Market highlights
- The U.S. SEC approved generic listing standards, sparking a flurry of crypto ETF applications.
- Several crypto figures have alluded to “massive political news” for BTC on September 23.
- WLFI network will launch buyback and burn program following a successful governance vote.
- Forward Industries surpassed US$1 billion Solana holdings in its corporate treasury.
- Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade is scheduled for mainnet activation on December 3, 2025.
- Rex-Osprey’s XRP ETF launch saw US$38 million in inflows on launch day.
Markets Overview
As anticipated, the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted to cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 4.00% – 4.25% this week. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the decision was a “risk management cut” due to the weakening labour market. The market widely expects a further 50 basis points of cuts before year-end. Heading into 2026, the FOMC’s dot plot shows division amongst its 19 members over its rate cut trajectory. Risk assets were unfazed by the potential uncertainty, with the S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones closing the week at record highs.
Other central banks also met this week. The Bank of Canada cut its overnight rate to 2.5%, while the U.K. and Japan left rates on hold at 4% and , respectively.
Weekly performance: S&P 500 +1.2%, Dow Jones +1%, Nasdaq +2.2%.
Looking ahead:
- U.S. Fed Chair Powell speaks – September 23
- Flash manufacturing and services PMI (France, Germany, U.K., U.S.) – September 23
- U.S. final GDP q/q – September 25
- U.S. core PCE price index.- September 26
Crypto Market Sector Performance
Most sectors saw declines this week, presumably due to the sell-off throughout the weekend. While rate cuts can be bullish for risk assets, as liquidity eventually flows down the risk curve, the underlying economic weakness, due to the contracting U.S. labour market, may have driven the pullback. To begin the week, US$1.7 billion of long crypto positions were liquidated, the biggest liquidation event since March.
Crypto Market Sector Performance (7D)
Market sector performance – 23 September, 2025.
Bitcoin (BTC)
- Opened the week at US$115,314 and rallied to a weekly high of US$117,998 on Thursday, September 18, on the Fed’s rate cut (-2.4% 7D).
- Price has since pulled back to around US$112,500, presumably as the FTX Recovery Trust announced it will repay US$1.6 billion to creditors by the end of September, the liquidation of US$1.7 billion in long crypto positions, and the crypto market’s anticipation of rumoured political news for BTC on September 23.
- BTC dominance hovered between 57.2% and 58.4% this week.
- Bitcoin investment products saw US$977 million in inflows this week.
Several high-profile crypto figures have alluded to “massive political news” for bitcoin on September 23. Dennis Porter, CEO and Co-Founder of the Satoshi Action Fund, said Tuesday’s announcement will shape the “trajectory of bitcoin politics”, while Tether’s Paolo Ardoino posted on X that “bitcoin is certainty”.
Michigan’s House Bill 4087 advanced to the Government Operations Committee on Thursday. If passed, the bill would permit up to 10% of state funds to be allocated for the acquisition of bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets. Provisions regarding safety, including custody and the protection of private keys, aim to address weaknesses that led to similar bills in other U.S. states being rejected.
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty reached a new all-time high of 142.3 trillion, an almost 30% increase since January. The rising difficulty is typically a sign of an increasingly strong network, forces less efficient miners to go offline, and can coincide with further BTC price gains as mining new blocks becomes more challenging.
In bitcoin buying news:
- Metaplanet purchased 5,419 BTC, bringing its total holdings to 25,555 BTC, worth approximately US$2.9 billion.
- Strategy acquired 850 BTC, bringing its total holdings to 639,835 BTC at an average purchase price of US$73,971 per bitcoin.
- Strive, backed by Vivek Ramaswamy, will acquire Semler Scientific in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately US$1.34 billion. The combined company will hold 10,900 BTC, worth US$1.2 billion, once the deal is complete.
Bitcoin – 23 September, 2025.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Ethereum (ETH)
- Opened the week at US$4,605 and declined to around US$4,350 as the crypto market rallied for a short time and then sold off following the U.S. rate cut (-7.3% 7D).
- Ethereum dominance declined from 14% to just over 13% this week.
- Ethereum-focused funds saw inflows of US$772 million this week.
Asset manager Grayscale reportedly moved 40,000 Ethereum to position itself for staking rewards. The move signalled to markets that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may soon approve Ethereum staking in exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade is scheduled for mainnet activation on December 3, 2025. The upgrade will address 11 backend Ethereum Improvement Proposals focused on scalability and efficiency, including PeerDAS and phased “blob capacity” increases, which allow rollups to post transaction data to the network at lower costs. Testnets will go live in October.
The Ethereum Foundation launched a full-time AI team called “dAI”, led by Ethereum core developer Davide Crapis. Its near-term goal is to develop ERC-8004, a standard to enable identity verification and interoperability for AI agents. The team also aims to establish Ethereum as the settlement and coordination layer for decentralised AI.
In Ethereum buying news:
- BitMine provided its latest holding update, which includes just under 2.2 million ETH, worth US$9.7 billion.
- SharpLink announced that it has bought 931 ETH since August 31, bringing its total holdings to 838,152 ETH, valued at around US$3.7 billion.
Ethereum – 23 September, 2025.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Altcoins
The altcoin season index declined last week to 65, as the broader crypto market pulled back following the FOMC’s September meeting.
Going PRO
- Propy (PRO) grew by 26%. The on-chain real estate platform gained on its Kraken listing going live on September 17.
Multi-chain gains
- Nomina (NOM) (formerly Omni Network) gained 25% on the successful launch of its rebrand and unified trading platform. The platform is the first unified trading platform built for perpetual future decentralised exchanges.
DeFi-ing the odds
- Aevo (AEVO) grew by 21.3%, presumably as a result of its post on X about Binance’s Changpeng Zhao (CZ) being invested in the layer-2 derivatives trading platform.
Buyback and burn
- World Liberty Financial (WLFI) declined by almost 3% on the week despite gaining over 6% on news that the network will begin a buyback and burn program using its liquidity fees. The program was approved via a governance vote, with 99.8% of voters in favour of the plan.
Perps
- Avantis (AVNT) grew by 66% as decentralised exchange (DEX) tokens saw a surge this week. AVNT gained, even with a large airdrop targeting 65,000 wallets. Whale activity on the network also points to smart money positioning for potential upside.
- Aster (ASTER) grew by 1766% as its DEX platform surpassed US$3 billion in daily perpetual futures trading volume. Supportive X posts from CZ further fueled the rally. ASTER’s airdrop was one of the largest in Defi, with 53.5% earmarked for allocation, and almost 330,000 new wallets created on the network.
Crypto ETF News
Digital asset investment products saw inflows of US$1.9 billion this week due to the hawkish stance from the FOMC’s September 17 meeting. The inflows saw total assets under management reach a year-to-date high of US$40.4 billion.
Rex-Osprey’s XRP ETF and DOGE ETF launched this week. Dogecoin (DOGE) gained 8% on launch day, while XRP gained 2% on its September 19 launch. The firm’s XRP ETF is the first spot fund providing exposure to XRP and the most successful crypto ETF launch this year, bringing in US$38 million of inflows on launch day. The firm is also working on a leveraged ETF product, the Rex-Osprey DOJE Growth and Income ETF. The fund will pay weekly distributions by selling calls, targeting 1.05 to 1.5 times Dogecoin’s daily movements.
The U.S. SEC approved Grayscale’s Digital Large Cap Fund (GDLC), which provides exposure to bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana and Cardano. It will be the first multi-asset ETF on the market.
Tidal Financial Group submitted three leveraged ETF filings: the AltAlt Season Crypto ETF, which will initially track the performance of XRP and Solana, the Quantify 2X Daily Alt Season Crypto ETF, which will initially track the performance of ETH, XRP and Solana, and the Quantify 2X Daily All Cap Crypto ETF.
In other filings, Bitwise filed with the U.S. SEC to launch an Avalanche ETF and a Stablecoin and Tokenisation ETF. Defiance filed to launch ETFs built around BTC and ETH basis trades. And, finally, Tuttle filed to launch “Income Blast” funds which cover Bonk, Litecoin and Sui, while T-Rex filed for a leveraged 2x Orbs ETF.
Other crypto news
- The U.S. SEC approved generic listing standards for commodity-based trust shares. This means that applications for exchange-traded products that hold spot commodities and meet the generic listing standards can proceed directly to listing on exchanges. Eligible assets must already trade on regulated markets or be backed by an existing ETF. While the update didn’t specifically mention altcoins, several funds submitted applications this week in the hope that the crypto ETF approval and listing processes will become faster.
- The U.S. Senate confirmed Stephen Miran to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in a 48-47 vote on September 15. Miran has historically been in favour of deregulation and supporting crypto innovation. Democrats have raised conflict-of-interest concerns as Miran plans to remain in his role as Chair of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, despite currently taking unpaid leave from the position. Miran will serve on the board until January 31, 2026.
- Solana corporate treasuries experienced significant growth this week. Medical design firm, Forward Industries, surpassed US$1 billion in holdings, purchasing almost 7 million SOL, while the company debuted a US$4 billion at-the-market offering two days later. Medical technology company Helius bought 760,190 SOL valued at US$168 million. Finally, Kraken’s former chief legal officer, Marco Santori, was named CEO of a new Solana treasury company, Solmate. The company announced a US$300 million raise to fund its SOL treasury, which saw its stock gain 500%.
- Fellowship PAC, a new U.S. political action committee, has launched with over US$100 million committed to backing pro-crypto, pro-innovation candidates. It registered with the Federal Election Commission on August 7, focuses on supporting predictable crypto regulation, and aims to prevent talent and companies from relocating overseas.
- The U.S. and the UK have established the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future to align crypto regulation and facilitate cross-border capital flows. Led by both nations’ treasury departments, the group will produce policy recommendations by March 2026, focusing on stablecoins, tokenisation, and innovation sandboxes.
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