Analysis: Binance data shows Gen Z favors ETFs over leverage
Binance Research found that Gen Z users had the lowest turnover among working-age cohorts across direct equities, tokenized bStocks and TradFi perpetuals. ETFs accounted for 25% of their direct-equity trading volume in early August, up from 14.6% in June, while 76% of their bStocks accounts were net accumulators, the highest share of any generation. The findings cover a short period, and Binance's direct-equity product only reached scale in June 2026.
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $433 million in net inflows on Friday, Sept. 18, led by Fidelity's $310.7 million contribution. The inflow extended a two-day rebound, but the funds finished the five-session week with only $6.1 million in net inflows after earlier withdrawals. BlackRock's IBIT still attracted more capital than Fidelity's FBTC over the full week.
REX Shares and Tuttle Capital Management launched the T-REX 2X Long ASST Daily Target ETF, which began trading Friday on Cboe under the ticker ASSX. The fund seeks to deliver 200% of Strive's daily share-price performance before fees and expenses, but its daily reset means longer-term returns can differ significantly from twice the stock's performance.
Analysis: Circle uses Chelsea sponsorship to make USDC familiar
Circle announced on Aug. 28 that USDC and Circle branding will become Chelsea's principal front-of-shirt sponsorship across its men's, women's and academy teams for the 2026/27 season. The strategy is intended to make the dollar-linked stablecoin familiar to football fans, even if they do not understand or immediately use it. The deal also highlights questions about how financial products are marketed through football sponsorships.
Kalshi files for US single-stock perpetual futures
Kalshi filed a proposal to offer perpetual futures tied to individual US stocks, but the CFTC has not approved it. The contracts would have no preset expiration date and would use periodic funding payments to track the underlying stocks. The filing joins similar proposals from Coinbase and Bitnomial.
Hyperliquid and Uniswap tokens surge after SEC grants trading relief
Hyperliquid's HYPE token rose 78% over 30 days, while Uniswap's UNI gained 142%, after the SEC granted temporary, conditional relief for venues trading tokenized stocks. The order allows tokenized securities venues to trade National Market System stocks through automated market makers and liquidity pools. The rally also reflects rising trading activity and expectations surrounding Hyperliquid's possible US expansion.
Anthropic's potential $2 trillion IPO fuels an $80 million crypto trade
Crypto futures linked to Anthropic have reached about $79.27 million in open interest as traders position around a potential IPO that investors have discussed valuing at up to $2 trillion. The activity comes before Anthropic has disclosed an offering price, final valuation or number of shares, although the company confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the SEC in June. The Wall Street Journal reported that Anthropic plans to stage the IPO in November, later than the October timetable previously expected by investors.
Bitcoin ETFs finish positive after $433 million Friday inflow; ether funds lose $140 million
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs received $433 million on Friday, producing a $6.2 million net inflow for the week ending Sept. 18, according to The Block's analysis of SoSoValue data. Spot ether ETFs recorded a $140 million weekly outflow despite receiving $143.8 million on Friday, ending a four-week inflow streak. Fidelity's FBTC accounted for $310.7 million of the bitcoin funds' Friday inflow.
Fuel shortages hit five countries as Iran war reaches day 203
At least five countries were rationing fuel or reporting empty pumps as of September 19, while Brent crude traded near $110 this month. France, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nepal reported shortages, restrictions or disrupted supplies. The article links the pressure to reduced refined-product flows, disrupted shipping routes and domestic supply problems.
Analysis: AI is making scams cheaper and easier to scale
AI is reducing the cost of impersonation and persuasion, allowing small criminal operations to conduct more fraud without adding human workers. Chainalysis found average on-chain revenue of $3.2 million for scam operations with observed links to AI vendors, compared with $719,000 for operations without those links, although the data does not prove that AI caused the difference. As automated conversations become cheaper, defenses may need to focus more on stopping payments and recovering funds than on wasting scammers' time.
Clarity Act defeat shifts crypto rulemaking from Congress to regulators
The Senate failed to advance the Clarity Act in a 49-50 vote, leaving regulators to take a larger role in shaping crypto policy. SEC Chair Paul Atkins linked a new exemption for tokenized U.S. stocks to the bill's failure, while the CFTC issued no-action relief and sent a broader crypto markets rulemaking proposal to the White House for review. Details of the CFTC proposal are not yet public.
Solana breaks above $110 as ETF and staking inflows climb
Solana rose to $111.78, its highest level since January and 85% above its year-to-date low, after breaking above the $110 resistance level. Spot Solana ETFs recorded more than $28 million in inflows this month, while more than 439 million SOL tokens worth $49 billion were staked. Technical analysis in the article identifies a $150 target and says a drop below $96 would invalidate the bullish outlook.
VanEck said Metaplanet's executive equity exposure remains far above that of its digital asset treasury peers, despite a 41% reduction in the company's potential share pool. The asset manager rated Metaplanet's compensation structure "Bad" and said its 8.2% officer exposure and 14.7% equity plan remain excessive. VanEck called for a shareholder-approved compensation plan and changes linking executive pay to Bitcoin per fully diluted share.
Bitcoin's August rally was driven by short liquidations, report says
Bitcoin rose 24.6% over five days in August while coin-denominated open interest fell 12.6%, according to a Glassnode and Bybit report. About 64,000 BTC of open interest closed, and shorts accounted for 89% of liquidated dollars during the period. The report's data covered four crypto-native venues through the settled close of August 23 and excluded CME.
Analysis: What the failed Clarity Act would have done
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is dead, at least for now, after Congress considered legislation to define types of cryptocurrencies and related assets. The bill would have specified which regulators had authority over them. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has said the agency needed a law to support its work, but did not get one.
ZEC rally lifts Grayscale’s Zcash ETF to within $85 million of $1 billion
Grayscale’s Zcash ETF has accumulated $914.53 million in net assets, leaving it about $85 million short of $1 billion less than a month after its Aug. 25 listing. ZEC traded around $1,540 on Sept. 19, while futures open interest reached about $3.5 billion and trading volume exceeded $10 billion. Grayscale also announced a 3-for-1 forward split for ZCSH, with split-adjusted trading expected to begin Sept. 30.
Report: Visa moves to stop digital-media coding for memecoin purchases
Visa is moving to stop crypto payment processors from categorizing memecoin purchases as digital media, according to a Friday report from Crypto in America. The classification allowed users to buy memecoins with credit cards and earn ordinary points or cash back. The processors have an expected grace period ending next week, after which the purchases would be processed as typical cryptocurrency transactions subject to Visa's restrictions.
Hoskinson predicts crypto will absorb AI within five to 10 years
Charles Hoskinson argues that blockchain technology will eventually absorb artificial intelligence, with cryptocurrency serving as a coordination layer for payments, alignment, data provenance, governance and royalties. He expects this shift within five to 10 years and says data center spending is growing faster than electricity grids can support it while AI labs still need to become profitable. Hoskinson also predicts the CLARITY Act will not pass Congress until 2029, after the Senate failed to advance it on September 15 because it fell short of the 60 votes required.
Grayscale's ZCSH Zcash ETF filed for a 3-for-1 forward share split to reduce its per-share price as ZEC's value has surged. Shareholders of record at the close of trading on Sept. 28 will receive two additional shares for each share held, with split-adjusted trading scheduled to begin before market open on Sept. 30.
A Zcash short was closed at a $10.68 million loss this week after the token climbed 177.8% in a month. The largest open short on Hyperliquid shows an unrealized loss of $33.87 million. Buying activity included $98.2 million in weekly inflows into Zcash exchange-traded funds.