Bitcoin and the crypto market

Bitcoin rose above $79,000 on Sept. 14 before falling below $75,000 the next day amid the CLARITY Act’s failure. It later recovered to $78,000 and stood at $80,362 at the time of writing, according to TradingView.

The cryptocurrency showed little reaction after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised its interest-rate range by 25 basis points, from 3.5%-3.75% to 3.75%-4%, at the Sept. 16 Federal Open Market Committee meeting. It was the Fed’s first rate increase since July 2023, and bitcoin remained near $76,000 after the announcement.

CryptoQuant analysts said bitcoin’s advance lacked sufficient spot demand and increasingly resembled the January-March 2026 period, when derivatives played a larger role. They said buying was driving higher trading volumes, potentially indicating an early bull phase, but advised focusing on risk management until spot demand becomes sustained.

Santiment and CryptoQuant also identified possible changes in bitcoin and Ethereum’s market structure. Exchanges held about 6.06 million ETH, 73% less than in June 2020, amid increased staking, exchange-traded funds, treasury strategies and long-term holding. Wallets containing 10 to 10,000 BTC reduced their balances by 0.20% over three weeks, while holders of up to 0.01 BTC increased theirs by 0.09%.

Wintermute said the crypto market had entered a neutral phase after spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $463 million in net outflows during a shortened holiday week, their first weekly outflow since June. The firm said ETF inflows had helped bitcoin rise from $63,000 to $82,000 and that the reversal was followed by a decline of about $3,500. Bitcoin has traded between $76,000 and $82,000 for about four weeks and has retreated from the upper boundary three times since August, Wintermute said.

Grayscale research head Zach Pandl told Incrypted that bitcoin’s late-June low near $58,000 marked the bottom of the current bearish phase. He said Grayscale viewed the long-term structural trend, market-cycle stage and macroeconomic backdrop as favorable and was giving clients the “green light” to invest in digital assets.

CLARITY Act fails in the Senate

The Senate voted 49-50 to end debate and move to consideration of H.R. 3633, with one senator not voting. The procedural motion required at least 60 votes.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said the current CLARITY Act did not adequately address national security, consumer protection, illicit finance or government officials’ crypto investments. She said she was prepared to work with Democrats, Republicans and crypto-industry representatives on a bipartisan replacement.

JPMorgan analysts said the legislation “has not died for good” and could return for another Senate vote before the current Congress adjourns. Senator Thom Tillis, who initially supported the measure before changing his vote to “no,” filed a motion to reconsider. JPMorgan cautioned that little time remained for negotiations before the November elections and during the next congressional session.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said the bill’s failure would probably have less effect on the crypto market than investors’ initial response suggested.

Orlen’s Venezuelan oil losses

Orlen lost $230 million after sending an advance payment to Dubai-based trader Hannon International for Venezuelan oil that was not delivered, the Financial Times reported after reviewing internal Orlen documents, court filings, vessel-tracking data and blockchain analysis and interviewing people involved.

A substantial portion of the funds was intended to be converted into USDT for payments to Venezuelan intermediaries. Poland’s government estimated Orlen’s total losses from the operation at no less than $424 million, including the advance, vessel-charter costs and other expenses.

CoinEx to close

CoinEx said spot trading would end on Sept. 29, 2026, and withdrawals would remain available until Dec. 22. The exchange said it maintained a reserve ratio above 100% and that all customer assets were fully backed and available for withdrawal.

U.S. policy, investigations and tokenized markets

U.S. House Democrats are preparing investigations into President Donald Trump, his administration and his family if they regain control of the chamber in the November midterm elections, The Washington Post reported. The plans include examining the growth of the Trump family’s wealth and income from cryptocurrency projects, as well as immigration policy, the federal government’s restructuring, foreign policy and possible pressure on public institutions.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved a temporary, conditional Innovation Exemption permitting limited onchain trading in tokenized National Market System stocks, SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda said. The exemption allows Tokenized Securities Venues to use automated market makers and liquidity pools without automatically being treated as exchanges under the Exchange Act. The SEC plans to use the pilot’s results while developing permanent rules.

A U.S. crypto-reserve bill also cleared a House committee, while the Justice Department sought the seizure of $61 million in cryptocurrency linked to Iranian oil sales.

Platforms and digital assets

X launched its U.S. Cashtag Partner Program with Interactive Brokers, Moomoo, Gemini, Kraken and Coinbase. Users can view market data for stocks, ETFs and cryptocurrencies and proceed to a partner platform to trade. X does not execute the transactions.

Zcash rose to about $1,500 during the week, lifting its market capitalization above $23 billion. ZEC gained more than 160% over the month and more than 2,500% over the year.

The rally coincided with voting on changes to the NU7 network upgrade. Holders representing nearly 2.4 million ZEC, about two-thirds of eligible coins, participated. A proposal to reduce block time from 75 seconds to 25 seconds received 99.9% support, while 98.9% backed retaining the traditional halving schedule and rejected smoothed issuance.

Artificial intelligence

OpenAI held preliminary talks with large investors about a private funding round that could value it at about $1.2 trillion, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The talks were initiated by investors and remain at an early stage. Whether and when the round proceeds will depend on OpenAI’s plans for an initial public offering.

Emerald AI, Google and Nvidia launched the AI Energy Management Alliance to accelerate connections between artificial-intelligence data centers and the U.S. power grid. The group plans infrastructure that can adjust electricity use based on grid load.

Twitter co-founder and Block CEO Jack Dorsey opposed blanket restrictions on AI development, calling for open models, independent research and wider access to computing resources. He also rejected Dario Amodei’s proposal to cap computing capacity for AI training and advocated risk assessments and safety mechanisms instead.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg likewise opposed a coordinated slowdown, saying individual companies should determine how quickly they can train models safely. Meta delayed its Muse AI agent for several months to improve safety and security but did not ask other companies to pause.

Other developments

Chainflip lost more than 736,000 USDT through a vulnerability in its TRON integration. Pump.fun introduced holder rewards and ended cashback, while former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison joined Manifund.

Robinhood said it would allow Stock Tokens to be redeemed for real shares and provide voting rights. MetaMask introduced protections against romance and investment scams and said it would block “red pill” attacks.

Circle launched the Arc mainnet with BlackRock, Visa and Mastercard among its validators. S&P Global agreed to acquire blockchain-security developer OpenZeppelin, and Justin Sun created a mathematics prize with blockchain-based payouts.

Ethereum announced a date for Glamsterdam testing, although developers warned of an attack on Sepolia. Researchers also used Claude to hack OpenAI and gain access to a secret repository. Separately, Robert Kiyosaki said the biggest market crash in history had begun.

Source: Incrypted