Crypto news

Bitcoin is set to end the third quarter with a 44% gain, its best performance since late 2024, far outpacing gold (up 8.7%) and major stock indexes. The rally has been driven by oversold conditions, a short squeeze, and a recent regulatory tailwind from a U.S. SEC exemption allowing tokenized stock trading. Despite the surge, prices remain 48% below the record high of $126,000, and other tokens like ETH and SOL have gained up to 150%. While some analysts see a full-blown bull market, they caution against sudden pullbacks. Bitcoin has also cleared a key technical hurdle, closing above its 50-week moving average for the first time in 45 weeks, and faces limited overhead resistance between $84,000 and $97,000, potentially setting up a move toward six figures. Analysts identify Coinbase, Robinhood, and Circle as potential beneficiaries of the SEC's tokenized-stock experiment. Ethereum is expected to benefit disproportionately from the regulatory opening as the leading blockchain for tokenized assets.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies shares rose 6% to $27.42 on September 21, following the SEC's new Innovation Exemption allowing tokenized US stocks to trade on public blockchains. The company, holding nearly 6 million ETH (about 4.9% of supply), benefited from a broader rally in Ethereum-exposed equities, with Coinbase up 6% and SharpLink Gaming up 5%. Ethereum itself gained nearly 6% to around $2,727. The SEC's temporary framework, issued September 17, permits permissioned automated market maker liquidity pools for tokenized securities with full shareholder rights, but includes issuer opt-outs and reporting requirements. The measure is subject to public comment. Bitmine's large ETH stash makes it a direct proxy for Ethereum's value, while Coinbase is seen as a likely infrastructure provider for institutional tokenization. Risks include potential narrowing or revocation of the exemption after the comment period.

NEAR Protocol's token surged over 80%, from roughly $2.34 to $3.60, following the launch of its confidential perpetual futures trading product. The price jump increased NEAR's market cap from about $3.2 billion to $4.46 billion and drove 24-hour trading volume up 120% to exceed $1.24 billion. The new product integrates NEAR's Confidential Intents privacy layer with Hyperliquid's execution engine, offering up to 40x leverage across more than 50 markets while keeping deposit and holding details private. It launched around September 17, 2026, and quickly pushed total value locked in Confidential Intents to $70 million, triggering NEAR's @3.33 incentive program. The product is not available in the US or certain other jurisdictions.

Aurora Intents processed over $19 million of the $36.94 million total volume submitted for the zkSNARKS NFT auction on Zcash, completing 1,718 cross-chain swaps. Aurora Labs CEO Declan Hannon told crypto.news that the routed volume represented more than half of all assets converted into ZEC for the sale, which saw 16,971 bids for 8,000 assets at a clearing price of 1.5 ZEC each. Stablecoins led the conversions, with USDC accounting for 27% of Aurora's routed volume and native ETH contributing 21%. Users signed intents specifying a ZEC output and maximum spend, with NEAR Intents solvers competing to fill orders at pre-approved rates, eliminating post-signature slippage. While Zcash shielded the destination-side bids, source-chain transfers remained publicly visible on their respective networks.

Chainlink has introduced Project Pangea, a consortium of over 50 banks across 16 countries, to test T+0 atomic settlement for cross-border foreign exchange transactions. The initiative initially targets the EUR-KRW corridor, converting SWIFT instructions into on-chain payment-versus-payment swaps using regulated stablecoins. Chainlink's CCIP handles messaging, and Data Streams provides real-time FX pricing, enabling instant, around-the-clock settlement. The project, unveiled at the Point Zero Forum in Zurich, is anchored by Qivalis and UniKA, representing European and South Korean banks with combined assets over $10 trillion. By preserving SWIFT formats, it allows banks to use existing infrastructure. This move aims to eliminate counterparty risk inherent in current T+1 or T+2 settlement standards, addressing a problem highlighted by the 1974 Herstatt Bank collapse. Live, regulation-compliant transactions are planned within 12 months.

A trader with a previously impressive 89% win rate was forced to close a short position on Zcash (ZEC), incurring a $10.68 million loss as the cryptocurrency's price surged 177.8% over the past month. The trader, who had accumulated over $9 million in profit from 26 consecutive wins, saw their gains turn into a net loss of $1.57 million. The largest open short on Hyperliquid, held by Garrett Jin, is currently $33.87 million underwater on a 37,999 ZEC position. The ZEC rally, which has made it the strongest performer among the top 10 cryptocurrencies, is being fueled by significant spot buying from retail whales and institutional investors. Zcash ETFs saw $98.2 million in inflows in the week ending September 18, the largest among 14 products. Social volume for ZEC has hit a one-month high, with mentions on X running 6.8 times the 29-day baseline. Analysts are watching whether spot demand will hold, as open interest in ZEC perpetuals on Hyperliquid remains substantial at around $885 million.

Circle launched a Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing (DABB) feature on its Circle Mint platform, allowing eligible institutions to borrow USDC against their Bitcoin holdings without selling them. The service, live since September 2, 2026, uses Morpho as its first integrated lending market on both Ethereum and Circle's Arc chain. Institutions deposit BTC, which is wrapped into cirBTC collateral and used in Morpho vaults, with Chainlink providing proof-of-reserves verification. The service is not available to New York-based clients. On Arc's launch day, cirBTC-backed Morpho vaults attracted over $150 million in USDC and EURC deposits. Circle plans to expand to other protocols, including Aave. The move is seen as a way to seed activity on Arc and provide institutional Bitcoin holders with an alternative to selling during market cycles.

Bitcoin rose nearly 7% to surpass $86,000 on Monday, ignoring the failure of the Clarity Act, a major US crypto market structure bill, which was blocked in Congress last week due to Democratic objections over ethics concerns related to President Trump's family crypto holdings. The price reached $86,225 after touching an intraday high of $86,247. The rally follows a strong August performance driven by the Treasury's plan to expand liquidity support. Despite the legislative setback, regulators are advancing rulemaking, and US bitcoin ETFs saw nearly $593 million in net inflows on Thursday and Friday. Bitcoin's price was unaffected by the Federal Reserve's recent interest rate hike.

Grayscale's Zcash ETF (ZCSH) is nearing $1 billion in assets, reaching $914.53 million less than a month after its NYSE Arca debut. The fund's growth has coincided with ZEC's price roughly doubling to around $1,540, fueled by record futures open interest of about $3.5 billion. The rally follows Zcash holders voting to preserve the halving schedule and delay token reissuance until 2031, while also supporting faster block times under the NU7 upgrade. Grayscale announced a 3-for-1 forward split for ZCSH shares, effective after market close on Sept. 29, to lower the per-share price after the sharp rise. The split will not change the aggregate value of holdings. The fund remains about $85 million from the $1 billion milestone, though record derivatives exposure raises risks of rapid reversals that could impact its asset base.

Grayscale's spot Zcash ETF (ZCSH) on NYSE Arca has increased its ZEC holdings by 28.4% to 596,268.94 coins as of September 18, representing about 3.52% of the total circulating supply. The growth, driven entirely by in-kind transfers rather than open market purchases, included a roughly 85,705 ZEC deposit from DCG International Investments, Grayscale's parent company. The fund, the only listed spot ZEC product on a US exchange, has attracted over $70 million in early inflows, with assets under management now estimated between $876 million and $914 million. Grayscale also announced a 3-for-1 forward share split for September 28, while the fund maintains a 2.5% expense ratio and uses Coinbase Custody. Zcash's optional privacy features make it more institutionally palatable than other privacy coins. The concentration of nearly 3.5% of circulating supply within a single fund creates a notable supply constraint for the market.