yyc trader & Olivia Capozzalo
September 10, 2025

gm, Defiers!

Today’s big story:

Investors are looking to the Fed to boost markets, with the central bank now widely expected to cut interest rates next week.

In other news:

Issuers are clamoring to manage Hyperliquid’s USDH stablecoin
Fidelity launched a tokenized fund to compete with BUIDL
Upbit unveiled its Ethereum L2, GIWA
L2 Kinto announced it’s shutting down
Nasdaq could face major hurdles if its tokenized stock filing is approved [FEATURE]
Goat Network: The future of Bitcoin DeFi and sustainable BTC yield [SPONSORED]

Read more below! But first, please give our sponsors some love; they make this newsletter possible.

Stellar Core Upgrades Pave Path to 5000 TPS and 2.5 Second Block Time

The Stellar network has always been one of the cheapest, but now it looks like the network upgrades will halve block time and increase throughput by parallelizing Stellar core. With planned upgrades, the Stellar network will incorporate new core advancement protocols that bring this performance even closer to reality.

We’re back! Here’s what you need to know in web3 today

📈 Markets in the Last 24 Hours

TICKER	VALUE	24H
Bitcoin	$113,191	0.44 %
Ethereum	$4,366.13	0.41 %
XRP	$2.99	-0.37 %
BNB	$888.37	0.98 %
Solana	$223.19	2.76 %

Today’s Big Story

All Eyes Turn to the Fed

Major cryptocurrencies are rallying today after U.S. wholesale inflation numbers for August came in well below expectations, boosting hopes for looser monetary policy from the Federal Reserve amid a weakening labor market.

Bitcoin is trading at a two-week high of around $114,000, while Ether continues to consolidate around $4,400. Meanwhile, altcoins like SOL, BNB and HYPE are outperforming, with the latter two hitting all-time highs today.

Powell’s Predicament

The minutes of the last Fed meeting showed that the U.S. central bank is concerned about a slowdown in employment, as evidenced by the last few non-farm payrolls (NFP) reports, and inflationary pressures from President Trump’s trade tariffs.

At the same time, officials noted that asset prices remain elevated, indicating that they may be reticent to loosen monetary policy too quickly for fear of stoking yet another bubble.

Fed chair Jerome Powell has so far resisted Trump’s constant pressure to cut interest rates drastically, but acknowledged that economic conditions “might justify” rate cuts in a recent speech at the Jackson Hole symposium.

As a result, investors are all but certain of a rate reduction on Sept. 17. CME FedWatch gives 90% odds to a 0.25% cut, and 10% to a 0.50% cut.

Cash is Trash

Since Trump took office, the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) – a measure of the value of the dollar relative to a basket of six major world currencies – has plunged by 11% to a three-year low.

In the same timeframe, gold, the traditional safe-haven asset that investors turn to as a defense against fiat debasement, has surged 35% to an all-time high above $3,600/oz.

Generally, most dollar-denominated assets, including stocks and crypto, have followed a similar trajectory, with major U.S. equity indices trading at all-time highs at the time of writing.

Against a backdrop of monetary easing – the M2 money supply just surpassed $22 trillion for the first time – and an economy that remains resilient but shows signs of initial weakness, it’s likely that the uptrend in risk assets continues, potentially boosting crypto markets to new highs in Q4.

yyctrader, degen in chief at The Defiant

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🎬WATCH

Solana’s Rise as a Treasury Powerhouse: DeFi Development Corp’s Bold Strategy

On the latest episode of The Defiant Podcast, Cami sat down with Joseph Onorati, CEO of DeFi Development Corp, the second-largest Solana treasury company. Joseph shares the journey of transforming DeFi Development Corp into a Solana-focused treasury powerhouse, their innovative yield strategies, and why Solana's volatility and native yield make it a compelling treasury asset.

We also dive into the broader case for crypto treasury companies, the risks and rewards of staking strategies, and the future of Solana in the blockchain ecosystem. Plus, Joseph shares his bold prediction: Solana flipping Ethereum by market cap.

Top News in the Past 24 Hours

Dragonfly Suggests Hyperliquid Stablecoin Competition is Rigged As Hyperliquid seeks to develop an in-house stablecoin, some of the largest protocols in decentralized finance (DeFi) are courting governance voters in an effort to secure the USDH ticker and manage the ecosystem’s stablecoin. Why it matters: Becoming the issuer of USDH signals that a company has been entrusted with managing the canonical dollar on the fastest-growing perps chain.
Fidelity’s Tokenized Fund Launch Marks ‘Tipping Point’ for Institutional On-Chain Adoption Fidelity’s recent launch of its Fidelity Digital Interest Token (FDIT) fund marks a turning point for institutional adoption of on-chain assets, experts say, as further bridges the gap between TradFi and blockchain. Why it matters: As a tokenized U.S. treasuries fund, FDIT challenges BlackRock’s BUIDL.
UpBit Unveils GIWA Ethereum Layer 2 Network UpBit, the top centralized exchange by volume in South Korea, unveiled its own native Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain today, dubbed GIWA. Why it matters: Korean traders are well known in crypto for their tendency to send new altcoin listings soaring. GIWA will test the Korean market’s appetite for onchain trading
Ethereum L2 Kinto Shuts Down after July Exploit as ‘Fundraising Options Disappeared’ Ethereum Layer 2 network Kinto, which focused on compliance, is shutting down two months after an exploit drained millions from the protocol, and wiped out 90% of its token’s value. Why it matters: Kinto raised $5 million in a seed round from multiple well-known VCs, and also got a $20 million liquidity injection early this year from Brevan Howard Digital’s Abu Dhabi arm
Feature: Nasdaq’s Tokenized Equities Filing Highlights Settlement and Infrastructure Challenges If approved by the U.S. SEC, Nasdaq’s filing to offer trading of tokenized stocks would mark the first time tokenized securities are listed on a major U.S. exchange. But with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) already processing billions of equity trades daily, integrating blockchain-based settlement could be both costly and complex, experts say.