Live Feed

Bitcoin may have already formed the bottom of this cycle after one round of investor capitulation when it fell to around $60,000 in February and another near $58,000 in June and July following months of sideways trading, Checkonchain founder James Check said, according to Cointelegraph. Check said roughly $300 billion worth of Bitcoin was concentrated in the $58,000-$70,000 cost-basis range for buyers, and about 4 million BTC later shifted from unrealized losses into profit. He stressed that investor cost basis, profit-and-loss conditions, and accumulation and selling by long-term holders matter more than a four-year cycle.

Binance said it will continue pursuing a license under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, Cointelegraph reported. Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, had asked Greek Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi not to approve Binance’s MiCA license application. Responding to that report, Binance said it would not comment on speculative coverage and is seeking a MiCA license to operate in Europe over the long term in compliance with regulations. Binance had previously said in June it withdrew its application in Greece and would pursue authorization in another EU member state.

The U.S. Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4.00% on Sept. 16, but DeFi stablecoin deposit yields may not rise in tandem, CryptoSlate said in an analysis. On the same date, the one-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed to 4.45%, raising the benchmark for comparing returns on crypto deposits. According to CoinMetrics, Aave’s USDC deposit yield this year averaged 31 basis points below the one-year U.S. Treasury yield and trailed it during 78% of the period surveyed. Anthony DiMartino, co-founder of Sentora, said the correlation between SOFR, a U.S. short-term interest rate benchmark, and CDOR, an on-chain borrowing rate indicator, is very low, indicating the Fed’s rate hike is unlikely to significantly push up on-chain rates. DiMartino added DeFi deposit yields are driven more by lending demand in the crypto market and deleveraging than by monetary policy.

U.S. asset manager Rex Shares is launching ASSX, a leveraged ETF designed to deliver twice the daily return of Strive (ASST), a Bitcoin treasury company, BitcoinTreasuries.net reported. The product aims to track two times ASST’s daily share-price moves.

South Korean exchange Bithumb said it will delist Gala (GALA) at 6:00 a.m. UTC on Oct. 19 after concluding the token no longer met its listing support standards. Bithumb said materials submitted by the foundation were not sufficient to resolve the issues behind the trading warning designation, and that a broader review of timely disclosures on key virtual-asset matters, as well as the transparency and reasonableness of procedures for changing important matters, found the token did not satisfy the criteria for continued trading support. Separately, South Korean exchange Coinone announced an extension of Gala’s delisting watchlist designation today.

Crypto analyst Murphy (@Murphychen888) said Bitcoin is unlikely to reenter a bear market immediately even if the U.S. Federal Reserve begins raising interest rates. Murphy said past cases suggest the pace of tightening, rather than the fact of rate hikes itself, and the structure of BTC holdings are the key factors shaping market direction. During the Fed’s total 425-basis-point rate hikes in 2022, BTC fell from about $41,000 at the time of the first hike to $15,800. In 2023, by contrast, BTC rose from $16,500 to $42,000 even as rates were raised four times by 25 basis points each, Murphy said. Murphy added that Bitcoin’s current structure looks more similar to early 2023 than to the period of the first rate hike in 2022, as the asset has spent about six months forming a bottom range and gone through repeated capitulation, with a substantial reshuffling of holdings.

Billionaire investor Kevin O'Leary said adoption of blockchain by major stock exchanges would mark a turning point for the crypto industry. According to The Block, O'Leary said he has recently been investing in new cryptocurrencies and is watching which blockchains companies across industries choose going forward, while Ethereum has not secured large-scale adoption cases over the past year.

Samsung Electronics is hiring a senior manager to lead stablecoin payment partnership development for Samsung Wallet, according to a Workday job posting. The role involves developing partnerships with card issuers, payment companies, fintech firms, stablecoin providers and buy now, pay later companies to expand Samsung Wallet usage, improve customer retention and drive monetization. Samsung Electronics had previously said it plans to introduce stablecoin account opening, cross-border remittances and payment functions for Samsung Wallet in some countries within this year.

Binance announced support for the merger of the STG token into ZRO. As part of the process, Binance will delist all STG spot trading pairs, including STG/USDT, at 3:00 a.m. UTC on Oct. 6 and will automatically cancel all pending spot orders.

If BTC falls below $75,629, about $1.19 billion in long positions on major centralized exchanges could be liquidated, according to Coinglass. A move above $78,417 could trigger the liquidation of about $387.45 million in short positions.

Japanese police announced, in coordination with multinational investigative agencies including those in the U.S., that a North Korean cyber group known as WaterPlum was found to have stolen large amounts of crypto assets worldwide by posing as headhunters. According to KBS News, Japan’s National Police Agency said WaterPlum siphoned off 1.7 billion yen ($11.5 million) in crypto assets in 7,000 cases across more than 100 countries and regions, including Japan, from December through July.

According to CoinNess market monitoring, BTC has risen above $78,000. BTC is trading at $78,030.26 on the Binance USDT market.

Global meme coin-focused layer-one project Memecore (M) said on X that Hyundai Motor will take part in its MAGICORE event this month. Memecore said Hyundai plans to present its "Progress for Humanity" vision at the event.

South Korean exchange Bithumb announced it has placed D, the token of Dar Open Network, and HOOK, the token of Hooked Protocol, on its delisting watchlist. The exchange said the designation followed a comprehensive review of each project’s business status and key initiatives, and it determined that the tokens lacked utility or showed weak business performance in multiple areas.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority plans to launch a wholesale central bank digital currency for interbank settlements by the end of this year as part of Project Ensemble TX, Ledger Insights reported. The wCBDC is intended to support 24-hour settlement of tokenized deposit transactions, including settlement for tokenized government bonds.

Hanwha Financial affiliates, including Hanwha Life and Hanwha Asset Management, are expanding cooperation with financial institutions in Abu Dhabi, UAE, in digital finance areas including stablecoins. Hanwha Life said today it signed a partnership with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office at the Abu Dhabi Investment Forum (ADIF) held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Seoul on Sept. 16, according to The Korea Economic Daily. The two sides plan to focus their cooperation on three areas: building a digital finance ecosystem, strengthening links between South Korea and Abu Dhabi in financial and capital markets, and digital banking.

Whale inflows of XRP to Binance have reached their highest level in six months, according to an analysis by on-chain data platform Arab Chain. Over the past 30 days, about 1.6 billion XRP flowed from whale addresses to Binance, the largest amount since March. Rising exchange inflows can be interpreted as a factor that increases potential selling pressure.

South Korean exchanges Upbit and Bithumb said they will delist ICON (ICX) at 6:00 a.m. UTC on Oct. 19.

Hyperliquid announced on X that it has launched a manual borrowing feature for portfolio margin. Built on its existing HyperCore infrastructure, the feature lets users post HYPE and BTC as collateral and borrow USDC or USDT. Borrowers pay interest on USDC and USDT, while users supplying those assets can earn interest.

South Korean exchanges Upbit and Bithumb announced on their official websites that they have extended the delisting watchlist period for ZIL and MANTRA.

Bitcoin’s monthly chart has produced a golden cross in the Fisher Transform indicator, marking the fourth bottom signal in history, on-chain analyst Willy Woo said on X. Woo added the signal does not necessarily indicate an immediate trend reversal or buying opportunity. Price could move sideways for a period before continuing its existing trend, and there have also been cases in bull markets where the Fisher Transform turned back to a golden cross after first forming a dead cross.

Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at asset manager VanEck, said Bitcoin could reach $100,000 next year. In an interview with CNBC, Sigel said Bitcoin’s volatility has fallen by about 50% from four years ago, while excessive government debt and persistent fiscal concerns are supporting the price. He added policymakers are unlikely to fix an unsustainable fiscal structure in the short term, and if liquidity conditions ease further, Bitcoin’s uptrend could strengthen. Sigel also said institutions ranging from investment advisory firms to sovereign wealth funds are buying Bitcoin, while the options market is showing a higher premium for put options than for call options. He added short covering tied to the U.S. Treasury’s bond buyback program is also affecting the market.

According to Dune data, cumulative UNI burns have reached about 112 million, equal to 11.2% of the token’s maximum supply. On Sept. 4 alone, about 184,000 UNI worth $1.564 million was burned.

South Korean exchange Bithumb announced it will temporarily suspend LUNA2 withdrawals from 9:00 a.m. UTC on Sept. 21 due to a LUNA2 network upgrade.

Charles Schwab said a U.S. House Financial Services Committee vote advancing a strategic Bitcoin reserve bill could mark an important first step toward establishing a legal framework, Bitcoin Magazine reported. On Sept. 16, the committee passed the Reserve Modernization Act (H.R. 8957), which would formalize a strategic Bitcoin reserve, by a 28-21 vote. The bill would place Bitcoin obtained by the federal government through seizures and similar means into a strategic reserve managed by the Treasury Department. To become law, the measure must still pass the full House and the Senate before being signed by President Donald Trump.