Crypto Market

BTC and ETH Market Insight

Upcoming Macro Calendar - Source: Trading Economics

Options Market

Over the past week, BTC and ETH options markets continued to advance following last week’s Friday relief rally, with BTC climbing further to around 87,000(from~83,000) amid sustained upside momentum. Implied volatility compressed across short tenors, with BTC 1W ATM IV declining from ~31.3% last week to ~29.6% and ETH 1W IV falling more sharply from ~46.6% to ~38.7%. Realized volatility remained elevated above implied levels (BTC RV ~36.0%, ETH RV ~40.9%), deepening the negative volatility risk premium for BTC (spread –6.3%) and flipping ETH’s VRP into mildly negative territory. Skew normalized significantly compared with last week’s deep call bias, with BTC 25Δ 1W skew flipping to +2.8% and ETH 25Δ 1W skew to +2.4%, indicating reduced demand for aggressive upside calls and a return toward more balanced positioning. ETF netflows turned strongly positive for both assets, providing solid institutional support after the mixed-to-positive flows of the prior week. Given the skew normalization, long call spreads can still be used selectively for continued upside (e.g., BTC 88k–92k), while protective put spreads offer reasonably priced downside protection after the recent put-skew recovery.

Altcoins and Blockchain News

• September 21-23 - Bitcoin Hits Eight-Month High Above $87,000: Driven by massive ETF inflows and improved risk appetite, Bitcoin crossed the $87,000 mark, reaching its highest price level since January.
  
  
• September 22 - BitMEX Shuts Down After 11 Years: The pioneering crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX officially stopped trading, ending an 11-year chapter in crypto market history.
  
  
• September 23 - Cosmos Hub Restarts Block Production: The Cosmos Hub network resumed block production on September 23 following a nearly 25-hour halt, with the network clarifying that no funds were affected.
  
  
• September 23-24 - Massive Token Unlocks Apply Market Pressure: The market absorbed roughly $345 million worth of unlocked tokens across major projects, with networks like Arbitrum experiencing notable price drops due to scheduled supply pressure.
  
  
• September 24 - Neutron Hit by $9.4 Million Governance Attack: A reported governance attack on the Neutron network resulted in a loss of approximately $9.4 million after an attacker manipulated a vote with a small token purchase.
  
  
• September 25 - Bitget Reports $351.6M Hot-Wallet Breach: Crypto exchange Bitget reported a major security breach affecting its hot and warm wallets, resulting in an estimated $351.6 million loss, though cold wallets remained unaffected.
  
  
• September 25 - Ripple (XRP) Integrates with Stripe AI Payments: Ripple expanded its XRPL developer kit to support the Machine Payments Protocol created by Stripe and Tempo, integrating XRP into the developing AI market.
  
  
• September 26 - MoonPay Acquires North Capital: Crypto infrastructure provider MoonPay agreed to acquire SEC-registered North Capital in a $60 million all-stock transaction.

Macro

The major indices finished the week with solid gains: the DJIA rose +0.28%, the S&P 500 added +1.21%, and the Nasdaq gained +2.06%. The Chinese stock market closed lower for the holiday-shortened week: the Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.6%, the CSI 300 lost 1.51% and the Hang Seng index dropped 0.97%.