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Crypto investor and blockchain researcher
Welcome to your weekly crypto digest. It’s been a busy week, with policy decisions, market moves, and product updates giving crypto users and investors plenty to follow. We’ve brought the key developments together so you can catch up on what happened and why it matters. Read on for the stories, figures, and updates worth your attention this week.
Fidelity Leads $433 Million Inflow Into US Bitcoin ETFs
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $433.03 million in net inflows on September 18, 2026, recording their second consecutive trading day of positive flows.
Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, FBTC, led with $310.72 million, according to the September 18 fund-flow figures. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, IBIT, followed with $108.44 million. Those two funds accounted for most of the money entering the category during the session.
The $433.03 million represents net flows across U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs rather than subscriptions to an individual product.
Ethereum investment products also attracted fresh capital. U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs recorded $144.8 million in net inflows on the same day, according to SoSoValue data, giving both cryptocurrency ETF categories a positive session.
Strive Builds 25,000-Bitcoin Treasury With $36.6 Million Purchase
Strive increased its Bitcoin holdings to exactly 25,000 BTC after buying 469 BTC between September 8 and September 11, 2026. The approximately $36.6 million acquisition followed another substantial purchase earlier in the month.
The company paid an average of approximately $77,954 per bitcoin, including fees and expenses. Its September 14 filing detailed the acquisition, which increased holdings from 24,531 BTC.
Chief executive Matt Cole said proceeds from SATA, Strive’s perpetual preferred stock, financed the entire transaction. Following the purchase, SATA’s outstanding notional value exceeded $1 billion. Strive also reported an amplification ratio of 53.5%.
The latest acquisition followed a purchase of 1,375 BTC for approximately $109 million between August 31 and September 4. Together, the two transactions added 1,844 BTC over roughly two weeks at a combined cost of approximately $145.6 million.
Ethereum Schedules October 6 Glamsterdam Test as Developers Flag Auction Risk
Ethereum developers scheduled Glamsterdam’s Sepolia activation for October 6, 2026, at 13:53:36 UTC, preparing a public test of changes to how the network builds and delivers blocks.
The activation schedule specifies epoch 353024 and slot 11296768. Glamsterdam includes enshrined proposer-builder separation, or ePBS, which changes the interaction between validators proposing blocks and builders assembling transaction payloads.
Developers warned that freely available Sepolia ETH could allow attackers to win builder auctions repeatedly and then withhold promised payloads. Disposable builder identities would let participants return after disrupting an auction. The risk concerns testnet operation rather than funds on Ethereum mainnet.
Under EIP-7732, builders commit to execution payloads before revealing them. Payload-timeliness committees monitor whether winning builders deliver, making that mechanism a central part of testing.
During the September 17 All Core Developers consensus call, developers tentatively discussed October 27 for Hoodi. Ethereum’s roadmap targets mainnet deployment in the fourth quarter of 2026, while the upgrade remains in testing.
CLARITY Act Falls Short in Senate Despite Revised Republican Draft
The U.S. Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act on September 15, 2026, when a procedural vote ended 49–50, short of the 60 votes required. The setback stalled the cryptocurrency market-structure bill without permanently ending it.
A day earlier, Senators Cynthia Lummis, John Boozman, and Tim Scott released a 635-page final draft. Republicans said it incorporated 126 substantive changes requested by Democrats.
President Donald Trump reportedly accepted about 80% of an ethics proposal associated with Senators Thom Tillis and Ruben Gallego. Provisions addressed divestment or blind trusts for significant crypto interests and state enforcement. Another revision would temporarily let the Treasury secretary restrict stablecoin rewards if they caused substantial community-bank deposit outflows.
Zcash Voters Back 25-Second Blocks While Preserving Halvings
Zcash coinholders supported cutting target block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds in a governance poll that closed on September 14, 2026. They also favored retaining the network’s Bitcoin-style halving schedule.
Approximately 2.4 million ZEC participated, representing about 66% of the roughly 3.6 million eligible ZEC. Participation exceeded the 1 million ZEC threshold.
The NU7 voting results showed 99.9% support for faster blocks. ZIP 218 estimates that the change would reduce user latency threefold and increase Orchard throughput from approximately 2.9 to 6.6 transactions per second.
On issuance, 2,375,932.375 ZEC supported keeping periodic halvings, compared with 22,384.875 ZEC supporting a smooth issuance curve.
Approximately 99.3% backed shipping NU7 as soon as possible instead of waiting for every proposed feature. Another 96.6% supported starting Network Sustainability Mechanism fee reissuance in February 2031.
The results establish coinholder preferences for the upgrade. Developers must still implement and test the selected changes before formal network activation can introduce them.
SEC Grants Five-Year Conditional Route for Tokenized Stock Trading
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued temporary exemptions on September 17, 2026, allowing qualifying tokenized U.S. stocks to trade through permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools.
The conditional relief for Tokenized Securities Venues covers secondary trading in tokenized National Market System stocks. It excludes primary issuance and initial offerings, limiting the activities that participating venues can conduct.
The SEC also granted certain liquidity providers conditional relief from the dealer definition when they deploy proprietary capital within the framework. Both exemptions expire five years after publication.
Tokens that merely track share prices and synthetic instruments representing stock exposure fall outside the order’s scope.
Participating venues must observe symbol and volume limits. Token holders must receive shareholder rights equivalent to those attached to the underlying shares, and issuers must have opportunities to object.
The framework also requires publicly accessible smart contracts that can be audited. Venues must synchronize trading halts so tokenized shares do not continue trading when the corresponding market has halted activity.
RippleX Adds XRP and RLUSD Payments to Stripe and Tempo’s MPP
RippleX released version 1.1 of its XRPL AI Starter Kit on September 15, adding XRP Ledger settlement support for Stripe and Tempo’s Machine Payments Protocol.
The developer release lets applications make one-time MPP payments using XRP, issued assets, and multi-purpose tokens. XRP also supports session-based payments through XRPL payment channels.
Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin can handle individual MPP transfers. RLUSD session payments depend on planned payment-channel support for issued assets and multi-purpose tokens.
Stripe and Tempo introduced MPP on March 18 as an open standard for authorizing software-agent payments to APIs and other HTTP-accessible services. Its intended uses include microtransactions and recurring payments for resources such as computing, data, and model inference.
The starter kit update also includes the Open Wallet Standard, a command-line testing tool, and an XRPL decentralized-exchange trading skill. The MPP functionality remains beta software.
MPP joins X402, which Ripple included when it launched the original kit in June. Developers can now use either supported standard to build agent-payment applications with XRPL settlement.
CFTC Sends Crypto Rulemaking to White House After Senate Setback
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission submitted a crypto-market rulemaking for White House review on September 17, 2026, advancing an agency-led effort two days after the Senate failed to move the CLARITY Act forward.
The submission, titled “Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets,” entered the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs as a prerule pending review.
The move follows Chairman Michael Selig’s August 19 statement that the CFTC would use existing statutory powers to establish a crypto-asset market regime if the legislation stalled. His proposed approach included potentially allowing exchanges to operate as a new type of designated contract market.
The Senate’s September 15 cloture vote on proceeding to H.R. 3633 failed 49–50. The CFTC submission advances a separate regulatory process under powers the agency says it already holds.
White House review is an early procedural stage. Before a rule could take effect, the process would still require CFTC action, public comment, and a final commission vote.
Bankman-Fried Asks Supreme Court to Overturn Conviction and $11 Billion Forfeiture
Sam Bankman-Fried petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court on September 10, 2026, seeking a new trial and reversal of his fraud conviction and approximately $11 billion forfeiture order.
The petition challenges the outcome of his FTX criminal case, following an appeals court decision that upheld his conviction, 25-year prison sentence, and financial penalty.
Bankman-Fried argues that the trial court improperly prevented him from presenting evidence about FTX and Alameda’s ability to repay customers. He also contends that the forfeiture constitutes an unconstitutional excessive fine.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected those arguments on June 12, 2026. It held that prosecutors did not need to prove an intent to cause economic loss and rejected his excessive-fines challenge.
The Supreme Court request seeks relief covering both the criminal conviction and the financial order. Filing the petition leaves the existing judgment in force, including the prison term and forfeiture upheld by the Second Circuit.
Binance Says AI Controls Prevented $4.6 Billion in Potential Losses
Binance said its AI-driven risk systems prevented approximately $4.6 billion in potential losses during the first half of 2026 and helped protect more than 8 million users.
In its September 15 disclosure, the exchange said AI informed 80% to 90% of real-time risk decisions across identity verification, account security, payments, and transaction screening.
More than 100 AI models support Binance’s anti-fraud and anti-scam controls. The company combines proprietary systems with external AI and foundation models, while human reviewers handle edge cases.
Binance also said its systems intercepted millions of scam and phishing attempts during the six-month period. It blacklisted more than 42,000 malicious addresses and issued over 14,000 real-time warnings daily.
The $4.6 billion estimate represents potential losses the exchange says its controls prevented, rather than funds recovered after users lost them.
MetaMask Adds Transfer Warnings and Protection Against Unexpected Execution
MetaMask announced new scam protections on September 14, introducing contextual questions and alerts immediately before users send funds. The warnings target romance scams, investment scams, and suspicious recipients.
The Blockaid-powered checks identify malicious destination addresses across supported EVM networks. They are available in MetaMask Mobile version 8.11 and later and Extension version 13.48 and later.
Additional warnings cover lookalike wallet addresses and first-time recipients, prompting users to scrutinize unfamiliar transfers before submitting them.
A separate feature, Added Protection, is designed to revert transactions when execution differs from the preview shown to the user. It launched initially in the browser extension, with mobile support planned.
MetaMask also offers Transaction Shield for $9.99 per month. The optional extension product provides up to $10,000 in monthly coverage for eligible transactions, subject to its conditions.
The company cited FBI figures showing $7.2 billion in U.S. crypto investment-scam losses during 2025. Its new transfer prompts focus on the stage when users are about to send funds to potentially fraudulent recipients.
Deutsche Bank Targets Late-2026 Crypto Custody Launch in Europe
Deutsche Bank plans to begin onboarding European institutional and corporate clients for a digital-asset custody service later in 2026, subject to regulatory approval.
The bank’s September 16 announcement identified Bitcoin, Ether, USDC, EURC, and EURAU as the planned initial asset set. The service combines cryptocurrency custody with support for selected stablecoins or e-money tokens.
Target customers include corporates, asset managers, hedge funds, custodians, brokers, and sovereign institutions served by Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Bank and Investment Bank. The offering is intended for those professional clients rather than retail customers.
Deutsche Bank plans to manage wallets and private keys, allowing customers to safeguard and transfer supported digital assets without building their own custody infrastructure.
The rollout follows the lender’s 2023 application to German regulator BaFin for a digital-asset custody licence. It also follows a September 2023 partnership with Swiss infrastructure provider Taurus.
The proposed onboarding timetable depends on completing the applicable regulatory approval process before customers can begin using the service.
Saylor’s “More Orange” Post Renews Expectations of a Strategy Purchase
Strategy founder Michael Saylor posted the company’s Bitcoin Tracker chart on September 20, 2026, with the words “More orange,” raising expectations of another Bitcoin acquisition.
Orange dots on the chart represent Strategy’s purchases. Similar posts have often preceded acquisition announcements, making the latest tracker update a signal of a possible addition to its treasury.
Strategy’s reported holdings stood at 845,050 BTC, with a total acquisition cost of approximately $63.58 billion and a stated average purchase price of $75,412. The reserves carried an estimated market value of approximately $68.03 billion.
The company resumed purchases at the end of August after a roughly two-month break. It acquired 4,603 BTC for approximately $369.7 million at an average price of $80,382, bringing its holdings to the reported 845,050 BTC.
Coinbase Engineer Releases Crypto-Trading Experiment Powered by Simulated Fly Brain
A Coinbase engineer released Stonkfly, an open-source experiment that uses a simulated fruit fly nervous system to generate cryptocurrency trading decisions, DailyCoin reported on September 15.
The GitHub project processes candlestick-chart images through approximately 166,700 simulated cells and 25.6 million connections. It cycles through Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, producing buy, sell, or hold signals.
A separate position manager applies trading limits, including a 40% target crypto allocation, an 18% cap per cryptocurrency, and a $10 per-order limit. The experiment primarily uses paper trading but can route permitted live orders through Coinbase Advanced.
Portfolio changes of at least 0.01 USDC trigger a 200-millisecond feedback signal. Gains activate 15 simulated dopamine-associated cells; losses activate two cells linked to aversive signals. The developer cautions that this feedback does not establish profitable learning.
The model receives market observations once per minute, while displayed portfolio values refresh every second.
Developers can run Stonkfly on macOS or Linux with at least 16 GB of RAM, Python 3.11, and a C++17 compiler.
NYSE Parent Evaluates Avalanche for Around-the-Clock Tokenized Trading
Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, is evaluating Avalanche as infrastructure for its planned 24/7 tokenized-securities platform.
Avalanche’s September 17 update quoted Michael Blaugrund, ICE’s vice president of strategic initiatives, saying the network meets many of the company’s requirements. The evaluation remains ongoing.
ICE’s proposed alternative trading system would support tokenized stocks and ETFs, on-chain settlement, and stablecoin-based transactions. Announced in January 2026, the project aims to combine the NYSE Pillar matching engine with blockchain settlement.
Its technical considerations include performance, institutional wallet support, interoperability, and connections to existing securities infrastructure. A final system would need to interface with transfer agents, stablecoin issuers, broker-dealers, and organizations such as the DTCC.
NYSE and Securitize signed a memorandum of understanding in March under which Securitize would become the first digital transfer agent eligible to support blockchain-native securities on the planned platform.
The venue remains subject to its own regulatory and operational requirements as ICE evaluates the infrastructure needed to support continuous trading.
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