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NYLI Management, an asset manager under New York Life, is tokenizing HYB, its U.S. corporate bond investment strategy fund, on Avalanche, according to a Centrifuge announcement. The product was tokenized through Centrifuge’s institutional fund infrastructure for real-world assets. Avalanche said NYLI’s tokenized fund expands the range of institutional assets moving on-chain beyond the U.S. Treasury and short-duration bond strategies that have led the tokenization market.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Sept. 17 it will ease regulatory requirements for passive software providers that meet certain conditions, allowing them to support futures and derivatives trading without registering as introducing brokers, or IBs. The CFTC’s Market Participants Division said it will not recommend enforcement action solely because a firm offering software that connects users with registered futures commission merchants, introducing brokers, or exchanges is not registered as an IB or as an associated person of an IB. The exemption does not apply if a software provider directly intervenes in individual orders or exercises discretion in trading, including by providing buy or sell signals. The measure expands similar relief the agency granted in March to self-custodial crypto wallet provider Phantom to a broader range of similar software firms. Eleanor Terrett, host of the U.S. podcast "Crypto in America," said the move shows the CFTC is providing regulatory clarity for the crypto market.

Abra said it expanded its partnership with Fireblocks so newly issued Strategy Tokens can be automatically transferred into a custody system operated by an institution regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services, according to Crypto Briefing. The move is intended to bring Strategy Tokens, a new type of digital asset product, into a compliant custody framework. Strategy Tokens are smart contract-wrapped synthetic assets designed to execute predefined trading strategies aimed at generating returns on behalf of holders.

The U.S. crypto industry now faces a prolonged lack of regulatory clarity after a Senate cloture vote on the CLARITY Act, a cryptocurrency regulation bill, failed on Sept. 15, according to CoinDesk. CoinDesk said the bill’s collapse has fueled industry concerns that capital, talent and technological innovation could flow from the U.S. crypto market to overseas markets with clearer regulatory environments. The outlet added that rulemaking by the U.S. SEC and the CFTC could help, but the two agencies’ regulatory jurisdiction also remains unclear. Legislation is still important to protect consumers and preserve the long-term competitiveness of the U.S. industry, CoinDesk said.

Crypto asset manager Grayscale said cryptocurrency regulation is still advancing despite the failure of a Senate cloture vote on the CLARITY Act on Sept. 15, a setback that blocked the bill from moving forward. Grayscale said the U.S. SEC on Sept. 17 announced conditional approval for on-chain trading of tokenized stocks, signaling that a crypto regulatory framework is being built in real time. Grayscale added that the industry needs a clear regulatory framework and said regulatory clarity can still be achieved even without the bill.

After the U.S. SEC approved a temporary conditional exemption, described as an innovation exemption, allowing limited trading of tokenized U.S. stocks in an on-chain environment, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said U.S. capital markets are moving toward broader 24-hour trading and tokenization could help make round-the-clock stock trading possible. Atkins added tokenization could enable "real-time inventory management" across the securities industry, improving trading efficiency, reducing settlement failures, and potentially mitigating risks tied to malicious naked short selling. Atkins said the ultimate goal is to eliminate those short-selling threats entirely and asked SEC staff to review measures needed to balance a market-growth-friendly environment with safeguards against harmful market behavior.

Layer-1 blockchain Injective announced via its official X account on Sept. 17 that it has launched the INJ token on the Solana network as part of its multichain asset expansion. At the same time, Solana-based INJ was listed on Sunrise, a trading platform connected to Backpack, a decentralized exchange in the Solana ecosystem. Injective said the move will allow Solana users to trade INJ directly and provide liquidity without crosschain bridging. According to CoinMarketCap, INJ was trading at $5.67, up 5.42%, at the time of writing.

Ric Edelman, founder of the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals, said in an appearance on Bitcoin Magazine TV on Sept. 17 that Bitcoin could reach $500,000 by 2030. Edelman said the forecast was actually lower than those of others and added that if the call proved wrong, BTC would more likely rise above $500,000 or reach that level before 2030. Edelman had also set a $500,000 Bitcoin price target in interviews with CoinDesk and other outlets in March.

Whale Alert reported that 268,000,000 USDC has been transferred from Coinbase Institutional to Coinbase. The transaction is valued at about $268 million.

U.S. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said the agency’s approval of a temporary conditional exemption, described as an innovation exemption, to allow limited trading of tokenized U.S. stocks in on-chain environments is an experimental, transitional regulatory framework for on-chain equity trading. Peirce said regulators are not assuming entities using the measure will necessarily be exchanges or dealers. Instead, the aim is to observe who actually uses the framework and how it operates before deciding the future regulatory direction.

WLD issuer World, formerly Worldcoin, announced on Sept. 17 via its official blog that it plans to launch World Money, a financial app integrating features including stablecoins, investing, deposits, virtual accounts and global payments. The service is set to roll out gradually across about 150 countries. World said the app was designed to let users handle everyday financial activities in a single app, including receiving salaries, holding assets, earning rewards, investing, making payments and sending digital assets globally. Users will be able to fund, hold and use digital assets through World Money, keep balances in U.S. dollar- and supported local currency-based stablecoins, and send or receive funds across borders for free using digital assets. Mini apps including Kalshi, Credit and MORPHO will also be available, World said. According to CoinMarketCap, WLD was trading at $0.3817, up 4.94%.

The U.S. SEC approved a temporary conditional exemption, described as an innovation exemption, on Sept. 17 to allow limited trading of tokenized U.S. stocks in on-chain environments, and Robinhood Crypto General Manager Johann Kerbrat said smart regulation can accelerate innovation. Kerbrat said the SEC’s innovation exemption makes him excited about what the company can build next. Kerbrat added the exemption also signals tokenized products are ready for a broader rollout in the U.S. market and said the move will help establish and develop a tokenized securities market with sufficient liquidity in the United States.

Bitcoin’s Bull Score Index, a gauge of bullish and bearish momentum, has fallen below 40 and entered bearish territory, AMB Crypto reported. The outlet said the indicator slipped to a bearish level as the U.S. Federal Reserve decided on its first benchmark rate hike since 2023. It added that while market participants had largely expected the increase, the possibility of additional rate hikes this year and whether quantitative tightening, or QT, resumes have emerged as new variables. If inflation and oil prices remain elevated, tighter liquidity could add selling pressure on BTC and altcoins, according to the report. AMB Crypto said that could leave BTC vulnerable to further selling pressure in the coming weeks and suggests the crypto market may not have formed a bottom yet.

Zcash (ZEC) continued its upward move and rose past $1.4K, according to CoinNess market monitoring. On Binance’s ZEC/USDT trading pair, ZEC was up 13.4% at $1,418.81.

Tenka, an on-chain liquidity platform for real-world asset-backed finance, has closed a pre-seed funding round, The Defiant reported. The round was led by crypto-focused investment firm Maven 11, with participation from Gami Capital and several angel investors. The company did not disclose the size of the investment. The proceeds will be used to build market infrastructure linking the issuance, investor distribution and trading of asset-backed financial products. Tenka is building a secondary market on-chain where investors can sell exposure to investments such as long-term loans and lease receivables to other investors before maturity.

Whale Alert reported that 200,009,999 USDC has been transferred from Coinbase Institutional to an unknown wallet. The transaction is valued at about $200 million.

A company official said the 1,292 BTC linked to Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings was not a purchase but Bitcoin returned in connection with a loan.

Ethereum’s next upgrade, 'Glamsterdam,' has successfully completed its Devnet-11 rehearsal ahead of its rollout on the Sepolia testnet on Oct. 6, CoinDesk reported. Nethermind client test results showed the network processed 570.7 billion gas over three minutes and 15 seconds and completed all 2,302 tests, averaging about 2.9 billion gas per second. Glamsterdam also raised the block gas limit to 200 million from 60 million about one hour after the testnet went live. With a 200 million gas limit, Ethereum can absorb more activity before users begin bidding fees higher to secure block space during trading surges or network bottlenecks, which can help ease spikes in transaction fees.

A HYPE whale sold $27.45 million worth of spot holdings today and continues to maintain a $30 million short position, according to Onchain Lens. The whale has been trimming the size of the HYPE short position, while current spot holdings stand at about 343,640 HYPE, worth $28.11 million.

Arc, a native layer-one blockchain in the Circle ecosystem, has adopted payment infrastructure firm Transak as its official on-ramp solution. The integration gives developers on Arc access through a single connection to payment rails that let users buy USDC directly with fiat currencies using cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. The setup allows users to convert local currencies directly into USDC and move funds into the Arc ecosystem without being redirected to an external site. Transak directly provides legal stablecoin payment and fiat-to-crypto conversion services in one U.S. state.

The three major U.S. stock indices opened higher today. - S&P 500: +1.2% - Nasdaq: +1.5% - Dow Jones: +0.9%

Arc Public Chain, a Circle ecosystem-based layer-one blockchain, has integrated with the Binance Wallet DeFi section, allowing users to provide funds directly to major DeFi liquidity pools on the Arc chain through the Binance mobile app without switching networks and to track and manage liquidity provider positions in real time.

Coin-margined futures, which use Bitcoin itself as collateral, now account for about 12% of the BTC futures market, down from roughly 70% in 2021, Crypto Briefing reported. The decline has broken the chain-reaction liquidation loop in crypto futures and significantly improved the market’s structural stability, according to the report.

Layer-1 blockchain Sui said it has been adopted as the core settlement infrastructure for Daya, an African cross-border payments platform. Through the integration, businesses in Africa can transfer stablecoins in real time without network fees and reallocate funds more efficiently for cross-border trade payments.

The U.S. SEC has approved a temporary conditional exemption, described as an innovation exemption, allowing limited trading of tokenized U.S. stocks in on-chain environments, Unfolded reported. The measure lets regulated traditional financial institutions and crypto platforms test and operate on-chain stock trading in a temporary sandbox format until formal rules are established. Only physically backed tokenized stocks carrying the same rights as conventional shares, including dividend and voting rights, are eligible for the exemption, while synthetic assets designed only to track prices are strictly excluded. If a third party tokenizes a stock, a security token exchange, or TSV, must notify the issuing company, and trading is barred if the company exercises its veto within 30 days. Limits also apply to the number of stocks each TSV can handle and to the share of daily trading volume, with the measure taking effect immediately for up to five years.