Bitcoin Hits Its Highest Since January as Crude Sinks 8%

gm, Defiers!

These are the biggest stories in DeFi and crypto:

• Bitcoin reached its highest level since January
• Kalshi's ether perp runs 63% of its notional through one repeating trade size
• ZetaChain voted to wind down its Layer 1
• Circle opened bitcoin-backed USDC borrowing to Mint clients on Morpho

Bitcoin traded as high as $86,355 on Coinbase this morning, its best print since Jan. 29, in a leg that started in the 8 a.m. UTC hour and held through the New York open. Front-month WTI crude went the other way, settling Friday at $100.30 and changing hands at $92.17 on Monday, a decline of 8.1% and a fourth consecutive session lower. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.6% and the 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.96%.

Of the 125 largest non-stablecoin tokens, 106 rose. Solana added 9.9% to $119, XRP 8.6% to $1.50 and Dogecoin 14%, the biggest move among the 15 largest tokens. DeFi total value locked reached $95.7 billion, up 9.6% on the week, while stablecoin supply added $70 million since Sept. 14. The TVL gain is collateral repricing.

Funding on the OKX and Deribit bitcoin swaps sits within a basis point of zero and both perpetuals trade below index, so holding a long costs almost nothing. Nansen's Nicolai Søndergaard reads the move as renewed ETF demand plus a short squeeze, with Hyperliquid's largest bitcoin traders still net short and more coin moving onto exchanges than off. Price has turned faster than positioning.

Read more below!

BTC $85,533 ▲ 5.34%	ETH $2,745 ▲ 3.37%	SOL $117 ▲ 5.40%	XRP $1.51 ▲ 6.76%	BNB $788 ▲ 1.46%
Prices & 24h change as of 02:06 09/22/2026 UTC · Full list

MARKETS

Bitcoin Reaches Its Highest Level Since January as Crude Sinks 8%

Bitcoin opened the UTC day at $81,160 on Coinbase and traded as high as $86,355, a 6.4% gain and the highest print on that series since Jan. 29. It last changed hands at $86,194, up 6.8% over 24 hours and 9.8% over seven days. Ether was at $2,747, up 5.8% on the day. BNB rose 6.4% to $803, Zcash 5.9% to $1,520 and Cardano 10%. Total crypto market value stood at $2.92 trillion on $139 billion of volume, with bitcoin dominance at 58.9%. Sui was the largest gainer among the 30 biggest tokens, turning over $2.17 billion against a $4.26 billion market value, a ratio of 51%, with no dated announcement behind it. Starknet gave back 3.6% after leading Friday's tape at 27%. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs took in $433.0 million on Friday, $310.7 million of it at Fidelity's FBTC, though the five sessions of last week netted $6.1 million. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index read 70 on Monday, against 56 on Friday, and publishes once a day at 00:00 UTC, so Monday's rally sits outside the reading.

Bitcoin Reaches Its Highest Level Since January as Crude Sinks 8%

Bitcoin reached its highest level in almost eight months on Monday, climbing through the London morning and holding the gain into New York, as crude oil fell more than 8% and U.S. equities opened higher.

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Why this matters: Funding sits near zero and both majors trade below index, so spot buying carries this move. ETF flows only turned positive on Friday after a week that netted $6.1 million.

BLOCKCHAINS

ZetaChain Votes to Wind Down Layer 1 and Move ZETA to Solana

ZetaChain governance approved winding down the project's Layer 1 and replacing native ZETA with a Solana SPL token at 1:1. Proposal 68 passed with 99.4% of votes in favor on 58% participation, clearing the 40% quorum. The vote approves the direction: the chain stays live, balances are unchanged, and a second proposal must set the snapshot height, the chain halt, the claim process and the withdrawal window for connected-chain assets before anything moves. That second vote goes up only once exchanges listing ZETA confirm their swap processes, so no shutdown date and no participating-exchange list exist yet. The ticker and total supply stay put, balances convert from 18 decimal places to nine and round down, and vesting schedules keep their original dates. ZETA issued on Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain sits outside the proposal. ZetaChain says running its own Cosmos SDK chain no longer helps it build private AI, and that coordinating upstream advisories and patches across independent validators is part of the cost. Validators, delegation and staking rewards continue for now.

Why this matters: A live Layer 1 has voted to delete itself and move its token onto someone else's chain. The exit runs through exchanges agreeing to handle the swap.

REGULATION

Fairshake Plans $30 Million Ad Blitz Against Sherrod Brown in Ohio

Crypto super PAC Fairshake will spend $30 million on advertising against former Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, its largest announced commitment of 2026. The New York Times first reported the plan and said Fairshake has begun rolling out the campaign; journalist Eleanor Terrett separately confirmed the figure with a spokesperson. The PAC spent $41 million against Brown in 2024, when he lost the seat he is now trying to win back. Brown chaired the Senate Banking Committee from 2021 through 2024, and a win in November would restore his seniority — chair if Democrats take the chamber, ranking member if they do not. That committee's jurisdiction covers banks, money, credit and currency, which makes its leadership the gatekeeper for the next attempt at market-structure legislation. The Senate rejected cloture on the motion to proceed to the CLARITY Act 49-50 on Sept. 15, and Sen. Thom Tillis has moved to reconsider. Fairshake says more House and Senate spending decisions are coming, including support for candidates from both parties.

Why this matters: The industry lost the floor vote and is now buying against the senator most likely to chair the committee that writes the next crypto bill.

DEFI

Circle Opens Bitcoin-Backed USDC Borrowing To Mint Clients, Routed Through Morpho

Circle Mint's institutional customers can deposit bitcoin, mint Circle's cirBTC wrapper, post it as collateral and draw USDC without leaving their Mint account. The loan runs on Morpho. Circle issues the token, provides the wallet and delivers the dollars; liquidation logic, deposit caps and rates sit with Morpho's contracts and the curators supplying them. Circle's terms, effective Sept. 16, say a position "may be liquidated automatically" as determined by the protocol operator "and not by Circle." The cirBTC market on Arc held $177 million of supplied USDC against $14.3 million of borrowings and 287 cirBTC worth $24.8 million on Monday afternoon, at 8.1% utilization and an 86% liquidation loan-to-value. Borrowing was $1.37 million early on Sept. 17. Galaxy USDC and Keyrock Prime USDC supply $151.7 million of the $177 million, and each has allocated essentially its whole balance to Arc markets. cirBTC had 949 tokens outstanding against 951 bitcoin of reserves, with a single address holding 910 of them.

Why this matters: Circle is routing its own institutional clients into a credit market it does not control, and two curators supply 86% of the dollars standing behind it.

CEFI

One Size Dominates Kalshi's ETH Perp Volume

The Defiant pulled 120,000 consecutive KXETHPERP trades from Kalshi's public perpetuals API, covering 18 and a half hours to 15:35 UTC on Monday. Of those, 47.2% fell in a narrow band around a single dollar figure and carried $307.6 million of the sample's $490.3 million in notional, or 62.75%. Two target values show up, almost perfectly separated in time: just under $5,500 through 03:00 UTC, then about $5,425.55. Median time between trades inside the cluster was 0.365 seconds, and the rate held near 96 a minute for more than two hours. Ether moved 5.51% across the window while the dollar figure held to a coefficient of variation of 0.596%. Polymarket's ether perp returns 2% on the same clustering test against Kalshi's 35%. The contract showed $612.5 million of 24-hour notional against $9.7 million of open interest, a ratio of 63. Kalshi's crypto lead says the exchange runs no rebates for crypto prediction markets; the allegations concern perpetual futures, which carry their own fee schedule and a rebate program effective Sept. 16.

Why this matters: Kalshi is in talks to raise at $40 billion on volume its public API cannot attribute to anyone, and matched trading under the new rebate is close to free.

Other Stories Worth Your Time

OCC Gives Catena Preliminary Conditional Approval for National Trust Bank — The Sept. 18 order moves Catena Labs from applicant to organizer for a New York trust bank aimed at businesses running AI agents. Preopening conditions include $10 million of tier 1 capital and 180 days of operating expenses held in liquid assets.

Coinbase Opens IPO Allocations to US Retail Investors With Oura — Eligible U.S. customers can submit a conditional offer at the offer price through Coinbase Capital Markets, which acts as a selling-group member and routes requests through Apex Clearing. Sell allocated shares inside 30 days and you sit out the next 60.

World Liberty Opens WLFI Vote on 180-Day Governance Rewards — Holders would lock WLFI for at least 180 days and vote once every 90 to draw from a pool funded by the treasury and World Liberty Markets fees. Early tallies ran 48.8% in favor against 47.75% opposed on 389 votes; voting closes Sept. 28.

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