Cryptomarket

The Fed returns to monetary tightening after more than three years without an increase. Indeed, the US central bank raised its rates by 25 basis points, bringing their range to 3.75% - 4.00%, a first since July 2023. This decision is motivated by persistently high inflation, yet it did not automatically shake bitcoin. Despite a spike in volatility after the announcement, BTC stabilizes around 76200 dollars. Between monetary tightening and crypto market resistance, the Fed's decision now raises the question of the trajectory of rates.

While Washington is bogged down in its crypto regulatory framework and American bitcoin ETFs lose hundreds of millions, Deutsche Bank is moving forward. The German bank announces a crypto custody service for its institutional clients, planned by the end of 2026. Bitcoin, ether, stablecoins, Europe is banking cryptocurrency.

The US justice system wants to seize 61 million dollars in crypto allegedly from illegal Iranian oil sales. Two Chinese companies are accused of laundering these funds via Binance. Richard Teng denies any involvement of the crypto exchange but Binance’s Iranian history does not fade so quickly.

Solana has just activated on its mainnet an upgrade awaited for several months. The maximum size of a transaction increases from 1,232 to 4,096 bytes, or 3.3 times more space. The new v1 format has been active since the beginning of epoch 1,035 on September 15. For the crypto ecosystem, the change mainly targets operations too large to fit until now in a single transaction: zero-knowledge proofs, multisignatures, and new onchain signature systems.

Grayscale wants to shift crypto investment from a standalone product to a ready-to-use portfolio. The manager launched, on September 14, four models intended for financial advisors, built from several crypto-exposed ETPs. Weighting based on capitalization, quarterly rebalancing, asset cap: the offer provides an allocation framework without transferring the investment decision to Grayscale. A way to facilitate the integration of cryptos into wealth management while leaving advisors responsible for the final choice for their clients.

OpenAI will not go public in 2026. Sam Altman confirms it, security reasons oblige. But behind this virtuous discourse, Trump's ex-IA and crypto Czar, David Sacks, smells a cartel disguised as virtue. Meanwhile, the AI crypto market does not pause.

BNB Chain proclaims its top global position in RWA growth with +3.6 billion dollars in 2026. Impressive figure on paper. But on the same day, DeFiLlama shows Solana regaining the lead in crypto application revenues and DEX volume, far ahead. Two rankings, one real question: who generates the activity?

3.56 million dollars worth of LAPTOP have just gone up in smoke. Two mentions, those of Eric Trump and Beeple, were enough to validate the first two political bets of Hunter Biden's anti-Trump memecoin, burning 10 million tokens while the crypto token already collapses 99.8% since its launch.

A whale opened a long position of 911.55 BTC (70 million dollars) with a 40x leverage on Hyperliquid, less than 1% from its liquidation price. Meanwhile, Michael Saylor posts a minimalist tweet: "Just buy Bitcoin." Between extreme speculation and long-term strategy, here are the two faces of the crypto market.

Germany is ready to blow the whistle on its crypto tax haven status. A bill proposes a flat tax of 25% from 2028, compared to 0% currently after one year of holding. At the same time, in the United States, Jack Dorsey is calling for a federal banking charter to custody bitcoin and stablecoins. Two countries, two approaches to normalization.

In France, crypto taxation could involve $9.4 billion of taxable activity during the year 2025, according to data provided by Chainalysis. However, this amount does not constitute either hidden gains or an estimate of taxes lost by the State.

Solana strengthens its crypto transaction ceiling to catch up with Ethereum on complexity, during the same week Ethereum, on its side, is preparing the end of the obligation to hold ETH to transact. Two competing networks, two opposite strategic projects, and a shifting balance of power quietly taking shape behind the scenes.

Fomo surpasses Pump.fun in one day with 1.76 million dollars. But the PUMP token itself soars by 7.8%. Is the crypto market right to snub major press headlines?

Grayscale, a16z and the Crypto Council for Innovation ask the SEC not to automatically tighten the rules for the new generation of ETFs. The crypto sector especially refuses that Bitcoin, Ethereum or other digital assets be placed in the same category as private asset funds, leveraged strategies or event contracts. The three organizations want faster reviews tailored to the real risk of each product.

OpenSea puts Solana NFTs back at the center of its crypto strategy more than four years after a first failed attempt. The marketplace will again allow buying, selling and trading Solana collections. The launch was not yet active at the August 31 announcement, but OpenSea plans to open it this week. Mad Lads, Claynosaurz and several other collections should be available from the start.

Bitmine never lets up. Tom Lee's company has just added 131 million dollars worth of ETH to its treasury, its biggest weekly purchase since June, bringing its holdings to 4.9% of the total supply. And Tom Lee doesn't intend to stop there... He already sees further for Ethereum.

DeFi is rapidly recovering. The SoSoValue crypto index $DEFI.ssi has gained nearly 38% since August 17, rising from 0.3616 to around 0.498 after peaking at 0.511. The rebound of Bitcoin and Ethereum helped. But investors are also eyeing Washington: the new rules being considered in the United States could allow DeFi protocols to better redistribute their revenues to their tokens.

Zcash has just experienced a strange week. ZEC climbed about 72% between August 18 and 23, reaching 878 dollars. Discussions on social media exploded even faster. Then almost everything fell back before the launch of Grayscale's ETF on August 25. The price has since corrected by about 10%.

What if the bitcoin bull run no longer played out on Wall Street? While Ki Young Ju points internationally, Russia is already preparing to accept bitcoin as loan collateral. Two signals, one direction: adoption is scaling up, and the United States is no longer the only player at the table.

Kevin Warsh believes that artificial intelligence is likely to permanently change the growth potential of the United States. In his first speech at Jackson Hole as Federal Reserve chairman, he described the current period as a "turning point in history." However, he admits that the Fed still does not know when productivity gains will appear, how employment will progress, and which companies will capture the created value. These questions therefore do not yet influence rate decisions.

Two hundred and forty taxpayers in the United Kingdom have declared more than one million pounds sterling in crypto gains for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. These investors collectively realized 717 million pounds in capital gains, which is more than half of the total amount reported by all taxpayers involved. The term "crypto millionaires" however requires clarification.

On August 28, 81,700 options on bitcoin expire on Deribit. These options have a notional value of $6.44 billion. Indeed, the max pain price was located in the range of $68,000 to $70,000, well below the current bitcoin price. However, this key expiry did not trigger an immediate move towards this level.

Two entities from the crypto ecosystem, DefiLlama and the Web3 investment bank Forgd launch Universal Token Ratings, recently developed a ranking aimed at evaluating 128 tokens based on their market functioning and transparency. Uniswap is the only project to obtain the AAA rating, while 25 other cryptos received an AA. This system relies on the terminology of classical rating agencies but does not measure default risk. It mainly interprets liquidity, volumes, token unlocks, and the quality of information published by various projects.

During the recent market rally, altcoins accounted for nearly 65% of the volumes observed on the Binance exchange. This is their highest level in two years. Their cumulative valuation also increased by approximately 135 billion dollars. These data indicate that traders have increased their exposure to assets other than bitcoin and Ether. However, this is not enough to confirm an altseason, as the majority of large cryptos have not yet outperformed BTC over three months.

Disagreements between the United States and Iran suddenly take on a new dimension. Washington has launched its "economic D-Day" against Tehran, with a massive strengthening of secondary sanctions on international financial flows. This campaign by the U.S. administration now threatens liquidity circuits. Moreover, it puts pressure on actors using alternative transfer systems. Between sanctions, compliance constraints, and risks of financial disruptions, the crypto universe is directly exposed.

Solana has just shortened its block creation time to 350 milliseconds, a first step towards the ultimate goal of 200 milliseconds. Faster confirmations for crypto users, a clear roadmap... And as one signal never comes alone, SOL surged beyond 94 dollars.

Bitcoin flirts with $80,000 after a jump of $15,000 in just 48 hours. But the most interesting info is not the price: it is the greed of investors, rising faster and higher than ever this year. Warren Buffett would have advice to give. But no one seems to listen to him.

Solana has just risen back above $94 after briefly surpassing $100 on Friday. The SOL crypto even touched $102 before pulling back. The movement is impressive, but a good part of the activity comes from derivatives products. The open interest now reaches $5.81 billion. Many positions thus remain open.