By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
Major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin , rose following the Federal Reserve’s long-anticipated 25 basis-point rate cut and hints of additional easing by the year-end despite Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s more hawkish tone at the following press conference.
The CoinDesk 20 Index was recently up 3% over 24 hours with all members in the green.
Traders can now focus on crypto-specific developments. One standout is the SEC’s approval of “accelerated basis” listing standards for crypto ETFs, which cuts approval times to about 75 days from 240 days. A similar generic listing standard for traditional markets spurred a sharp increase in listings, as noted by Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas.
Another big story comes from DeFi giant Aave, which unveiled its V4 roadmap featuring a shift to ERC-4626 share accounting. Here’s the translation: Under Aave V3, if you deposited 100 DAI, the number of interest-bearing aTokens you hold would rise over time. With V4, you’ll still have 100 tokens, but the value of each token will increase instead.
This change promises cleaner integrations, easier tax treatment, and better compatibility with other DeFi protocols. The roadmap also signals a strategic pullback from less productive deployments on certain layer-2 and alternative layer-1 networks. The price of the AAVE token has risen over 4% in the last 24 hours.
In other news, decentralized blockchain bridge Wormhole announced new tokenomics, offering increased earning opportunities for token holders active in governance, along with a strategic reserve.
A popular post by pseudonymous observer G3ronimo made waves, arguing that Hyperliquid’s HYPE token is significantly undervalued. G3ronimo advocates using discounted cash flow (DCF) models over traditional multiples thanks to HYPE’s unique cash flow dynamics.
Across traditional markets, the dollar remains well above its July lows — suggesting the Fed’s rate cuts were already priced in. The yen weakened against the dollar ahead of Friday’s Bank of Japan rate decision, with expectations for steady rates and hawkish forward guidance. Stay alert!
What to Watch
- Crypto
- Macro
- Sept. 18, 7 a.m.: U.K. benchmark interest-rate decision Est. unchanged at 4%; followed by the release of MPC meeting minutes.
- Sept. 18, 8:30 a.m.: Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index Est. 2.3.
- Sept. 18, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. Initial Jobless Claims for week ended Sept. 13. Est. 240K.
- Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
- Sept. 18: Lite Strategy (LITS), pre-market
Token Events
- Governance votes & calls
- MantleDAO is voting on keeping the 2025-2026 budget at $52 million USDc and 200 million MNT. Voting ends Sept. 18
- Curve’s Michael Egorov proposed Yield Basis, a $60 million plan to fund bitcoin pools and give veCRV holders up to 65% of revenue. Voting ends Sept. 24.
- Unlocks
- Sept. 18: Fasttoken to unlock 2.08% of its circulating supply worth $89.8 million
- Token Launches
Conferences
Token Talk
By Oliver Knight
- The altcoin market staged a strong rebound following Wednesday’s oversold RSI readings, with several tokens posting gains in excess of 10%.
- Leading the rally is ether.fi (ETHFI), up 12% in the past 24 hours to $1.64, the highest since January.
- BNB also notched a milestone, breaking through $1,000 for the first time as momentum accelerates toward fresh record highs.
- The bullish backdrop comes as bitcoin creeps up toward $117,300, consolidating above critical support at $110,000.
- Meanwhile, bitcoin dominance slipped to 56% at CoinMarketCap, its lowest since early January, highlighting investors’ growing appetite for more speculative investments.
- The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has been one of the largest beneficiaries of Thursday’s move higher, with total value locked (TVL) across all protocols hitting $170 billion, the highest point since April, 2022.
- Hyperliquid’s layer-1 blockchain notched a record high of $2.77 billion having risen by 3.88% in 24 hours, while Sui’s TVL is up by 3% to $2.1 billion.
Derivatives Positioning
- BNB, AVAX, and DOT have all seen double-digit increases in futures open interest (OI) in the past 24 hours, reinforcing their price gains of 5% to 9%.
- BTC’s cumulative OI in USD and USDT-denominated perpetual futures continues to drop, diverging from the ascending price. Perhaps derivative traders are not participating in the rally. (Check out the Technical Analysis section.)
- BCH, TRX, BNB, BTC, XMR, AVAX, and SUI stand out with a positive open interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta, indicating strong buying pressure.
- There are no signs of overheating even in the further corners of the crypto market, as annualized funding rates for smaller speculative tokens remain at around 10%.
- On the CME, OI in ether futures is again closing on the 2 million ETH mark, while positioning in BTC futures remains considerably light. The annualized three-month basis for both tokens remains below 10%, offering significantly lower yield to carry traders than SOL’s 17% return.
- On Deribit, 25-delta risk reversals reveal a neutral to bearish (put) bias in options out to March expiry. In contrast, ether options are bullish across all tenors.
- Block flows on OTC network Paradigm featured demand for the $116K call expiring on Sept. 19 and the $100K put expiring on Oct. 31.
Market Movements
- BTC is up 1.43% from 4 p.m. ET Thursday at $117,327.22 (24hrs: +0.62%)
- ETH is up 2.09% at $4,597.79 (24hrs: +2.12%)
- CoinDesk 20 is up 2.9% at 4,400.70 (24hrs: +2.9%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 3 bps at 2.89%
- BTC funding rate is at 0.0093% (10.1583% annualized) on Binance
- DXY is unchanged at 96.89
- Gold futures are down 0.31% at $3,706.30
- Silver futures are up 0.19% at $42.23
- Nikkei 225 closed up 1.15% at 45,303.43
- Hang Seng closed down 1.35% at 26,544.85
- FTSE is up 0.38% at 9,243.77
- Euro Stoxx 50 is up 1.27% at 5,437.69
- DJIA closed on Wednesday up 0.57% at 46,018.32
- S&P 500 closed down 0.1% at 6,600.35
- Nasdaq Composite closed down 0.33% at 22,261.33
- S&P/TSX Composite closed unchanged at 29,321.66
- S&P 40 Latin America closed up 0.29% at 2,927.97
- U.S. 10-Year Treasury rate is down 3.3 bps at 4.043%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 0.85% at 6,715.50
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 1.03% at 24,717.00
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index are up 0.69% at 46,684.00
Bitcoin Stats
- BTC Dominance: 57.74% (0.1%)
- Ether to bitcoin ratio: 0.03922 (-0.56%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 980 EH/s
- Hashprice (spot): $54.76
- Total Fees: 4.50 BTC / $523,932
- CME Futures Open Interest: 144,440 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 32 oz
- BTC vs gold market cap: 9.03%
Technical Analysis
- The chart shows that while BTC’s price have risen over the past week, the cumulative open interest in perpetual futures listed on major exchanges has declined.
- The divergence indicates a lack of participation from derivative traders in the price rally.
Crypto Equities
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Wednesday at $320.56 (-2.24%), +2.26% at $337.17 in pre-market
- Circle (CRCL): closed at $131.04 (-2.8%), +2.07% at $327.18
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $33.01 (+3.71%), +2.57% at $33.86
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $54.35 (+5.82%), +10.4% at $60
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $17.34 (-1.08%), +2.02% at $17.69
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $17.62 (+0.57%), +2.55% at $18.07
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $16.27 (+0.56%), +2.09% at $16.61
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $11.44 (+2.14%), +3.67% at $11.86
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $41.15 (+3.24%), +5.22% at $43.30
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $28.24 (-4.92%), +4% at $29.37
Crypto Treasury Companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $329.71 (-1.61%), +2.26% at $337.17
- Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $27.68 (-4.91%), +3.36% at $28.61
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $17.12 (+1%), +3.04% at $17.64
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $6.08 (+4.55%), +5.51% at $6.42
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $2.61 (-2.97%), +8.81% at $2.84
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs
- Daily net flows: -$51.3 million
- Cumulative net flows: $57.29 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.32 million
Spot ETH ETFs
- Daily net flows: -$1.9 million
- Cumulative net flows: $13.68 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~6.59 million
Source: Farside Investors
While You Were Sleeping
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