Crypto faced two bad headlines and closed up anyway. BTC rose 5.53% to $81,091, ETH 6.35% to $2,634 and total market cap 6.03% to $2.777T. HYPE hit an all-time high of $94.23 and SOL added 11.5% to a seven-month high. Missing CLARITY. Cloture failed 49 to 50, eleven short of the 60 needed. Every Democrat who voted opposed it, along with four Republicans. The next realistic window is a lame-duck session or 2027. The agencies moved without Congres. The SEC's Innovation Exemption gave tokenized securities venues five years of relief from the exchange definition, and the CFTC shielded passive software providers the same day. Arbitrum gained 55% on the week, Securitize and Uniswap 37%. The Fed hiked 25bp to 3.75% to 4.00%, unanimously, its first increase since July 2023. Of the 18 dots submitted, 16 see another hike this year and four see two. Polymarket prices 55% for October 28 and 68% for December 9. BTC ETFs netted $6.1M, the smallest week since launch in January 2024. ETH lost $140.6M, its worst week since June 22. Prices rebound after FOMC BTC opened Monday at $76,842, closed Tuesday at $75,935 on the CLARITY cloture rejection, and continued to slide down to $75,383 ahead of FOMC. It gained 6.14% on Friday alone and closed Sunday at $81,091, up 5.53% on the week. ETH ran further, from $2,477 to $2,634, up 6.35%, with the same Wednesday low of $2,398. Total crypto market cap gained 6.03% to $2.777T. HYPE hit an all-time high of $94.23 on Friday against a prior high of $89.57. SOL added 11.5% to a seven-month high.
Equities saw a similar trend. On Wednesday the Dow lost 1.21% to 51,461, the S&P 500 0.45% to 7,551 and the Nasdaq-100 closed flat at 28,945, all three having been higher before FOMC. Thursday reversed most of it, with the Nasdaq 100 up 1.73% to 29,447 and the S&P 1.1%. Brent fell 2.16% to $100.75 as supply concerns eased. Saudi Arabia loaded more crude via Oman, product inventories built in the United States, Singapore and Europe, and China raised fuel exports. What happened during the week CLARITY fails its cloture vote On September 15 the Senate voted on cloture for the CLARITY Act. Sixty votes were needed to end debate on the motion to proceed and open the bill to floor consideration. It failed 49 to 50, eleven short. Every Democrat who voted opposed it, including the seven who negotiated the text and the ethics rewrite, and four Republicans joined them. Senators leave Washington in early October and do not return until after the November 3 midterms, so the realistic window now is a lame-duck session or 2027. Fed hikes The FOMC raised the target range 25bp to 3.75% to 4.00% on Wednesday, September 16, a 12-0 vote and the first increase since July 2023. Warsh said inflation has been too high for too long and pointed to too many categories running above 3% on both six and twelve-month horizons. The 2-year yield rose to roughly 4.73% and the 10-year held near 5.00%. The Fed’s dot plot revealed their projections. Of the 18 participants who submitted, 16 see at least one more hike this year and four see two. None sees a cut or a hold below the new range. Polymarket prices a 55% chance of a 25bp hike on October 28 and 68% on December 9.Â
The SEC and CFTC moves without Congress On Thursday, September 17, the SEC issued the Innovation Exemption. It grants two forms of temporary conditional relief. Tokenized Securities Venues are exempt from the definition of "exchange" for five years, letting them run secondary trading in tokenized NMS stocks through permissioned automated market makers. Liquidity providers supplying proprietary capital to those pools are exempt from dealer registration. Venues that believe they qualify need only notify the Commission before starting. The order is effective immediately and open for comment, with durable rule-making to follow. The same day, the CFTC's Market Participants Division issued a no-action position shielding passive non-custodial software providers from introducing broker and associated person registration. Both agencies moved inside 48 hours of the failed vote, signaling their desire for crypto regulatory clarity with or without Congress. Over the past week Arbitrum gained 55%, Securitize 37%, Uniswap 37% and Ondo 20%. Two more central bank meetings The BoE held Bank Rate at 3.75% on Thursday, a sixth straight hold, 6-3 with Pill, Greene and Mann voting for 4.00%. UK CPI hit 3.1% in August. Given hawkish pricing going in, the hold weakened sterling. The BoJ hiked 25bp to 1.25% on Friday, 7-2, its highest policy rate since 1995 and its sixth increase of a cycle that started at minus 0.1% in March 2024. It came three months after the last hike, against a prior cadence closer to one every six months. The yen weakened past 157 and the Nikkei gained 1.5%: the market read the split vote and the absence of updated forecasts as evidence the BoJ is not set up for back-to-back moves. Volatility, positioning and leverage BVIV sits at 37.44 against 40.51 at last issue's close, down 7.6% through the single most event-dense week of the quarter. It is now below the 38.86 low printed during the August CPI session and within two points of the August 7 low of 35.81. Two rate decisions, a failed market-structure vote and a regulatory reversal produced a lower implied vol than the week before them. Aggregate futures open interest is $148.2B against $133.4B last issue, up 11.1%, and the highest reading since January. BTC-denominated open interest has recovered from its September 13 low of 658.6K BTC to 690.2K, but that still sits below every daily reading since April. ETF flows fall flat BTC and ETH ETFs took $134.5M of net outflows combined, a second consecutive negative week and the smallest combined net flow in either direction in six weeks. BTC: +$6.1M. The smallest weekly net since BTC ETFs launched in January 2024. Do not mistake a small net for a quiet week. Daily prints ran from -$450.4M to +$433.0M, with nearly $1.5B moving in both directions across the five sessions to land on $6.1M. Tuesday's $450.4M outflow is the largest single day since June 25, and Friday's $433.0M erased most of it as BTC crossed $80K. ETH: -$140.6M. This is ETH's worst week since June 22. It also ends a four-week run of $1.94B of inflows. Despite seeing outflows, ETH still outperformed BTC from a price action standpoint.Â
The best performer of the week was Solana. Its ETFs saw $58.7M of net inflows. Cumulative flows across the six funds total $1,274.6M excluding $449.3M of seed capital. BSOL alone accounts for $1,090.1M, 86% of the category. Key events for the week ahead Monday, September 21 China: PBoC one-year and five-year Loan Prime Rate fixings, expected unchanged at 3.00% and 3.50% for a sixteenth month. US: Chicago Fed National Activity Index for August. Tuesday, September 22 US: Weekly ADP Employment Change data Wednesday, September 23 Global: S&P Global flash manufacturing, services and composite PMIs, US release 9:45am ET. Thursday, September 24 US: initial jobless claims, 8:30am ET. New home sales, 10am ET. Australia: August labour force report. Friday, September 25 US: advance durable goods for August, 8:30am ET.
85·AShort
n
news10h agonews
Eyes on the Market: Shrugging Off Bad News
Crypto faced two bad headlines and closed up anyway. BTC rose 5.53% to $81,091, ETH 6.35% to $2,634 and total market cap 6.03% to $2.777T. HYPE hit an all-time high of $94.23 and SOL added 11.5% to a seven-month high.
Missing CLARITY. Cloture failed 49 to 50, eleven short of the 60 needed. Every Democrat who voted opposed it, along with four Republicans. The next realistic window is a lame-duck session or 2027.
The agencies moved without Congres. The SEC's Innovation Exemption gave tokenized securities venues five years of relief from the exchange definition, and the CFTC shielded passive software providers the same day. Arbitrum gained 55% on the week, Securitize and Uniswap 37%.
The Fed hiked 25bp to 3.75% to 4.00%, unanimously, its first increase since July 2023. Of the 18 dots submitted, 16 see another hike this year and four see two. Polymarket prices 55% for October 28 and 68% for December 9.
BTC ETFs netted $6.1M, the smallest week since launch in January 2024. ETH lost $140.6M, its worst week since June 22.
Prices rebound after FOMC
BTC opened Monday at $76,842, closed Tuesday at $75,935 on the CLARITY cloture rejection, and continued to slide down to $75,383 ahead of FOMC. It gained 6.14% on Friday alone and closed Sunday at $81,091, up 5.53% on the week.
ETH ran further, from $2,477 to $2,634, up 6.35%, with the same Wednesday low of $2,398. Total crypto market cap gained 6.03% to $2.777T. HYPE hit an all-time high of $94.23 on Friday against a prior high of $89.57. SOL added 11.5% to a seven-month high.
Equities saw a similar trend. On Wednesday the Dow lost 1.21% to 51,461, the S&P 500 0.45% to 7,551 and the Nasdaq-100 closed flat at 28,945, all three having been higher before FOMC. Thursday reversed most of it, with the Nasdaq 100 up 1.73% to 29,447 and the S&P 1.1%.
Brent fell 2.16% to $100.75 as supply concerns eased. Saudi Arabia loaded more crude via Oman, product inventories built in the United States, Singapore and Europe, and China raised fuel exports.
What happened during the week
CLARITY fails its cloture vote
On September 15 the Senate voted on cloture for the CLARITY Act. Sixty votes were needed to end debate on the motion to proceed and open the bill to floor consideration. It failed 49 to 50, eleven short. Every Democrat who voted opposed it, including the seven who negotiated the text and the ethics rewrite, and four Republicans joined them. Senators leave Washington in early October and do not return until after the November 3 midterms, so the realistic window now is a lame-duck session or 2027.
Fed hikes
The FOMC raised the target range 25bp to 3.75% to 4.00% on Wednesday, September 16, a 12-0 vote and the first increase since July 2023. Warsh said inflation has been too high for too long and pointed to too many categories running above 3% on both six and twelve-month horizons. The 2-year yield rose to roughly 4.73% and the 10-year held near 5.00%.
The Fed’s dot plot revealed their projections. Of the 18 participants who submitted, 16 see at least one more hike this year and four see two. None sees a cut or a hold below the new range. Polymarket prices a 55% chance of a 25bp hike on October 28 and 68% on December 9.
The SEC and CFTC moves without Congress
On Thursday, September 17, the SEC issued the Innovation Exemption. It grants two forms of temporary conditional relief. Tokenized Securities Venues are exempt from the definition of "exchange" for five years, letting them run secondary trading in tokenized NMS stocks through permissioned automated market makers. Liquidity providers supplying proprietary capital to those pools are exempt from dealer registration. Venues that believe they qualify need only notify the Commission before starting. The order is effective immediately and open for comment, with durable rule-making to follow.
The same day, the CFTC's Market Participants Division issued a no-action position shielding passive non-custodial software providers from introducing broker and associated person registration.
Both agencies moved inside 48 hours of the failed vote, signaling their desire for crypto regulatory clarity with or without Congress. Over the past week Arbitrum gained 55%, Securitize 37%, Uniswap 37% and Ondo 20%.
Two more central bank meetings
The BoE held Bank Rate at 3.75% on Thursday, a sixth straight hold, 6-3 with Pill, Greene and Mann voting for 4.00%. UK CPI hit 3.1% in August. Given hawkish pricing going in, the hold weakened sterling.
The BoJ hiked 25bp to 1.25% on Friday, 7-2, its highest policy rate since 1995 and its sixth increase of a cycle that started at minus 0.1% in March 2024. It came three months after the last hike, against a prior cadence closer to one every six months. The yen weakened past 157 and the Nikkei gained 1.5%: the market read the split vote and the absence of updated forecasts as evidence the BoJ is not set up for back-to-back moves.
Volatility, positioning and leverage
BVIV sits at 37.44 against 40.51 at last issue's close, down 7.6% through the single most event-dense week of the quarter. It is now below the 38.86 low printed during the August CPI session and within two points of the August 7 low of 35.81. Two rate decisions, a failed market-structure vote and a regulatory reversal produced a lower implied vol than the week before them.
Aggregate futures open interest is $148.2B against $133.4B last issue, up 11.1%, and the highest reading since January. BTC-denominated open interest has recovered from its September 13 low of 658.6K BTC to 690.2K, but that still sits below every daily reading since April.
ETF flows fall flat
BTC and ETH ETFs took $134.5M of net outflows combined, a second consecutive negative week and the smallest combined net flow in either direction in six weeks.
BTC: +$6.1M. The smallest weekly net since BTC ETFs launched in January 2024. Do not mistake a small net for a quiet week. Daily prints ran from -$450.4M to +$433.0M, with nearly $1.5B moving in both directions across the five sessions to land on $6.1M. Tuesday's $450.4M outflow is the largest single day since June 25, and Friday's $433.0M erased most of it as BTC crossed $80K.
ETH: -$140.6M. This is ETH's worst week since June 22. It also ends a four-week run of $1.94B of inflows. Despite seeing outflows, ETH still outperformed BTC from a price action standpoint.
The best performer of the week was Solana. Its ETFs saw $58.7M of net inflows. Cumulative flows across the six funds total $1,274.6M excluding $449.3M of seed capital. BSOL alone accounts for $1,090.1M, 86% of the category.
Key events for the week ahead
Monday, September 21
China: PBoC one-year and five-year Loan Prime Rate fixings, expected unchanged at 3.00% and 3.50% for a sixteenth month.
US: Chicago Fed National Activity Index for August.
Tuesday, September 22
US: Weekly ADP Employment Change data
Wednesday, September 23
Global: S&P Global flash manufacturing, services and composite PMIs, US release 9:45am ET.
Thursday, September 24
US: initial jobless claims, 8:30am ET. New home sales, 10am ET.
Australia: August labour force report.
Friday, September 25
US: advance durable goods for August, 8:30am ET.
85·AShort
n
news15h agonews
ZEROBASE WEEKLY 9.14-9.20
ZBT traded in a $0.074–$0.083 range this week. It opened near $0.080 on September 14, slipped with the broader mid-week risk-off move to a low around $0.0744–$0.0746 on September 16, then recovered with the Friday–weekend bid and closed near $0.081–$0.082. Trading volumes remained decent through the dip and liquidity conditions stayed relatively stable, with bid-ask spreads holding at reasonable levels.
Crypto markets produced a two-act week: a sharp mid-week flush driven by policy and geopolitics, then a powerful late-week squeeze that reversed most of the damage. Total cryptocurrency market capitalization started the period near $2.65T–$2.69T, compressed during the Tuesday–Wednesday selloff, then expanded again as Bitcoin reclaimed $80,000, finishing closer to the $2.78T–$2.91T area by Sunday depending on the aggregator.
Bitcoin opened the week near $76,800–$76,840 on September 14 (Sunday close around $76,838), pushed to an early-week high near $79,500–$79,590, then sold off hard on September 15 to a weekly low around $74,940–$75,025. It baselined in the mid-$76,000s through the Fed decision, then accelerated on September 18, printing a high near $81,390–$81,925 and closing the week around $81,160–$81,270. That was a net gain of roughly 5.5–6% from the September 13 close and more than 8% from the weekly low.
Ethereum moved in parallel but with a deeper mid-week drawdown and a comparable rebound. It started around $2,477–$2,515, dipped toward $2,360–$2,372 on September 15–16, then rallied with a September 18 close near $2,608–$2,612 and finished the week around $2,630–$2,650 — a gain of approximately 6–7% from the weekly low and about 5–6% from the prior Sunday close.
Derivatives metrics reflected the same sequence. Liquidations clustered around the Tuesday flush (roughly $278 million in a single 24-hour window early in the week, with longs accounting for the larger share), funding rates on major pairs reset from mildly positive toward neutral during the drawdown, then flipped back as shorts were squeezed through $80,000. Open interest rebuilt into the Friday advance rather than collapsing, which is consistent with a squeeze-and-repositioning tape rather than a structural unwind.
Macro and geopolitical developments set the tone. Escalating Middle East supply risk — including disruption to a Saudi pipeline used to bypass the Strait of Hormuz — pushed crude sharply higher. Brent traded from about $105.85 on September 14 toward $109.20 on September 15 before easing to the $103–$104 area by September 20; WTI moved from about $101.50 to a mid-week peak near $106.37 and finished the weekend closer to $99.70–$100.
The oil spike transmitted directly into rates: the 10-year Treasury yield briefly broke above 5.00–5.04%, its highest print since 2007 on an intraday basis and the first sustained test of 5% since late 2023.
Policy delivered the second shock. On September 16 the FOMC, in a 12–0 vote under Chair Kevin Warsh, raised the federal funds target by 25 basis points to 3.75–4.00% — the first hike since 2023. The statement was terse and hawkish on inflation. The Summary of Economic Projections lifted 2026 PCE inflation to a 3.7% median, held unemployment near 4.1%, and put the year-end funds-rate median at 4.1%, implying at least one additional hike is the committee’s base case. Sixteen of 18 participants penciled in further tightening this year.
Crypto-specific politics compounded the mid-week risk-off. On September 15 the Senate rejected cloture on the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act by a 49–50 vote, removing a near-term path to federal market-structure rules. That session produced the week’s largest Bitcoin ETF outflow ($450 million) and a heavy Ethereum ETF redemption day as well.
U.S. equity markets finished mixed, masking a violent internal rotation. For the September 14–18 cash week the S&P 500 closed Friday at 7,650.50, essentially unchanged to down about 0.1% from the prior Friday’s 7,656.98 after an intraweek low of 7,507.77 on September 16.
The Nasdaq Composite finished higher by roughly 0.7% at 26,522.55, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped about 1.7% to 51,682.64 — a third consecutive losing week for the Dow. Chip and AI-hardware names led Monday’s decline after major AI lab leaders publicly called for a slower development cadence; Coinbase jumped 11.7% on Friday as crypto beta reasserted itself.
Institutional flows told the same two-act story. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs took in about $160 million on September 14, then lost $450 million on September 15 and another $296 million on September 16. Thursday recovered $160 million and Friday added $433 million — the largest daily creation since September 3 — leaving the complex barely positive on the week at roughly $6 million.
BlackRock’s IBIT led the weekly net (+$121 million), while Fidelity’s FBTC supplied $311 million of Friday’s print. Spot Ethereum ETFs opened with +$121 million on Monday, then posted three consecutive outflow sessions (including −$224 million on Wednesday) before a $144 million Friday rebound; the week still closed at about −$141 million, snapping a four-week inflow streak. Combined U.S. spot crypto ETF products finished slightly negative on the week.
Crypto Fear & Greed Index started Monday around 57 (greed), jumped to 69 on September 15 even as prices broke, collapsed to 50–51 through the Fed session, then recovered with the squeeze to 56 on Friday and 70–71 by the weekend.
On-chain and positioning data were more constructive than the Tuesday tape suggested. The mid-week dump was absorbed without a breakdown of the $75,000 area on a closing basis; exchange-traded product creations flipped back positive as soon as price reclaimed $80,000; and Bitcoin dominance held in the high-50s (roughly 57–59%) even as ether outperformed on the bounce.
Long-term holder distribution did not accelerate through the $75,000 test, and the Friday advance was accompanied by rising spot volume rather than purely derivative covering. Stablecoin capitalization remained near the $290–$305 billion zone, indicating dry powder was still in the system.
In summary, the September 14–20 period was a classic policy-and-oil shock followed by a positioning squeeze. The CLARITY Act failure and the first Fed hike in three years, layered on $105–$109 crude and a 5% 10-year, produced the week’s low. Once those events were digested, ETF demand returned, shorts covered, and Bitcoin closed the week above $81,000 with ether back above $2,600.
Higher energy prices remain an upside risk to inflation and therefore to the Warsh Fed’s rate path; the market is now trading that tension rather than a one-way risk-off regime. With ETF flows stabilizing, Fear & Greed back in greed, and on-chain holders not capitulating at the $75,000 test, the tape looks like consolidation at a higher range — still hostage to oil, yields, and the next Washington headline.
75·ALong
m
meme16h agomeme
quote: Remember @pendle_fi' TAM is not crypto yield. It is every asset with a future cash-flow stream that needs price discovery, a hedge, or a fixed-rate buyer.
Private credit, tokenized equities/dividends, infra, money-market funds, GPU financing etc. Basically issuers can tokenise each separately, but do not want to build a yield market from scratch. Pendle wants to be the common liquidity/rates layer and this NGI+ move is the first credible proof that Pendle can become the forward rates market for private assets.
This is bullish for $PENDLE cuz there is an upside chain👇
(1) A credible issuer sees Pendle as distribution + price discovery
(2) MM's and fixed income buyers build liquidity around PT/YT
(3) PTs become lending collateral and balance sheet assets
(4) The next issuer lists cuz the market already has users and liquidity
(5) More volume and yield fees support the buyback/distribution engine
Pendle has already showed that permissioned instances and a curator model are part of the RWA scaling path and that is essential in my opinion cuz serious private market capital will not necessarily enter a fully permissionless pool.
If Pendle can serve both open and permissioned structures, it becomes much harder to displace.
h/t to @Blockworks for the data | Partners Group's Next Generation Infrastructure strategy is now live on Pendle as NGI+ (10 Dec 2026 maturity).
@PartnersGroup manages $186 billion across private equity, infrastructure, private credit, real estate and royalties for institutional and private investors worldwide.
NGI+ is the onchain token linked to the NAV performance of Partners Group Next Generation Infrastructure, the firm's open-ended fund that invests alongside that flagship program.
Private infrastructure of this calibre has historically been reserved for pensions, sovereign funds and family offices, and is now readily available through Pendle x @AssetoFinance, opening access to the fund's $1 billion AUM onchain.
In 2.5 years, the fund has returned 48.8% net with volatility below 2.5%, returns and yield that can now be priced and traded around the clock on Pendle. Fixed rate is also now available for anyone looking to a lock in a return, which at time of writing is at 19%, higher than the fund's historical performance.
This listing marks the point where private markets and onchain fixed yield meet at institutional scale. Pendle is proud to have brought a Partners Group strategy onchain. As the world's largest asset managers tokenise their funds, Pendle is the infrastructure that turns those assets into tradable yield, and we look forward to unlocking more of them alongside partners like Asseto 🤝
0·-Neutral
m
meme9/20meme
I think a new phase of @pendle_fi has quietly started.
The latest NGI+ market is the signal.
Pendle just brought Partners Group’s Next Generation Infrastructure strategy onchain through Asseto.
NGI+ gives exposure to a private infrastructure strategy spanning 500+ underlying assets across data centers, power grids, energy infrastructure, transportation and other essential infrastructure.
Since February 2024, the underlying strategy has returned 48.8% net, with reported volatility below 2.5%. Its long-term target is closer to 10-12% annualized net returns.
What interests me is what happens after an asset like this comes onchain.
Asseto already handles the tokenization layer.
Pendle then takes that financial product and separates its principal from its future return, creating PT and YT markets that can be priced and traded independently.
That distinction matters.
Tokenization makes the asset exist onchain. Then, Pendle makes its future return tradable.
And NGI+ increasingly looks like part of a broader pattern rather than an isolated RWA experiment.
We’ve already seen Pendle expand from crypto-native yield into Treasuries, private credit, tokenized equities and now private infrastructure.
That’s the shift I’m watching.
The first phase of Pendle was about creating markets around crypto yield.
The next phase looks increasingly like creating markets around financial assets that happen to be moving onchain.
Much more interesting than simply “another RWA listing.”
0·-Neutral
n
news9/19news
THE BLOCK: Bitcoin ETFs managed to just bare finished the week in the green. Friday’s $433M inflow, led by Fidelity’s FBTC with $310.7M, erased earlier losses, leaving just $6.2M in weekly net inflows.
Ether ETFs weren’t as lucky: $140M in outflows snapped a four-week winning streak.