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The three major U.S. stock indices opened lower today. - S&P 500: -0.48% - Nasdaq: -0.52% - Dow Jones: -0.71%

Brazilian fintech firm NG.CASH said it raised $15 million in a strategic investment round led by Blockchain Capital, bringing its total funding since its 2021 launch to more than $65 million. NG.CASH holds lending and payments-related licenses from Brazil’s central bank and has applied for a virtual asset service provider, or VASP, license in the country.

A U.S. Senate investigation found 84% of 846 cryptocurrency wallets linked to Iran and sanctioned by the United States and Israel processed all or nearly all transactions in Tether's USDT, according to The Wall Street Journal. The WSJ said the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations identified USDT as a key payment tool for the Iranian regime and a financing channel for armed groups including Hezbollah. The report also criticized Tether for not freezing sanctioned wallets quickly enough, the newspaper said.

One Bitcoin has regained the value of 20 ounces of gold for the first time since January. The BTC/XAU ratio stood at 20.11591, meaning one BTC could buy about 20.12 ounces of gold.

Taiwanese singer Jeffrey Huang, better known as Machi Big Brother, opened a 40x leveraged BTC long position worth $8.31 million for 99.7 BTC at $83,007, according to Onchain Lens.

Bitmine added 17,362 ETH last week, bringing its total holdings to 6,001,302 ETH, according to a PR Newswire press release. Of that amount, 5,067,309 ETH is staked, representing 84% of its holdings. Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee said the company has reached 98% of its “Alchemy of 5%” goal, which targets ETH holdings equal to 5% of total supply.

Chainlink has launched cross-chain interoperability protocol CCIP 2.0, CoinDesk reported. The key change allows companies sending assets and messages across blockchains to add their own security validators or third-party validation providers on top of Chainlink’s default verification network. Under CCIP 2.0, Chainlink’s base verification network, made up of 16 independent node operators, continues to verify all transfers, while users can add separate validators to strengthen the security layer. Existing CCIP users were automatically migrated to the new version. Chainlink has not disclosed any institutions currently using the new external validators.

Cointelegraph highlighted three key themes to watch for Bitcoin this week: - the potential for Bitcoin’s third-quarter gain to reach its highest level since 2017 - the U.S. August PCE price index and September nonfarm payrolls data - whether BTC can hold the key support level at $82,500

Nasdaq-listed SOL treasury company DeFi Development, ticker DFDV, said it added about 47,706 SOL after Sept. 21, bringing total holdings to 2,538,010 SOL worth $309 million. The holding increased about 2% over the past week and by more than 226,000 SOL, or around 10%, since the company’s second-quarter earnings release on Aug. 12. The company said it uses its SOL holdings for staking and for operating its own validator to generate additional SOL and fee income.

HBAR has risen by 3.53% in the past five minutes on the COINNESS market. Currently, HBAR is trading at $0.12.

Oracle has linked its digital asset platform with SWIFT’s blockchain-based shared ledger to connect tokenized deposit systems across banks and integrate them with existing payment infrastructure, Solid Intel reported. According to Oracle, banks retain control over tokenized deposits and wallets while recording interbank payment obligations and transaction statuses in their internal systems, synchronizing that data with the SWIFT ledger, and completing settlement through existing real-time gross settlement systems or correspondent banking networks.

LINK has risen by 3.15% in the past five minutes on the COINNESS market. Currently, LINK is trading at $14.72.

Tether said it will work with digital asset infrastructure firm Shiga to build self-custodial financial products in Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council region. The two companies plan to develop products for retail, corporate, and institutional users based on Tether’s open-source Wallet Development Kit, or WDK. ENTA, aimed at retail users, high-net-worth individuals, and businesses, is designed to let users fund self-custody wallets with local currencies, U.S. dollars, and Bitcoin, then hold and transfer USD₮, Bitcoin, and Tether Gold (XAU₮). Pulse, an institutional platform for banks and fintech firms, will support the creation of digital asset products tailored to specific payment routes, treasury management needs, and payment and settlement flows. Shiga plans to offer two models that allow institutions to retain control over keys and data: using infrastructure managed by Shiga or operating the system directly in their own environments. Shiga is also undergoing final approval procedures for a Nigerian digital asset broker license, which would allow it to provide digital asset trading, brokerage, and custody services to retail and institutional clients if approved.

Strive added 1,107 BTC between Sept. 21 and 25, bringing its total holdings to 27,462 BTC, CEO Matt Cole said. The company spent about $94.5 million on the purchase at an average price of about $85,396 per Bitcoin.

Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin miner Bitdeer has signed a joint 28 megawatt mining agreement with Soluna Holdings and will deploy its in-house SEALMINER A2 Pro Air BTC miners at a wind-powered data center in Texas, the U.S., according to Crypto Briefing. Operations are set to begin in phases this month, which is expected to increase Bitdeer’s proprietary mining hash rate by about 1.93 EH/s. The two companies structured the deal to share mining revenue instead of using a standard hosting fee model.

Strategy bought an additional 1,666 BTC last week at an average price of $85,681, bringing its total holdings to 847,666 BTC, Unfolded reported. The company also repurchased 1.53 million shares of its STRC perpetual preferred stock last week for $151.7 million.

Bitwise sees NEAR Protocol’s NEAR rising to $155.85 by 2030 under its base-case scenario, roughly 30 times above current levels, according to CoinGape. Bitwise said the figure is not its most likely forecast and is instead based on a scenario in which NEAR grows into a major transaction and payments network for AI agents. Under that scenario, about 328 million AI agents, or roughly 2% of the projected global total of 16.4 billion in 2030, would use NEAR and each agent would process 1,000 transactions annually. Bitwise put its bull-case target at $562.81 and its bear-case target at $1.63. It cited support for the thesis including NEAR Intents having already processed about $30 billion in cross-chain transactions.

Franklin Templeton is operating an off-exchange collateral program that lets investors use shares of its tokenized money market fund as collateral for crypto trading on Bybit, CoinDesk reported. Investors can borrow USDT or USDC against the shares while continuing to earn yield on the underlying assets. The Franklin Templeton tokenized fund used as collateral has about $686 million in net assets. The underlying assets are held off-exchange at regulated custody platform ByCustody, while their value is recognized within Bybit’s trading environment to provide trading liquidity. The shares are issued through Franklin Templeton’s blockchain-based recordkeeping and transfer infrastructure, the Benji Technology Platform. Franklin Templeton already offers similar off-exchange collateral services on Binance and OKX.

Bitcoin has been showing weakness, but the options market has yet to show clear positioning for a full-blown sell-off, CoinDesk reported. Traders have not shown signs of aggressively buying protective put options. BTC’s seven-day skew, which reflects the price gap between put and call options, has declined recently, but put options are still not trading at historically significant premiums. 10x Research said put demand has been rising, while adding it remains unclear whether that reflects short-term hedging or a broader shift in market structure. The report added that Bitcoin’s implied volatility is near cycle lows while realized volatility is higher, suggesting some options are still trading at relatively low prices. From a technical perspective, $82,813 is being watched as a key support level. Holding that level could leave room for further gains, while a break below it could point to a deeper correction.

Veteran trader Peter Brandt said XRP could complete an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern that may lead to further gains if it decisively breaks through the $1.50-$1.55 range. According to The Crypto Basic, Brandt said he has been skeptical about XRP’s fundamentals, but the chart alone still provides a basis for a trade. The outlet added that XRP, currently around $1.52, needs to hold above $1.50-$1.55 for the pattern to be confirmed, with a typical pattern target implying a rise to $2.05-$2.10.

Citi will work with Coinbase to support stablecoin payments for institutional clients, Bloomberg reported.

On-chain analyst ZachXBT said signs have emerged that a group with Chinese roots was involved in laundering $387 million stolen from Bitget. The group identified as "Alias 4" was also said to have shown signs of involvement in laundering funds tied to the $292 million Kelp DAO exploit earlier this year. The stolen assets are currently being moved across multiple blockchains through chain-hopping via bridges, with flows into mixing services such as Wasabi also being observed.

Solana app revenue reached $49.9 million last week, the highest level since mid-2025, Jinse Finance reported. The figure was 2.6 times that of Hyperliquid and 3.9 times that of Ethereum.

U.S. Democrats are considering making President Donald Trump’s family cryptocurrency businesses and Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm 1789 Capital priority investigation targets if the party takes control of either chamber in the November midterm elections, Reuters reported. If Democrats win either the House or Senate, the party would gain subpoena power and could begin investigations as early as February next year.

QCP Capital said broad deleveraging is emerging across assets as global financial markets and the dollar index fall, pointing to a scramble for cash rather than a typical flight to safe-haven assets. The firm cited geopolitical uncertainty in the Middle East and concerns over energy markets as the main drivers. QCP said the U.S. formally rejected ceasefire terms over the weekend tied to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, reigniting fears of energy supply disruptions and sending Brent crude sharply higher. It added that volatility is likely to increase this week as key U.S. economic data, including the PCE price index and the nonfarm payrolls report, are due for release. The firm also said short-term implied volatility has risen in the crypto options market as sensitivity grows to the possibility of further monetary policy adjustments following the Federal Reserve's recent rate hike, while spot Bitcoin ETF fund flows have shown signs of slowing. If institutional inflows also weaken, Bitcoin could retest existing support levels, with its next direction likely to depend heavily on geopolitical developments and this week’s U.S. economic data.