Coinbase Sees $18.1B BTC and ETH Options Expire Friday
Summary : Coinbase Markets reported about $18.1 billion in BTC and ETH options due to expire Friday, Sept. 25. Its BTC open-interest put/call ratio was 0.66, with a 24-hour trading ratio of 0.37. ETH's open-interest ratio was 0.61, while its recent volume ratio was 0.55. Deribit's quarterly options are scheduled to settle at 08:00 UTC. Notional open interest does not equal premiums paid or cash that must trade at expiry.
CFTC Warns Prediction Markets Over Mention Contract Risks
Summary : CFTC staff warned federally regulated markets about manipulation risks in mention contracts. The products can settle on a named person's words, attendance or conduct. The advisory interprets existing obligations and creates no new rule or blanket ban. Recent enforcement against traders with inside access and control of outcomes shows the practical concern. Exchanges may need stronger contract-specific safeguards before listing these markets.
Summary : PermissionDelegationV1_1 had support from 29 of 35 trusted validators when its activation window began. The upgrade could activate around 11:18 UTC on Oct. 5 if support stays at or above 80%. Delegated accounts can receive up to 10 permissions without controlling the owner's main keys. A revised implementation follows a fee-draining flaw found in the earlier proposal. The amendment does not change XRP supply or guarantee a token-price response.
NEAR Spot Trading on Hyperliquid Opens Beside Perp Markets
Summary : Hyperliquid added a NEAR/USDC spot market alongside its existing NEAR perpetual contract. NEAR perpetual open interest was around $344 million in a Sept. 23 snapshot. Positive funding showed long-position holders paying shorts at that point in time. NEAR also recently expanded its Confidential Intents and Ondo integrations.
Hyperliquid Open Interest Record Tops $18B as Perps Surge
Summary : Hyperliquid reported a record $18 billion in bilateral open interest on Sept. 23. The prior $16.36 billion high was set on Sept. 19. Bitcoin, Ether and HYPE accounted for roughly $9.33 billion of positions in a later snapshot. HIP-3 expanded perpetual markets into equity, commodity and index references.
Summary : Solana is preparing its Alpenglow consensus upgrade for the public testnet. The design targets roughly 150-millisecond finality, versus about 13 seconds under the current process. Alpenglow replaces TowerBFT voting with a system called Votor. Agave 4.3 carries the test code; Firedancer and Frankendancer do not yet support it. Sept. 28 is a tentative date for Agave feature activation, not a confirmed Alpenglow mainnet launch.
Summary : Binance begins shifting non-stock crypto from Funding Accounts to Spot Accounts on Sept. 29. The Funding Account is scheduled to become a Stocks Account in January 2027. Six settlement assets may remain in the securities account, without direct onchain withdrawals from it. Advertisers on the P2P marketplace face a separate account transition beginning in December. Automatic migration is planned in batches, so customers need not move every balance manually.
Bitcoin Bull Cycle Could Gain 3-5x, Says CryptoQuant
Summary : CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju forecasts a 3-5x gain across the current Bitcoin bull cycle. He did not specify a starting price or say Bitcoin will multiply from today's level. His case draws on realized capitalization, holder profitability and institutional ownership. The MVRV ratio remaining above one is an observed feature of his analysis, not a guarantee of future returns.
Summary : Bitpace integrated Fireblocks into its cross-border business-payment infrastructure. Its platform supports more than 75 cryptocurrencies and 40 fiat currencies. Fireblocks reports more than $200 billion in monthly stablecoin volume across its whole network, not Bitpace alone. The companies did not give a Bitpace volume target or name the next jurisdictions it plans to enter.
BitMEX Closes Exchange, Keeps Withdrawals Available
Summary : BitMEX says exchange trading ceased at 04:00 UTC on Sept. 23 after more than 11 years. Customers may still sign in, check balances and withdraw available assets after trading ends. Remaining balances face account fees and some withdrawals may require renewed verification. API withdrawal access is scheduled to end at 04:00 UTC on Sept. 28, after which the website remains the withdrawal route. Civil claims involving past liquidations remain allegations, not findings of liability.
NEAR Opens 20 Tokenized US Stocks Through Ondo Intents
Summary : NEAR and Ondo added access to 20 tokenized U.S. equities, ETFs and commodity-linked funds for eligible users. NEAR Intents can route supported assets across more than 30 connected blockchains. U.S. persons cannot access Ondo Stocks under the product's current restrictions. Ondo's reported $1 billion in value locked applies to its wider securities platform, not this integration alone.
21Shares Launches Zcash ETP Across Euronext Exchanges
Summary : 21Shares launched physically backed Zcash and ether.fi exchange-traded products on Euronext Paris and Amsterdam. The products charge annual fees of 2.5%; ZCASH holds underlying ZEC through institutional custody. Each product began with 5,000 securities outstanding and around $100,000 in reported assets. Grayscale's U.S.-listed Zcash ETF began trading in August, preceding the European launch.
5th Fintech Week & Expo 2026 Heads to Frankfurt with Focus on AI, Innovation & Real-Time Payments
The 5th Fintech Week & Expo 2026 will take place in Frankfurt, Germany, on October 7–8. Organized by The People Events, the conference will bring together financial industry leaders to discuss artificial intelligence, real-time payments, digital banking, and financial crime prevention.
Coinbase Sees $18.1B BTC and ETH Options Expire Friday
Summary : Coinbase Markets reported about $18.1 billion in BTC and ETH options due to expire Friday, Sept. 25. Its BTC open-interest put/call ratio was 0.66, with a 24-hour trading ratio of 0.37. ETH's open-interest ratio was 0.61, while its recent volume ratio was 0.55. Deribit's quarterly options are scheduled to settle at 08:00 UTC. Notional open interest does not equal premiums paid or cash that must trade at expiry.
CFTC Warns Prediction Markets Over Mention Contract Risks
Summary : CFTC staff warned federally regulated markets about manipulation risks in mention contracts. The products can settle on a named person's words, attendance or conduct. The advisory interprets existing obligations and creates no new rule or blanket ban. Recent enforcement against traders with inside access and control of outcomes shows the practical concern. Exchanges may need stronger contract-specific safeguards before listing these markets.
They Returned 3,400 BTC and Kept 598.5. That's the Whole Case.
Summary : Immunefi CEO Mitchell Amador says the Liquid Network attackers became thieves the moment they kept 598.5 BTC after returning 3,400 BTC. Amador: "Coordinated disclosure ends the moment you set the terms yourself." He says protocols should define rescue terms and bounty caps before an exploit happens, not during one. The 10% bounty convention still has a role, but only when the protocol sets it in advance. Blockstream has rejected the 10% demand and refuses to pay for the remaining Bitcoin.
Half a $37M NFT Auction Rode Cross-Chain Intents. That's the Story.
Summary : Aurora Intents processed more than $19 million across 1,718 swaps for the zkSNARKS auction, over half of the $36.94 million submitted. USDC accounted for 27% of routed volume and native ETH 21%, with Solana the largest USDC source network. NEAR Intents solvers competed to fill each bid at a rate fixed before the user signed. Zcash shielded the destination-side bids, but source-chain transfers remained publicly visible. ZachXBT questioned the project's utility and the roughly $17 million retained after refunds.
PEPE Just Jumped 25%. The RSI Says Be Careful With That.
Summary : PEPE rose 24.75% on Sept. 21 to near $0.00000499, extending its seven-day gain to almost 40%. The breakout cleared $0.00000458 and lifted PEPE above its 20, 50, 100 and 200-day moving averages. The 4-hour RSI reached 82, deep in overbought territory, warning of a short-term pullback. CoinGlass shows the largest liquidation clusters below the market near $0.00000355 to $0.00000370. Analyst Crypto Patel lists $0.00001 as the first longer-term target if the higher-timeframe downtrend breaks.
Agora's Stablecoin Bank Just Cleared Its Biggest Regulatory Gate
Summary : Agora received preliminary conditional OCC approval to establish Agora National Trust Bank for stablecoin issuance and custody. Final authorization requires at least $10 million in Tier 1 capital, an OCC examination and preopening compliance. The bank must raise capital within 12 months and open within 18 months or the approval expires. Stablecoin operations must comply with the GENIUS Act and implementing regulations. The Sept. 18 decision came alongside approvals for Catena Trust Bank and Bastion Platforms Trust Company.
X Turned $BTC Into a Buy Button. Five Exchanges Are on the Other Side.
Summary : X launched its U.S. Cashtag Partner Program with Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Interactive Brokers and Moomoo. Users can tap $BTC or $TSLA, view live charts and posts, then select a partner to execute the trade externally. Kraken says its integration covers nearly 2,500 assets across its centralized and decentralized offerings. X previously estimated its April Cashtag pilot drove roughly $1 billion in global trading volume. Cashtags remain separate from X Money, and X has not disclosed referral or revenue-sharing terms.