A look back at September: The sun shines over the cryptosphere

Cryptocurrencies are poised for one of their best September performances ever. So are other asset classes, with benchmark US stock market indices reaching all-time highs throughout the month. Commodities and real estate also profited.

This bullish trend has been fueled by the Federal Reserve's rate cut on Sept 18, economic stimulus measures in China, and sustained demand from institutional investors in the US. Additional rate cuts by the end of the year are already priced in by the market.

Institutional adoption of crypto continues worldwide, withfamily offices, particularly in Asia, increasingly investing in crypto assets, according to Citibank’s Global Family Office 2024 Survey. Almost $1.4 billion has flown into the 12 spot exchange traded funds (ETFs) listed in the US since the Fed’s anticipated 50 basis point rate cut.

In September, the monthly cryptocurrency exchange volumes fell to  $987 billion – the lowest level since November last year. Binance remains the largest centralized crypto exchange with a 36 percent market share.

Bitcoin strengthens to almost $64,000, boosted by institutional & corporate interest

BlackRock stated that Bitcoin, which has a 56 percent dominance in the crypto universe, isa “unique diversifier” in portfolios. Bitcoin has outperformed all other asset classes in seven out of the past 10 years, the world’s largest asset managerunderlined. The price of Bitcoin has risen by more than 50 percent since the beginning of the year and trades 13 percent below its all time high reached in March. In September, Bitcoin rose 8.2 percent to $63,660.

In the US, theSecurities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the listing and trading of options on BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF) $IBIT during the month, but delayed a similar decision on those of its spot Ether ETF, $ETHA, to Nov 10. $IBIT is the largest of its kind, with almost $23.3 billion in assets under management, tracked by Grayscale’s incumbent $GBTF ETF, which manages $14 billion. Almost $1.4 billion has flowed into the 12 spot Bitcoin ETFslisted in the US since the Federal Reserve’s rate cut on September 18.

As for MicroStrategy (MSTR), the largest holder of Bitcoin amongstpublicly listed companies, it continued its buying spree during the month. MSTR raised another $1 billion to redeem an expiring bond worth $500 million and to buy additional Bitcoin with the remainder. “MicroStrategy's BTC exposure surpassed 250,000 BTC… The past 12 months have seen MicroStrategy accumulate 98,420 BTC,” the crypto analytics firm K33 Research noted.

Inflows into spot Ether ETFs tick along, while decision on options trading on these is delayed

In mid-September, the asset manager VanEck announced the closure and liquidation of its Ethereum futures ETF (EFUT). However, its spot ETH ETF, with approximately $64 million in assets, will remain listed on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). In contrast, the net assets of BlackRock's competing spot Ether ETF, $ETHA, totaled $1 billion end-September. “Now in top 20% of all 3,700+ ETFs. [The Ether spot ETF] Did this [in] 2 months,” observed Nate Geraci, co-founder of the ETF Institute. Additionally, the first Australian spot ETH ETF was listed by asset manager Monochrome on the Australian CBOE during the month.

Meanwhile, the CIO of Bitwise, Matt Hougan remains extremely bullish on Ether. “When you look at which applications are seeing breakthrough success, they’re almost all dominated by Ethereum,” he said underlining that more than half of stablecoins are issued on Ethereum, decentralized finance (DeFi) is locked on Ethereum and Polymarket settles on Ethereum. “Ethereum has the most active developers, the most active users, and a market cap that is 5x bigger than its closest competitor. It’s like the Microsoft of blockchains… From my seat, none of Ethereum’s challenges seem existential, and its opportunities are brimming.”Ethereum rose 4.4 percent to $2,609 during the month.

Binance achieves record trading volumes

Binance’s trading volume hit an all-time high exceeding $100 trillion in combined spot and derivatives trading volumein September, its CEO, Richard Teng, said. He added that the number of institutional and corporate clients onboarding the crypto exchange has increased by 40 percent so far this year.Binance also became the first fully regulated digital asset trading facility (DATF) in Kazakhstan and its unitTokocrypto, obtained a physical crypto asset trader (PFAK) license from the Indonesian regulator. The price of Binance Coin added 7.7 percent to $575over the past month.

Binance’s CZ released from jail, while executive remains imprisoned in Nigeria

Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Binance’s charismatic co-founder, was released from prison on Sept 27 after having served a four-month prison sentence. He had admitted to violations of US money laundering rules during his time at the helm of the world’s largest centralized crypto exchange. CZ is, however, banned from holding any future operational or management role within Binance.He nevertheless remains Binance’s largest shareholder, retains his shareholder rights and ranks 61st in Bloomberg’s billionaire indexwith an estimated fortune of roughly $31 billion. CZ announced that he will continue to invest in blockchain/decentralized technologies, AI, and biotech. “I am a long-term investor who care about impact, not returns,” he said upon his release.

Meanwhile, Tigran Gambaryan, a Binance executive who has been detained by Nigerian authorities for over six months, remains imprisoned in Nigeria. His bail application was deferred to Oct 9. Gambaryan is accused of money laundering by the Nigerian authorities, just as Binance is.US diplomats work hard behind the scenes to obtain his release.

Solana’s active addresses hit new record

The number of active addresses on the Solana blockchain reached an all-time high at 5.6 million in September, according to Artemis data, and its memecoin protocol Pump.fun has managed to reap more than $100 million in revenue since its launch in January.  Separately, the asset manager VanEck believes Solana has the potential to reach half of Ethereum’s market cap, with a projected price of $330. Its market cap is currently a quarter of Ethereum’s $310 billion dollar. The price of Solana rallied 16 percent to $156 over the past month.

Ripple’s XRP outperforms following Grayscale's launch of new XRP investment product

XRP, the crypto token of Ripple Labs, rallied on Grayscale’s announcement of the launch of an investment product based on XRP for accredited investors. The Grayscale XRP Trust will only invest in and derive value from XRP. An application to turn it into a spot XRP exchange traded fund (ETF) is being considered by Grayscale. The price of XRP surged 9.7percent to $0.623 over the past month.

Multimillion investment in the TON ecosystem

Bitget and Foresight Ventures announced a $30 million investment in the TON ecosystem to foster its development. As part of this move, they will subsequently buy Toncoin, TON’s cryptocurrency, and be deeply involved in TON’s governance. Toncoin, the seventh-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap, was originally developed by a team at Telegram. The CEO of the social media platform, Pavel Durov, was indicted by the French authorities late August for allegedly failing to prevent illegal content relating to drug trafficking, fraud and promotion of terrorism on Telegram. He is currently barred from leaving France as part of the investigation. TON strengthened 8.6 percent to $5.84 over the past month.

Tron founder proposes sharing SunPump’s protocol revenue with the community

The founder of Tron, Justin Sun, announced a plan to share the protocol revenue of Tron’s SunPump memecoin generator to the community through liquidity donations. Several thousand memecoins have been created since its deployment in mid-August. The Tron community instead agreed to implement a direct 100 percent on-chain buyback and burn process. The price of Tron, the eight-largest cryptocurrency, fell 0.9 percent to $0.157 over the past month.

Cardano’s Chang hard fork successfully implemented

The Chang hard fork was successfully implemented on the Cardano blockchain last month

“One small step for Cardano; One giant leap for the industry,” its founder, Charles Hoskinson, said, referencing to Neil Armstrong’s famous quote. This upgrade sets the stage for a fully decentralized governance model by the end of 2024, as well as improved scalability and security for Cardano. The price of Cardano, the ninth-largest cryptocurrency, gained 9.9 percent to $0.381 over the past month.

Uniswap Labs fined by CFTC

Uniswap Labs was fined $175,000 by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for illegally offering “leveraged or margined retail commodity transactions in digital assets through a decentralized digital asset trading protocol.” The price of Uniswap surged 28 percent to $7.61 over the past month.

SUI may soon take over Solana as main alternative Layer-1 player

Sui networks could soon surpass Solana as Ethereum’s main Layer-1 (L1) competitor, according to K33 Research. “Solana often steals the focus in the L1 wars, but while SOL/ETH has gained 6% since the August open, SUI/SOL has rallied 115% in the same period.Sui has a market-leading L1 tech with 297,000 max theoretical transactions per second (TPS), along with a time-to-finality of 480 milliseconds,” the crypto research firm said. SuiCrypto rallied 126 percent to $1.8 over the past month.

Upgrade of Polygon’s MATIC token carried out

Polygon’s MATIC tokens were upgraded to its new POL tokens on a 1:1 basis last month.

“In the initial phase, POL succeeds MATIC as the native gas and staking token for the Polygon PoS [proof-of-stake] network. In subsequent phases, POL will serve a crucial role in the AggLayer [aggregation layer],” the decentralized platform running on Ethereum said. The price of Polygon fell 4.2 percent to $0.4 over the past month.

Use of stablecoins soars, while US consumer association warns of Tether’s lack of audits

The use of stablecoins in real world applications has picked up considerably, according to the study “Stablecoins: The Emerging Market Story” released by Visa Crypto and others. So far this year, the value of transactions settled in stablecoins is estimated at $2.6 trillion and could reach approximately $5.3 trillion by the end of 2024 if this trend continues. Stablecoins are notably used for currency conversion, paying for goods, remittances, and paying salaries. Their market cap exceeds $173 billion, with Tether’s USDT dominating. Meanwhile, Consumers’ Research in the US warned that Tether isn’t transparent enough withregards to its dollar reserves, failing to release a complete audit conducted by a renown accounting firm.

Democrats step up efforts to charm pro-crypto voters

Future Forward PAC, the super political action committee (PAC) that backs the Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris, started accepting donations in cryptocurrencies in September. Meanwhile, some crypto profiles, including Chris Larsen, Ripple Labs’ co-founder, and the crypto entrepreneur Mark Cuban signed a letter publicly backing Harris. A working group, including the former White House spokesman under Donald Trump, Anthony Scaramucci, is currently working on shaping the Democrat’s crypto policy. Most analysts view a Harris administration as less negative for the cryptoverse than a second Biden administration.

Trump’s World Liberty Financial targets mass adoption of stablecoins & crypto

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a project backed by the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, targets the mass adoption of US-pegged stablecoins across the globe now that the BRICS countries are threatening the dominance of the US dollar. “Our mission is crystal clear: Make crypto and America great by driving the mass adoption of stablecoins and decentralized finance. We believe that DeFi is the future, and we’re committed to making it accessible and secure for everyone,“ WLFI said.

100,000 trillion WLFI tokens, out of which 63 percent will be available to accredited investors in the US. A whitelist opened up for these accredited US investors and for non-US residents on Sept 30. WLIF’s market cap stood at $124,829end-September. The remaining 37 percent are earmarked to WLFI’s founders, team and service providers.