Cryptoasset

China tackles an old reputation of crypto. For its Ministry of State Security, using Bitcoin or other digital assets is not enough to disappear from the radars. Public transactions remain on the blockchain, exchanges often know their customers, and conversions to traditional currency can leave new traces. Beijing talks about fraud, money laundering, ransoms, and even espionage. The observation holds quite well for Bitcoin. For all crypto, it is already less simple.

Bitget resumes withdrawals after a $388 million crypto hack, as investigators trace stolen funds and scrutinize weaknesses in third-party security.

CoinMarketCap acquires Coinglass, expanding its crypto data offering while raising fresh concerns over market data concentration.

Circle and Tether froze on Friday part of the assets of an address linked to the Bitget hack, about 318,000 dollars of stablecoins. The amount remains marginal compared to the 387.5 million dollars stolen. Most of the loot is held in ether, an asset that no issuer can block.

Real world assets tokenized (RWA) on Solana have just reached a new high. Their value rose to 4.6 billion dollars on September 23, according to RWA.xyz data. At the same time, the number of wallets holding these assets nearly doubled in one month.

Sequans Communications sold its last 314 BTC and officially ends its Bitcoin strategy. The French group now holds no crypto on its balance sheet, after owning more than 3,200 BTC at the peak of its accumulation. This exit comes at a bad time for all treasury companies: according to DWF Ventures, only 4 of the 20 largest companies in the sector still trade above the value of their crypto assets. The premium that fueled their purchases is seriously starting to disappear.

The Russian Ministry of Finance estimates crypto assets held by Russians at 44 billion dollars. The figure, based on expert estimates, is much higher than the data published by the Central Bank.

Cryptocurrency holding is declining among American investors. According to a Gallup survey published on September 21, 11% of them reported holding cryptos in June, down from 17% a year earlier. Despite this decline, bitcoin has strongly rebounded since the survey period.

Donald Trump Jr. finds himself at the center of a new offensive in the U.S. Senate. Republican John Curtis, elected from Utah, is asking the judiciary committee to investigate the potential use of family ties to the presidency for financial purposes. He also wants Donald Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden to be subpoenaed to testify. For Donald Trump’s son, the senator notably cites his crypto activities, his links with predictive markets, and certain benefits received from foreign personalities. At this stage, it is a request for investigation, not a conclusion about possible offenses.

The European Central Bank is preparing its first direct investments in tokenized securities. A small portion of its own funds will be placed in bonds and other euro-denominated securities, mainly issued by eurozone states, public agencies, and European institutions. The amounts and date of the first purchases are not yet fixed. Settlements will go through Pontes, the new infrastructure launched by the Eurosystem on September 21. For institutional crypto finance, the ECB no longer just observes tokenization: it now wants to use it itself.

Bitcoin opens a new week above 80,000 dollars after briefly plunging towards 75,000 dollars during the Federal Reserve's decision. The economic calendar seems lighter, but three appointments stand out: a series of interventions from Fed officials, the first US PMIs for September on Wednesday, and the meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping on Thursday. Last week, the US central bank raised its rates by 25 basis points, for the first time since July 2023. The Bitcoin market must now digest this return of monetary tightening.

Since September 15, Robert Kiyosaki claims that "the biggest crash in history" has already started. According to him, the movement started from Europe and Japan before gradually spreading to other markets. Some bond indicators give weight to his concern. For the rest, the data does not yet show a scenario of widespread panic.

VanEck is this time attacking Metaplanet's governance, not its Bitcoin strategy. The manager believes that the Japanese group's stock compensation plan remains far too generous despite two adjustments made since August. The pool still represents 14.7% of the fully diluted capital, while executives' exposure reaches 8.2%. Metaplanet has nevertheless reduced the number of potential shares related to this mechanism by 41%. For VanEck, the account still does not add up.

Using Ethereum is much cheaper than in the spring. The average cost of an ETH transfer fell to around 0.095 dollars, compared to a peak of 0.72 dollars on April 21, according to Santiment data. The drop therefore exceeds 85%. It comes as demand on the mainnet has calmed, but also after several months of technical improvements. Fusaka, blobs, and Layer 2 have given more capacity to the crypto network.

Arbitrum regains activity after several turbulent weeks. The ARB crypto gained 12.18% in 24 hours, with $561.52 million traded. The movement mainly comes as Arbitrum's monthly revenues are estimated at around $5 million at the current pace, more than five times their level before the launch of Robinhood Chain. For once, the crypto market rebound comes with a fairly clear improvement in the network's figures.

X accelerates its rapprochement with trading. The social network partners with Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Interactive Brokers and Moomoo to allow users easier access to trading platforms from Cashtags displayed in posts. A new step that brings market discussions closer to order execution.

Zcash is preparing to drastically reduce the time between its blocks. During the vote organized around the NU7 upgrade, 99.9% of expressed ZEC supported the shift from 75 to 25 seconds. Holders also chose at 98.9% to keep the current halving schedule. About 2.4 million ZEC participated in the vote, out of 3.6 million eligible at the snapshot. For this privacy-focused crypto network, NU7 thus affects both performance and the future issuance of ZEC.

The US Senate is set to vote this Tuesday, September 15 at 2:15 PM Washington time, or 8:15 PM in Paris, on the progress of the CLARITY Act, presented as a major text aimed at establishing a comprehensive framework for crypto markets in the United States. This procedural vote requires 60 votes to allow the bill to continue its legislative journey. Republicans, who hold 53 seats in the Senate, will therefore need to gain support from several Democrats or independents. A failure would strongly compromise the adoption of the bill before the end of 2026.

The digital ruble recorded 87,000 account openings in ten days after its nationwide rollout on September 1. Over 50,000 transactions have also been made, according to Elvira Nabiullina, governor of the Bank of Russia. This represents about 8,700 new accounts per day. The project now coexists with the Russian crypto market, even though it is not a cryptocurrency: the digital ruble is issued directly by the central bank.

Wealth managers are preparing to increase their crypto exposure as ETPs gradually make digital assets easier to access through traditional investment channels.

Bitwise will close BWOW, its Dogecoin ETF launched at the end of November 2025. The fund held only about 688,000 dollars in net assets as of September 9, according to data cited by Cointelegraph. Its last session on the NYSE Arca is scheduled for October 14, then the remaining investors will be reimbursed in cash around October 22. Less than eleven months were therefore enough to end this crypto experiment.

The links between crypto and traditional finance are becoming significant enough to attract more attention from the European regulator. In its risk monitoring report published on September 10, ESMA calls for close monitoring of this interconnection. Tokenized stocks, DeFi and prediction markets are directly cited. The regulator does not yet speak of an established systemic risk, but rather new channels capable of transmitting a crypto shock to the rest of the financial markets.

Liquid Network has resumed producing blocks after the attack that allowed the creation of nearly 4,000 LBTC not backed by bitcoins. The network is operational again, but users must still wait before they can make transactions or convert their BTC into L-BTC.

Scott Bessent puts the CLARITY Act back at the center of the American crypto agenda. The Treasury Secretary asks senators to stay at the negotiating table and advance the bill as soon as they return to Washington. The Senate resumes its work on September 14, with a procedural step expected on the 15th. The bill aims to create the first comprehensive federal framework for the structure of the crypto market in the United States.

Consensys Software Inc. announced on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, its split into two independent companies. The parent company will be renamed MetaMask and led by Joe Lubin. Protocols and institutional infrastructure will be part of a new Consensys. The official statement does not mention any IPO, while speculation is already running towards 2027.

Iran loosens part of its currency controls and allows more room for crypto in its international exchanges. According to the Financial Times, exporters can now use their foreign revenues to directly finance imports and resort to Bitcoin or USDT for certain cross-border settlements. Nearly 9.9 billion dollars of crypto activity had already been attributed to Iran in 2025. The Iranian Central Bank has not publicly commented on these new rules.

Bitcoin fell back to around $78,300 on September 8 after surpassing $82,000 last week. Ethereum trades near $2,480, XRP around $1.39, and Solana loses about 2% on the day. The decline affects the entire market, but it does not yet resemble capitulation: crypto capitalization falls by about 0.4%. Oil near $100, high bond yields, and the return of expectations for U.S. rate hikes explain much of the movement.

Bitcoin has just recorded a technical change that Bitfinex had been expecting for several days. According to the exchange, BTC's weekly Super Trend has become bullish again for the first time since the start of the downward trend. The signal comes after the powerful rebound in August, which had brought the price from the $63,000 area to over $80,000.