flows useful for different reasons. ETHFI can test whether investors want exchange-traded exposure to individual DeFi protocols. ZCASH can provide evidence of whether demand for privacy-focused assets extends into conventional investment accounts.

A 2.50% Fee Sets a Higher Performance Hurdle The fee deserves particular attention because crypto ETP competition has pushed costs sharply lower at the largest end of the market.

21Shares’ Core Bitcoin and Core Ethereum products currently charge just 0.10% under a temporary fee waiver, while its Ethereum Staking ETP carries a 1.49% fee. Several of the issuer’s more specialized products have historically charged 2.50%.

That creates a clear divide in the product lineup.

Bitcoin and Ethereum have enough scale and issuer competition to support increasingly aggressive pricing. A niche token ETP must spread custody, administration, market-making and other product costs across a potentially much smaller asset base.

For ETHFI, staking income could partly offset the product fee when yields are positive, although both staking returns and token prices can change. ZCASH does not have the same staking mechanism, leaving the management charge as a more direct drag on exposure.

The 2.50% price therefore raises the bar for both products: convenience and regulated brokerage access need to be valuable enough for investors to accept a substantially higher recurring cost than they would pay for mainstream crypto ETPs.

Crypto ETP Competition Is Moving Down the Asset Curve European crypto ETPs have already expanded well beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. 21Shares’ own catalogue includes single-asset exposure across numerous networks and tokens, and company filings show that a 2.50% fee is already used across several specialized products.

The harder question is whether simply making an asset available through an ETP is enough to build a durable market around it.

ETHFI and ZEC provide an interesting test because their investment cases have little in common. One derives much of its relevance from activity inside an evolving DeFi ecosystem. The other is built around privacy technology and monetary scarcity.

For ETHFI, assets under management, secondary-market liquidity and the contribution of staking income to NAV will show whether investors are willing to pay for packaged DeFi exposure.

For ZCASH, net flows and trading liquidity will offer a cleaner measure of whether renewed interest in privacy assets is translating into longer-term investment demand.

Bitcoin and Ethereum proved that crypto can support large exchange-traded investment markets. ETHFI and ZCASH will test something harder: how far down the crypto asset curve that model can travel before higher fees and narrower demand begin to limit its scale.

Alexander Zdravkov is a crypto journalist and market analyst specializing in digital assets, blockchain technology, and the rapidly evolving cryptocurrency market. He entered the industry more than four years ago, drawn to the speed of innovation in crypto and the potential of blockchain-based financial systems to reshape traditional markets. His work focuses on understanding the forces behind crypto market movements, from Bitcoin and altcoin cycles to institutional adoption, regulation, exchange-traded products, stablecoins, DeFi, and emerging blockchain ecosystems. Rather than simply following price action, Alexander looks at liquidity, investor positioning, market structure, and macroeconomic conditions to identify developing trends and explain what they could mean for digital assets. With a degree in International Relations, he brings a broader perspective to cryptocurrency coverage by connecting developments in the sector with monetary policy, geopolitics, regulation, and global capital flows. This allows him to examine crypto not as an isolated market, but as an increasingly interconnected part of the global financial system. Over the course of more than five years in financial journalism, Alexander has written over 5,000 articles covering cryptocurrencies, blockchain, traditional markets, and the global economy. His reporting spans Bitcoin, Ethereum and altcoins, DeFi protocols, institutional crypto adoption, regulation, market infrastructure, security incidents, and major developments shaping the wider digital asset industry. His approach is centered on giving readers context behind the numbers and headlines, explaining not only what is happening in crypto markets, but why it matters and what could come next.

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According to HTX market data, AVAX has recently rallied strongly alongside Bitcoin, surging from roughly $7.5 to above $11 over the past week, marking a 50% cumulative gain, hitting an 8-month high, with trading volume expanding in tandem. On the news front, Avalanche is set to roll out the Helicon mainnet upgrade on September 22, which will slash the minimum staking lock-up period from 14 days to 48 hours, introduce auto-renewing staking, and raise validator uptime requirements—measures expected to enhance capital flexibility and staking efficiency. Meanwhile, the market continues to price in its institutional tokenization narrative: ICE and Ava Labs are collaborating on 24/7 trading infrastructure for tokenized U.S. stocks, ETFs and other assets; New York Life Investment Management plans to launch a tokenized U.S. high-yield corporate bond fund on Avalanche via Centrifuge. Institutional moves from Paxos, Aave and Janus Henderson have further boosted market expectations for the Avalanche ecosystem’s compliance and real-world asset (RWA) applications.

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In a significant development for Solana-linked financial products, the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) experienced over $60 million in inflows over the past two days. This influx has brought the ETF’s assets under management to an all-time high of over $1.2 billion. The surge in investment suggests growing confidence in Solana’s potential in the current market cycle. The ETF, which holds and stakes Solana (SOL) to generate yield, has seen cumulative net inflows surpassing $1 billion. Solana itself is priced around $118.57, with a market cap near $60 billion, reflecting sustained interest in the cryptocurrency and its associated investment vehicles.

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Key Takeaways The recent $60 million inflow into the BSOL ETF appears to suggest heightened investor interest in Solana. Market pricing implies that participants may view these inflows as supportive of Solana’s growth potential in this market cycle. Solana’s current price and market cap indicate continued demand and confidence in its ecosystem. What to Watch Observers should monitor if the inflows into Solana-linked ETFs continue, as sustained investment could further bolster Solana’s market presence. Developments such as new Solana ETF launches or significant public endorsements of Solana could act as catalysts for further price movements. Additionally, any regulatory developments affecting cryptocurrency products in the U.S. could impact Solana’s investment appeal and market dynamics.

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Term Structure

Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h October 1 2026 0.5% — — View market → October 1 2026 0.5% — — View market → October 1 2026 1.6% — — View market → October 1 2026 2.7% — — View market → October 1 2026 4.5% — — View market → October 1 2026 14.3% — — View market → October 1 2026 36.5% — — View market → October 1 2026 83.9% — — View market → October 1 2026 4.2% — — View market → October 1 2026 1.9% — — View market → October 1 2026 0.9% — — View market → October 1 2026 0.6% — — View market → October 1 2026 0.4% — — View market → October 1 2026 0.4% — — View market → October 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → October 1 2026 0.1% — — View market →

Twenty-four Bittensor subnets are pulling in an estimated $28 million to $35 million in annualized revenue from actual, paying customers. That’s real money from real businesses, not recycled token emissions masquerading as economic activity.

SubConnect’s inaugural Bittensor Revenue Index, published in late August 2026, represents the first systematic attempt to measure genuine customer revenue flowing into the decentralized AI network. Of those 24 revenue-generating subnets, 15 have estimates rated as high-confidence, backed by public dashboards, on-chain data, and company disclosures.

Where the money is coming from Compute and infrastructure subnets are doing the heavy lifting. Nine subnets focused on these areas account for roughly $23.1 million to $27.3 million of the total, meaning compute alone represents somewhere between 78% and 82% of all verified revenue.

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Three subnets sit at the top of the leaderboard. Lium (SN51) generates an estimated $8 million to $10 million annually. Targon (SN4) follows with $5.5 million to $6 million. Chutes (SN64) rounds out the podium at $4 million to $5 million. Together, those three contribute nearly half of all verified revenue across the entire ecosystem.

The customer list isn’t exactly a roster of crypto-native startups either. PwC France, Dropbox, and an NYSE-listed REIT are among the enterprise clients using Bittensor subnets.

Perhaps the most telling data point: two subnets reportedly earn more from customers than they receive in miner emissions.

The buyback strategy Fourteen of the 24 revenue-generating subnets are channeling a portion of their external revenue into buybacks of their own alpha tokens. It’s a mechanism that creates sustained demand pressure on subnet-specific tokens, essentially using real-world revenue to support token value rather than relying solely on speculative interest.

The emissions elephant in the room Before anyone gets too excited, context matters. Total annual TAO emissions are estimated at over $300 million. The $28 million to $35 million in external revenue, while genuinely impressive as a first measured baseline, covers roughly 9% to 12% of what the network pays out in token incentives.

The concentration of revenue in compute and infrastructure subnets also raises questions about diversification. If roughly 80% of revenue comes from one category, the network’s economic health is tied closely to demand for decentralized compute.

For now, SubConnect’s Revenue Index has done something valuable: it created a measurable, auditable baseline for Bittensor’s real economic activity.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

World Liberty Financial Opens Live Vote on Staking Rewards@worldlibertyfi has put a governance staking program to a community vote, with results so far showing the $WLFI holder base almost evenly divided. As of the time of writing, early tallies stand at 48.8% in favour and 47.75% against. Voting closes on September 28.

Under the proposed program, The minimum activity requirement is designed to ensure that staking rewards flow only to genuinely engaged holders, not passive ones.

Variable Rewards, No Fixed RatePayouts carry no fixed rate. Instead, they draw from a pool funded by the World Liberty Financial treasury and fees generated through World Liberty Markets.

targeting a program launch of October 1, 2026 if it passes. to keep the participation requirement achievable.

The vote arrives as $WLFI governance has drawn broader scrutiny. The close result in this latest ballot may reflect growing pushback from smaller holders on that dynamic.

The outcome remains uncertain. With voting running until September 28 and the community split within a single percentage point, either side could still carry the result.

Sources:
Crypto Times: WLFI Launches Governance Proposal for Holder Voting Incentives
CoinDesk: WLFI governance voting power concentration

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved a five-year Innovation Exemption, enabling qualified trading venues to list fully-backed tokenized National Market System (NMS) equities on public blockchains. This regulatory change offers venues the possibility to bring real-world equities, such as NVDA, TSLA, and composite indexes, into on-chain environments for 24/7 spot trading.

Pathway for Tokenized EquitiesThe Innovation Exemption allows venues that meet SEC requirements to make tokenized equities available for spot trading using permissioned automated market makers (AMMs). Venues must implement know-your-customer (KYC) protocols at the trading level, and settlement occurs transparently on public blockchain infrastructure. However, the exemption does not extend to leveraged derivatives, such as perpetual swaps, which the SEC has not endorsed for these assets.

For Hyperliquid, a leading decentralized futures exchange, this regulatory shift presents a pathway to integrate traditional equity trading alongside its crypto-based spot and derivatives offerings. Hyperliquid’s EVM layer, HyperEVM, plans to incorporate a decentralized exchange for spot equities, leveraging lending and oracle services already connected to its system.

DefiLlama data from September 2026 shows Hyperliquid managing daily trading volumes above $1.2 billion, making it the largest decentralized futures venue. Introducing tokenized TradFi assets addresses a current gap for users seeking US equities for collateral and portfolio diversification.

Potential Impact on Market StructureIf Hyperliquid’s HyperEVM launches as a compliant venue, it could attract significant assets under management as institutional investors consider using tokenized equities for lending, liquidity provision, and delta-neutral trading strategies. A unified environment where traders can simultaneously hold spot positions and short perpetuals on the same underlying equities, such as tokenized TSLA, provides new opportunities for risk management without leaving the platform.

The SEC under Chair Paul Atkins has signaled a permissive stance on asset tokenization. Meanwhile, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is pursuing its own pilot programs for derivatives, including the Bitnomial track. The catalyst for legal US equity perpetuals still depends on CFTC guidance.

Other major trading platforms such as Coinbase, Kraken, and Robinhood are also exploring tokenized equity offerings, often through their broker-dealer affiliates. Layer-1 blockchains including Solana and Arbitrum have run pilot programs featuring permissioned tokenized stock trading, underscoring rising competition in the sector.

Operational and Regulatory ChallengesVenues offering tokenized equities need to secure registration as alternative trading systems or broker-dealers and implement transfer agent controls to meet SEC standards. Accurate price oracles and verifiable asset custody are expected to face scrutiny, with the SEC accepting public comments on the exemption through the fourth quarter of 2026.

Key milestones going forward include formal filings for HyperEVM-based share trading venues, governance proposals for HYPE token holders, and ongoing signals from the CFTC on US-listed derivatives. The launch of a regulated equities-perps hybrid market remains a significant test for the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

The Innovation Exemption is not a license for perpetuals, but represents the most substantial TradFi-approved framework yet for on-chain tokenized spot stocks. If implemented successfully, HyperEVM could provide compliant access to real US equities, expanding institutional participation and bridging traditional and crypto markets within a single trading environment.

Technical developments such as oracles and integrated pools underscore the importance of market timing and asset selection in tokenized ecosystems. 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.

If compliant venues begin operations, the move could lower entry barriers for institutions and add significant liquidity, utility, and cross-market functionality to the Hyperliquid ecosystem. Market observers are closely watching for updates as Hyperliquid pursues integration of spot and derivatives trading for both crypto and traditional assets.

Selling Bitcoin to access cash is the crypto equivalent of selling your house to pay rent. Circle wants to end that tradeoff for institutional holders. The company launched a Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing feature on its Circle Mint platform, giving eligible institutions a way to unlock USDC liquidity while keeping their BTC position intact.

The feature went live on September 2, 2026, with Morpho as its first integrated lending market, running across both Ethereum and Arc, Circle’s new EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain.

How the mechanics actually work The workflow has three steps. An institution deposits BTC into Circle Mint. That BTC gets wrapped into cirBTC, a tokenized version backed 1:1 by BTC held in custody at Circle National Trust. The cirBTC then serves as collateral inside Morpho vaults, and the resulting USDC loan settles directly back into the borrower’s Circle Mint account.

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Repaying the loan releases the collateral, returning cirBTC and eventually the underlying BTC. The whole cycle stays within the Circle Mint interface, so institutions avoid stitching together custody, bridging, and DeFi protocols on their own.

Chainlink’s proof-of-reserves verification underpins the cirBTC backing, giving lenders on the other side of the trade an on-chain confirmation that the collateral is real and accounted for. Interest rates and collateral ratios are determined by Morpho’s market parameters rather than set by Circle, which means they float with supply and demand.

One geographic caveat: the service is not available to clients based in New York.

The day-one numbers from Arc Circle’s Arc mainnet launched publicly around September 16, 2026, and the early demand for cirBTC-backed borrowing was hard to ignore. On Arc’s launch day, Morpho vaults backed by cirBTC drew over $150 million in USDC and EURC deposits.

Why this matters beyond the product itself The choice of Morpho as the launch partner reflects a deliberate bet on permissioned DeFi. Morpho’s vault architecture allows for curated risk parameters, which makes it better suited to institutional compliance requirements than fully open lending pools. Circle has signaled plans to expand to additional protocols, with Aave named as a future integration target.

Arc’s role in this picture is worth watching. By launching cirBTC borrowing simultaneously on Ethereum and its own chain, Circle is not just offering a product. It is seeding demand for activity on Arc itself. A lending market with $150 million in day-one deposits gives developers and other protocols a reason to build on the chain.

For institutional Bitcoin holders specifically, the DABB feature changes the calculus on holding BTC through market cycles. Rather than facing a binary choice between holding and selling, large holders can now borrow against their position to fund operations, meet capital calls, or deploy into other opportunities, without triggering a taxable sale or abandoning their BTC upside.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Ether.fi’s wrapped liquid restaking token, weETH, has crossed $4 billion in deposits on Aave V3’s Ethereum market. That makes it the second-largest asset by deposit volume on the biggest lending protocol in DeFi, sitting ahead of stablecoins and wrapped Bitcoin.

The numbers behind the milestone Over the past 30 days alone, weETH deposits grew by roughly 129,800 weETH, translating to more than $350 million in new supplied value. That’s a 10.9% increase in balance in a single month.

By early 2026, weETH’s total deposits on Aave were estimated at around $4.47 billion, placing it firmly in the number-two slot across the entire protocol. The only asset with a larger deposit base is native ETH itself.

ETH-linked assets now make up approximately 36% of Aave V3’s total value locked. weETH is a major driver of that concentration, functioning as a core collateral option for borrowers who want exposure to restaking yields while simultaneously leveraging their position in Aave’s lending markets.

Users deposit ETH into Ether.fi to earn restaking rewards, receive weETH as a receipt, then deposit that weETH into Aave to borrow against it.

Why liquid restaking tokens dominate Aave collateral The rise of weETH on Aave is the product of deliberate governance decisions by the Aave DAO to integrate liquid restaking tokens into its collateral framework. Aave’s community has voted to onboard weETH across multiple chains, including Arbitrum, Base, and Scroll, extending the token’s usability well beyond Ethereum mainnet.

That multichain expansion means the $4 billion figure on Ethereum alone understates weETH’s total footprint across the Aave ecosystem. Depositors across various L2 deployments can earn points from both Ether.fi and the respective layer 2 networks, creating a multi-layered reward structure that makes weETH deposits more attractive than plain ETH in many cases.

What Ether.fi’s growth means for DeFi lending weETH’s dominance on Aave is significant because Aave sets the standard for the sector. When a new collateral type becomes the second-largest asset on Aave, other lending protocols tend to follow suit.

Other liquid restaking protocols, including Renzo’s ezETH and Kelp’s rsETH, are vying for similar integrations across DeFi. weETH’s first-mover advantage on Aave, combined with its multichain deployment across Arbitrum, Base, and Scroll, has given it a structural position that competing tokens have yet to match.

For Aave, weETH deposits boost the protocol’s TVL numbers and generate borrowing demand, which in turn produces fee revenue for the DAO. The 36% share of TVL coming from ETH-linked assets indicates Aave’s growth is increasingly tied to the health and adoption of the restaking sector.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Standard Chartered (LON: STAN) has opened formal research coverage of Arbitrum with a long-dated bullish call on its ARB token. In a note issued on 15 September 2026, the bank said ARB could reach $10 by the end of 2030. The token was then trading near $0.14, so the target implies about a seventyfold increase over four years.

Geoff Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, cast Arbitrum as “the blockchain for TradFi.”

In his view, the network’s real business is helping conventional financial firms move activity on-chain and then sharing in the economics of the chains those firms launch.

That positioning, he argued, puts Arbitrum in the path of a much larger tokenization market.

The bank expects tokenized assets to grow to $4 trillion by the end of 2028, from about $340 billion at the time of the note.

If even a portion of that activity runs on dedicated networks built with Arbitrum’s technology, protocol income could rise for years.

Arbitrum sits among the two leading Ethereum layer-2 networks, alongside Base, and it is distinguished by a fee model that captures value when other parties use its stack.

That model is simple.

When an external chain is built on Arbitrum’s technology, Arbitrum collects a rolling 10% of that chain’s net protocol revenue.

Kendrick pointed to Robinhood Chain, which launched on 1 July 2026, as the first large example.

The new network has been described as the fastest-growing chain on record by value locked.

On the bank’s math, it could generate around $5 million in fees for Arbitrum in September, more than five times the monthly run rate seen before the launch.

That jump in income is the immediate catalyst behind the coverage initiation.

It is also the reason the forecast is framed as a revenue story rather than a purely speculative price target.

Kendrick said investors still assign Arbitrum little value next to layer-1 networks such as Ethereum and Solana, even though the economic engine now looks more comparable.

He expects that valuation gap to narrow if fee growth continues and if more traditional firms copy the Robinhood approach.

The price path is gradual, not a single leap. Standard Chartered sees ARB at $0.50 by the end of 2026, then rising through subsequent years toward the $10 mark in 2030.

The implication is that markets would re-rate the token as recurring infrastructure fees become harder to ignore.None of this is guaranteed.

Tokenization could arrive more slowly than the $4 trillion figure assumes.

Competing blockchains could win the same institutional mandates. Robinhood Chain’s early fee burst may not prove durable.

And ARB does not currently pass protocol revenue straight through to holders, so the investment case still depends on markets treating rising network cash flow as relevant to the token.

Even with those caveats, the research marks a shift in how a major bank is willing to describe a layer-2 asset: less as a sidechain trade and more as a claim on infrastructure used by traditional finance. If that reading holds, ARB’s next cycle may be driven as much by licensed chains and tokenization volumes as by crypto-native activity.

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Hyperliquid has added trailing stop orders to its perpetual futures markets, giving traders a way to move their trigger price automatically as a position moves in their favor.

Summary

Hyperliquid has introduced trailing stops for perpetual markets, with trigger prices moving automatically as positions move in traders’ favor. Long positions track the highest mark price after activation, while short positions follow the lowest before triggering on a selected retracement. Traders can set an activation price or begin tracking immediately, with triggered stops executing as market orders. According to Hyperliquid, the new order type tracks the mark price after activation and triggers a market order when the price pulls back from its best level by a distance or percentage selected by the trader.

Trailing stops are now available for perp markets.

A trailing stop's trigger price follows the mark price as it moves in favor of the position. When the mark price retraces from its best level by the selected distance or percentage, it triggers a market order. For long…

— Hyperliquid (@HyperliquidX) September 21, 2026 For a long position, the trailing stop follows the highest mark price reached after tracking begins. For a short position, it follows the lowest mark price. Traders can set an activation price to determine when tracking starts or leave the field empty to begin tracking immediately from the current mark price.

The feature expands Hyperliquid’s existing set of conditional order tools as activity across its perpetual futures platform continues to grow.

Hyperliquid trailing stops follow the mark price Unlike a fixed stop price, Hyperliquid’s trailing stop adjusts when the market moves in favor of an open position.

For example, a trailing stop attached to a long position will follow the highest mark price reached after activation. If the mark price continues rising, the trigger moves with it. Once the market retreats by the distance or percentage chosen by the trader, the order is triggered.

Short positions work in the opposite direction. The trigger follows the lowest mark price reached since activation and executes once the price rebounds by the configured amount.

Hyperliquid said traders can choose between a fixed distance and a percentage when setting the retracement threshold. An optional activation price lets the user delay tracking until the market reaches a specified level. Without an activation price, the current mark price becomes the starting point.

Once the retracement condition is met, the trailing stop triggers a market order for the selected quantity. Hyperliquid’s existing take profit and stop loss system similarly uses the mark price to determine when conditional orders are triggered, according to the platform’s documentation.

Existing market TP and SL orders carry a 10% slippage tolerance, while limit versions allow traders to specify a limit price to control potential slippage. Hyperliquid warns in its support documentation that the trigger price and actual execution price can differ because the mark price triggers the order before it is filled against available liquidity.

The platform already supports market, limit, stop market, stop limit, take market, take limit, scale and TWAP orders. Its TWAP system breaks larger orders into smaller transactions sent at 30 second intervals, with each suborder subject to a maximum slippage setting.

Perpetual markets have expanded through HIP 3 The trading update follows several changes to Hyperliquid’s perpetual futures infrastructure over the past few months.

In September, Hyperliquid introduced a preliminary testnet upgrade that allows independent HIP 3 deployers to operate permissioned perpetual markets using onchain allowlists. Deployers can manage access themselves or assign the task to sub deployers, while the permissioning system remains optional for HIP 3 markets.

HIP 3 allows outside teams to deploy and operate perpetual markets using Hyperliquid’s infrastructure. The framework has increasingly been used to extend the types of assets and market structures available through the network.

Crypto.news previously reported that Kraken parent Payward has outlined plans to bring regulated Hyperliquid perpetuals to eligible U.S. clients through Bitnomial, subject to regulatory approval.

Under the proposed structure, CFTC regulated Bitnomial would deploy, administer, clear and settle the HIP 3 contracts. NinjaTrader Clearing would carry customer accounts, with access limited to users approved by the participating entities.

The plan followed earlier discussions involving Hyperliquid Labs and Payward over a structure that could make selected perpetual contracts available to U.S. traders without providing direct access to Hyperliquid’s decentralized trading platform.

Hyperliquid Policy Center and trade[XYZ] have pursued a separate regulatory path for commodity linked contracts. In August, the groups asked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to permit regulated energy perpetuals tied to WTI crude, Brent crude and Henry Hub natural gas.

Their filing said trade[XYZ] had operated perpetual markets on Hyperliquid since October 2025, with cumulative volume exceeding $500 billion. The proposed framework included stablecoin margin, leverage limits and regulated onchain trading infrastructure.

Hyperliquid trading activity remains elevated Hyperliquid’s derivatives business has continued to generate substantial trading activity as new products and integrations have reached users.

Coinbase brought more than 290 perpetual markets to its Base App through Hyperliquid in August. Eligible users can trade contracts linked to cryptocurrencies, stocks and commodities while remaining inside their existing wallets, with leverage reaching as high as 50 times on supported markets.

Users in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada were excluded from the product when the integration was announced.

Hyperliquid’s revenue has grown alongside trading activity. CoinGecko data published on Sept. 21 showed the platform generated $429.04 million in revenue between Jan. 1 and Sept. 15, accounting for 12.62% of the $3.40 billion revenue pool in the research firm’s adjusted comparison of crypto projects.

The platform’s fee structure directs part of trading revenue toward its Assistance Fund, which purchases HYPE on the open market. Hyperliquid’s documentation lists maker rebates reaching negative 0.003% for qualifying high volume market makers, while accounts linked to more than 500,000 HYPE in staking can receive a 40% trading fee discount.

HYPE has traded near record levels during the expansion. CoinGecko data on Sept. 21 placed the token near $94 after it reached a record $92.56 on Sept. 18 and subsequently moved higher.

The Sept. 18 move coincided with Hyperliquid introducing manual borrowing that lets users supply HYPE or Bitcoin as collateral and borrow USDC or USDT. HYPE carries a 65% loan to value ratio under the system, compared with 50% for Bitcoin.

2 min read

The Bitcoin VIX. (TradingView, CoinDesk)Summary

Hyperliquid debuts perpetual futures to the Bitcoin Volmex Implied Volatility Index. These perps allow traders to bet directly on the magnitude of bitcoin’s price swings rather than its direction.Markets by Kinetiq led the listing with Volmex and Perps.fun, marking the first onchain perpetual futures market for Volmex’s Bitcoin volatility index.Perpetual futures on the Bitcoin Volmex Implied Volatility Index (BVIV) debuted on Hyperliquid on Monday, giving traders on the onchain exchange a way to bet on the degree, not direction, of bitcoin’s price swings.

The BVIV Index, often described as a "bitcoin VIX," tracks cryptocurrency's expected 30-day implied or expected volatility in real time. The index is analogous to Cboe’s VIX index, which tracks the 30-day implied volatility in Wall Street’s benchmark equity index, S&P 500.

The new perpetual market lets traders go long or short the volatility index directly, instead of having to express volatility views indirectly through options, an approach that is capital-intensive and requires derivatives expertise.

The launch comes as the digital-asset market becomes increasingly institutionalized, drawing in a broader mix of participants – from hedge funds, volatility traders, options-income sellers and beyond.

“The launch of BVIV Index perpetual futures on Hyperliquid is a massive unlock for crypto traders and investors," said Cole Kennelly, founder and CEO of Volmex Labs. "The market leading Bitcoin volatility index is now available to trade on the market leading onchain perpetual futures exchange, making it easy to hedge, speculate, and utilize pure Bitcoin volatility exposure."

The BVIV perpetual is collateralized and denominated in USDC, with up to 5x leverage available at launch. Seda's oracle infrastructure connects the Volmex index to the Markets exchange onchain.

Listing BVIV futures adds volatility indices to Hyperliquid's already packed roster of perpetuals tied to crypto, equities, legacy indices, and commodities. The exchange carries a fully diluted valuation above $90 billion.

Hyperliquid is the world’s largest decentralized exchange for perpetual futures, registering billions of dollars in trading volume per day. It has become a go-to place for traders to express their views, especially on weekends when traditional markets are closed.

The listing was led by Markets by Kinetiq, the onchain perpetual futures platform built on Hyperliquid, in partnership with Volmex and Perps.inc. It's the first market the three parties have co-deployed together, and the first time Volmex's Bitcoin volatility index got an onchain perpetual futures market.

"With Bitcoin Volmex Implied Volatility Index, and the co-deployment structure that made it possible, we're not just adding another ticker, we're proving out the model for how Markets by Kinetiq scales," said Justin Greenberg, co-founder and CTO of Kinetiq Markets. "Partners like Perps.inc and Volmex [are] bringing the products, and Markets [is] bringing the venue."

12345678910The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific

The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific

As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.

Sep 15, 2026

As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.

Why it matters:

As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.

Vivek Ramaswamy’s corporate Bitcoin treasury Strive acquired an additional 1,355 BTC for $107.7 million. After the latest purchase, the total Bitcoin holdings have reached 26,355 BTC. Moreover, ASST stock price also jumped more than 6% on Monday, extending its monthly rally to over 135%.

Strive Expands Bitcoin Treasury to 26,355 BTC According to an official announcement on September 21, the Bitcoin treasury firm purchased 1,355 BTC at an average price of $79,475 per coin between September 14 and 18. These BTCs were purchased using warrants, SATA, and ASST shares sold at-the-market (ATM) offerings.

Strive CEO Matt Cole said “Warrant exercises began last week, generating $21.2M in gross proceeds. Including those proceeds, 57.7% of total capital raised came from SATA proceeds.“

Strive acquired an additional 469 $BTC for $36.6M at an average cost of $77,954 per bitcoin, bringing total holdings to ₿25,000.

100% of the capital raised came from SATA, which now has over $1B notional outstanding.
We increased amplification ratio to 53.5%.$ASST $SATA pic.twitter.com/Nu3EYIBS4R

— Matt Cole (@ColeMacro) September 14, 2026

With the latest buy, its total Bitcoin holdings increased to 26,355 BTC worth $2.24 billion. Notably, cash and cash equivalents increased to $229.60 million.

Recently, Strive surpassed crypto exchange Bullish to become the 5th-largest Bitcoin treasury company in the world. Notably, Strive is even buying more BTC than Michael Saylor’s Strategy recently as the latter focuses on increasing cash reserves and STRC buybacks.

Vivek Ramaswamy’s Strive last acquired 469 Bitcoin for $36.56 million. The firm remains committed to acquire more BTC every week.

ASST Stock Rallies 135% in a Month ASST stock jumped more than 6.5% to $32.10 during the pre-market trading hours on Monday. This signals positive sentiment among investors as Bitcoin price jumped above $85,000 to a 9-month high today, triggering a crypto market recovery.

The stock has rallied more than 135% in a month and 103% year-to-date (YTD). The Bitcoin treasury’s CEO Matt Cole said ASST was the best “2nd-best-performing stock in the U.S.” after it surged over 135% in the past month.

Meanwhile, SATA preferred stock holds above $100 par value. It pays a daily dividend at an annualized rate of $13 per SATA share and an effective yield of 13% as of the latest market close.

Bitcoin price has also jumped 6% to over $85K, with a 24-hour low and high of $80,413 and $85,386, respectively. Moreover, trading volume has increased by 58% in the last 24 hours, indicating massive interest among traders.

Polymarket data shows a rise in prediction market participants expecting Bitcoin price to reach $100,000 by December.

Africa’s institutional crypto market just reached a new threshold.

South Africa’s Absa Corporate and Investment Banking has launched Absa Digital Asset Custody, a live institutional platform built on Ripple’s custody technology.

Absa CIB confirmed the go-live on September 21, 2026, calling it “a digital first for Africa.”

Ripple’s Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa, Reece Merrick, described the launch as a “major milestone” for bank-grade digital asset infrastructure on the continent.

From Partnership to Live Product: What Absa Is Now Offering The roots of today’s launch go back to October 2025. That is when CoinGape first reported Ripple’s 2025 Absa custody partnership, which outlined Absa’s plan to bring regulated digital asset storage to its corporate banking clients.

Today, that agreement has become a named product.

Absa Digital Asset Custody provides institutional clients with private-key management, transaction and approval controls, and bank-grade governance and compliance wrapping.

Introducing Absa Digital Asset Custody, bringing institutional-grade security, governance and control to digital assets.

A digital first for Africa, built to institutional standards.

Discover more: https://t.co/arLxCMibLs#InvestedInYourStory #AfricaExpertise pic.twitter.com/L4WHBjIXaf

— Absa Corporate and Investment Banking (@Absa_CIB) September 21, 2026

The platform is designed for clients who already trust Absa with traditional assets and now want the same security standard applied to digital holdings.

Absa is not positioning this as a trading venue. It is positioning it as a vault.

Robyn Lawson, Head of Digital Product Custody at Absa CIB, made the bank’s intent clear at the time of the original deal, clients needed “secure, compliant, and robust custody solutions.”

That language is now reflected in a live product page at cib.absa.africa. Absa says the platform covers safekeeping, key control, audit trails, and a familiar regulated counterparty.

Ripple provides the underlying custody software and blockchain broadcast capability. Absa provides the banking wrapper.

Merrick’s framing today is the commercial one. He wrote that Absa is now setting “a new benchmark for secure, compliant, and bank-grade digital asset management on the continent.”

That benchmark has been a deliberate goal. Ripple’s broader custody expansion has long been framed as a precondition for institutional adoption, not a side product.

A Bank-Custody Race With Continental Stakes Absa’s launch arrives during a global sprint among major banks to establish crypto custody. Deutsche Bank’s crypto custody plan was announced in the same week, covering Bitcoin, Ether, and select stablecoins for institutional clients.

The timing underscores a structural shift: large balance sheets want vaults before they want trading screens.

Absa Digital Asset Custody sits inside a wider Ripple infrastructure push across the continent. Ripple’s RLUSD push in Africa has extended dollar stablecoin rails through regional fintechs.

Ripple’s Chipper Cash payments deal connected African cross-border flows to the Ripple network. Ripple’s Flutterwave stake gave the company equity exposure to one of Africa’s largest fintech payment processors.

Custody completes that infrastructure loop. Payments move value. Stablecoins settle value. Custody now lets a regulated bank hold value.

Ripple has demonstrated the same custody-first model elsewhere. BBVA’s Ripple custody rollout brought Bitcoin and Ether custody to retail banking clients in Spain.

Ripple Custody in tokenized bond settlement showed the same rails applied to sovereign debt. Africa is now the third region where a major bank has taken Ripple custody to market.

The regulatory backdrop strengthens the case. SEC path for Ripple as a custodian opened the door for Ripple-adjacent institutions to operate as qualified custodians under US guidelines.

BNY Mellon as RLUSD reserve custodian established a high-trust institutional precedent for Ripple-backed assets. Absa Digital Asset Custody now adds a live African bank to that stack.

Whether Absa Digital Asset Custody expands beyond South Africa to Absa’s other African markets, and whether tokenized assets or stablecoins follow as product extensions, will define how significant today’s launch becomes.

From on-chain data to charting, explore these free crypto tools every investor should know.

Ethereum‘s price has climbed back above $2,500 after a sharp decline earlier this month. The cryptocurrency briefly touched $2,360 on September 16, then rallied to $2,668 before stabilizing near $2,600. Despite this recovery, ETH remains about 47% below its all-time high of roughly $4,946 recorded in October 2025.

Supply squeezes as exchange balances fallThe recent price recovery is closely linked to developments in ETH’s supply dynamics. Since May 2025, Ethereum exchange balances have dropped from 14.8 million ETH to 25.7 million ETH, representing a decline of 28%. This reduction indicates that fewer coins are readily available for immediate sale, which can have a significant effect on price movements, especially if investor demand rises.

A shrinking supply on exchanges means trading activity is more sensitive to shifts in sentiment and incoming demand, amplifying volatility on both the upside and downside.

Staking and ETF inflows strengthen locked supplyStaking activity has accompanied this outflow. Over the past year, the portion of ETH being staked increased steadily, rising from 29.8% in September 2025 to 35.56% as of September 18, 2026. Most staked ETH is effectively removed from active trading since participants lock their coins to support network operations and secure rewards.

Mini dictionary: Staking, the process of locking up cryptocurrency to help validate transactions and secure a blockchain network, often rewards participants with additional coins but removes those tokens from regular circulation during the staking period.

Funding rates are holding near 0.0046, suggesting that leverage in the market has not surged alongside increased staking. This points to a more stable trading environment compared to periods of high leveraged speculation.

Spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States have captured about $13.25 billion in net inflows, with total ETH ETF assets now standing at $16.7 billion. This figure amounts to roughly 5.2% of Ethereum’s market capitalization. Among these, BlackRock’s ETHA fund leads the segment with more than $9 billion in assets under management.

MetricCurrent ValueChange/NotesETH price$2,60047% below Oct 2025 peakExchange balances25.7M ETHDown 28% since May 2025Staked ETH35.56%Up from 29.8% last yearETH ETF assets$16.7B5.2% of market capETF inflows have fluctuated throughout September. More than $400 million flowed out midweek but was partially offset by a $143.8 million inflow on September 18.

Mixed outlook amid technical and network upgradesForecasts for ETH by year-end remain divided. Tom Lee of Fundstrat has suggested that ETH could reach $6,000 if bitcoin rises to $150,000 and the ETH/BTC ratio climbs to 0.04. By contrast, Arthur Hayes, former CEO of BitMEX and a well-known crypto investor, has signaled his optimism by making ETH his largest holding, saying a $10,000 price could be possible by late 2026.

Other analysts are more cautious. Geoff Kendrick, head of crypto research at Standard Chartered, maintains a target of $4,000 for ETH by the end of 2026. Citi analysts have even set a one-year target as low as $2,240.

Currently, ETH trades above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, at $2,272.50 and $2,076.10, respectively. Technical resistance is observed in the $2,655 to $2,672 range; a breakout above could pave the way for a move toward $2,800 or potentially $3,000, while a reversal might bring support back to the $2,400 mark.

Tom Lee projects that if bitcoin reaches $150,000 and the ETH/BTC ratio returns to 0.04, Ethereum could rise to $6,000 by the end of the year. Arthur Hayes, meanwhile, considers Ethereum his primary holding, viewing a $10,000 target as possible by the close of 2026.

Ethereum’s next planned network upgrade, Glamsterdam, is also approaching. The Sepolia testnet is set for October 6, with the mainnet upgrade expected in the fourth quarter of 2026. The update aims to boost transaction throughput, enable parallel execution, and expand blob capacity for increased efficiency.

As of September 20, Ethereum remains near $2,600, and the ETH/BTC ratio is approximately 0.032.

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According to official announcements, Ondo has announced that Ondo Stocks now supports physical conversion between underlying stocks, tokenized stocks, and ETFs, and has added a primary market issuance channel via Alpaca’s Instant Tokenization Network (ITN). Qualified institutions can use their existing stock assets to mint corresponding Ondo Stocks tokens, or redeem tokens to receive the underlying stocks. Specifically, after an institution initiates minting, its held underlying stocks are transferred via internal bookkeeping from an Alpaca account to Ondo’s Alpaca account, after which the corresponding tokens are issued on supported blockchains; the redemption process follows the reverse steps. This mechanism eliminates the need for manual approval for each transaction, making it easier for institutions to convert between traditional stock assets and on-chain tokenized assets, and is expected to boost secondary market liquidity for Ondo Stocks and narrow bid-ask spreads. Currently, this feature is only available to institutions approved by Alpaca, and is not a universal function of Ondo Stocks. Participating institutions must hold valid accounts with both Ondo and Alpaca, and complete the relevant onboarding and approval processes; the conversion function is now live on Ethereum and BNB Chain.

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Cardano just got plugged into the plumbing of the internet’s payment layer. The blockchain’s native integration into the x402 SDK means that applications and autonomous AI agents can now pay for API calls in ADA or Cardano-native tokens through ordinary HTTP requests, skipping the usual hassle of accounts, API keys, or subscription plans.

The merge into the official x402 repository landed around September 9, 2026, with Cardano Foundation engineers contributing the client, server, and facilitator components needed to make the whole thing work.

How x402 actually works The x402 protocol is built around a piece of web infrastructure that’s been collecting dust for decades: HTTP status code 402, literally named “Payment Required.” When HTTP was designed, 402 was reserved for future use.

The idea is straightforward. A server hosts an API. When a client, whether human-operated or an autonomous AI agent, makes a request, the server responds with a 402 status code indicating that payment is required. The client then constructs a signed transaction on the Cardano blockchain, sends it along with the request, and the server verifies the payment before delivering the data or service. No middlemen, no billing portals, no monthly invoices.

Cardano’s extended UTxO (eUTxO) model is particularly well-suited for this pattern. Transactions are user-signed and settle directly on-chain, meaning the payment and the proof of payment are baked into the same cryptographic step.

The integration supports Cardano’s mainnet along with the preprod and preview testnets, giving developers a sandbox to experiment before going live. Beyond ADA itself, the framework accommodates Cardano-native stablecoins including USDM, DJED, and iUSD, which matters for any use case where price volatility would make raw crypto payments impractical.

From third-party experiment to official standard This wasn’t Cardano’s first brush with x402-style functionality. Third-party projects like the Masumi Network had previously built x402 capabilities on top of Cardano. But those were independent implementations, not part of the canonical codebase.

The x402 Foundation, which operates under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation, oversees the protocol’s development. Having Cardano’s integration merged into this officially governed repository means it’s not a side project or a community fork. Cardano Foundation engineers didn’t just write an adapter; they contributed working examples that other developers can use as templates.

The AI agent angle x402 offers a model where an AI agent can encounter a paid API, evaluate the cost, sign a transaction, and proceed, all within a single HTTP request-response cycle. No OAuth tokens expiring at inconvenient moments. No webhook callbacks to confirm payment processed. The transaction is the authorization.

The stablecoin support is a pragmatic touch here. An AI agent buying weather data or language model inference probably shouldn’t be exposed to the volatility of a native token. Letting it pay in USDM or DJED while still settling on the Cardano chain captures the network effects without the price risk.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Key Highlights The privacy-focused token ZEC surged to a peak of $1,521 following an impressive 2,800% annual gain. Grayscale announced a 3-for-1 forward share split for its Zcash ETF, effective with split-adjusted trading on Sept. 30. The ZCSH fund has accumulated over $233 million in total inflows following its August 25 debut. Net assets under management approached $890 million with cumulative trading exceeding $11 billion. Market analyst Ardi observed simultaneous buying activity from retail investors, mid-tier traders, and institutional participants. The privacy token Zcash (ZEC) continued trading near all-time highs following its surge to $1,521, as interest in Grayscale’s corresponding exchange-traded fund continued growing.

Zcash (ZEC) Price The cryptocurrency focused on transaction privacy has experienced a remarkable 2,800% appreciation over the twelve-month period. This recent price action has drawn significant attention to both the underlying token and its ETF wrapper.

Grayscale has submitted documentation for implementing a 3-for-1 forward stock split of its Zcash exchange-traded fund, listed under the symbol ZCSH.

Investors holding shares at the market close on September 28 will receive two additional shares for each existing share in their portfolio.

The distribution of these additional shares is slated for after-hours on September 29. Trading reflecting the split adjustment will commence on September 30.

ZCSH fund sees $233 million in cumulative capital flows This corporate action will lower the per-share trading price while proportionally expanding the total share count.

To illustrate: a position consisting of 10 shares valued at $300 per share would transform into 30 shares priced around $100 each. The aggregate portfolio value remains constant throughout this process.

Since its market debut on August 25, ZCSH has recorded more than $233 million in aggregate capital inflows.

The investment vehicle registered a single-day inflow of $46.6 million on Wednesday, with an even larger $112 million influx documented on September 8.

By September 17, the ETF’s assets under management had climbed to approximately $890 million, while cumulative trading activity surpassed the $11 billion threshold.

Additional momentum arrived after Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang revealed his firm had acquired ZEC tokens, though the specific quantity remains undisclosed.

Purchasing activity emerges across multiple investor segments Cryptocurrency analyst Ardi documented evolving patterns in ZEC acquisition behavior through a social media update on X.

According to Ardi’s analysis, medium-sized market participants executing transactions ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 maintained upward pressure on the cumulative volume delta.

He further noted that smaller retail transactions under $10,000 and substantial orders between $100,000 and $10 million have joined the buying wave. During earlier rally phases, medium-tier participants had largely driven price appreciation independently.

Network mining operations have similarly intensified. The Zcash network’s solution rate climbed from approximately 25 GSol/s in late August to nearly 32 GSol/s, while mining difficulty reached roughly 291 million.

Current market conditions position ZEC close to its recent $1,521 high-water mark as ETF capital flows, diversified buying pressure, and elevated mining engagement continue supporting the ongoing rally.