Stacy in Dataland (´⊙~⊙`)

ECB launches Pontes blockchain settlement platform for tokenized securities – Link

The European Central Bank launched Pontes, which lets banks settle tokenized asset transactions in wholesale central bank money. It is separate from the ECB's retail digital-euro pilot.

A major central bank moving directly into blockchain settlement — that's a strong validation signal for tokenization rails.

Hyperliquid launches bitcoin vix perpetual futures – Link

Hyperliquid debuted BVIV perpetuals through Kinetiq's Markets frontend, led by Volmex CEO Cole Kennelly. Traders can now go long or short on 30-day BTC implied volatility.

A new volatility instrument on-chain — this could pull more volume and open interest toward Hyperliquid.

ZetaChain votes 99.4% to shut down its layer 1 and migrate ZETA to Solana – Link

ZetaChain's community passed Proposal 68 with 58% turnout, well above the 40% quorum, to sunset its Cosmos SDK-based L1 and focus on its AI app Anuma, which already has 300K+ users. ZETA converts 1:1 to a Solana SPL token, with supply and unlock schedule unchanged.

Smaller L1s giving up independent chains for bigger ecosystems like Solana — this is part of that pattern.

SingularityNET/Fetch.ai bridge exploit halts AGIX-to-FET conversions – Link

An unauthorized party pulled roughly $1.56M in FET from the SingularityNET bridge converter. The Artificial Superintelligence Alliance paused AGIX-to-FET conversions while it investigates. Fetch.ai says its own contracts weren't affected.

Bridge exploits like this chip away at confidence in cross-token conversion infrastructure, and price and liquidity often stay under pressure until things get resolved.

Injective goes live natively on Solana, expanding cross-chain RWA reach – Link

INJ launched directly on Solana with Phantom wallet verification, Raydium 24/7 trading pairs, and Meteora liquidity support. A pending "Meridian" mainnet governance proposal covers RWA issuance and onchain privacy features. Injective's RWA perpetual markets have generated $214.9M in 30-day volume.

The Solana launch widens INJ's liquidity base and pulls it deeper into the cross-chain push around RWA infrastructure.

My second channel on marketing ↑
Stay tuned ❤️

Let me share something personal.

For the past few months, I’ve been working on a product that’s challenged nearly everything I know about marketing.

I’ve been advising Web3 teams on GTM and acquisition efficiency for years – and many of you reading this have worked with Green Dots and my team.

That's how I know most builders today have no clue what data to trust or what marketing methods actually work – because AI, humans, and vendor reports can all claim completely contradictory things.

You have to test to know the truth.
You have to pay to find out a vendor lied.
This sucks.

The thing I’m building will fix this.
I will (at least) do my best to make sure it does.

Building arc unlocked.
Will share more soon.

Bitcoin ETFs post $159.5M inflow, Ethereum ETFs see $39.3M outflow – Link

US spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $159.5M net on September 17, led by IBIT at +$183.7M. Ethereum ETFs saw a $39.3M net outflow, with ETHA at -$42.9M.

This looks like rotation toward BTC over ETH, not a broad risk-off move.

SEC grants 5-year "innovation exemption" for tokenized securities venues – Link

The SEC approved a temporary, conditional exemption letting on-chain platforms list and trade tokenized US stocks with full shareholder rights, without being immediately classified as exchanges under the 1934 Act.

This is a real unlock for tokenized equities on-chain, and it could benefit Solana-based venues and DEX infrastructure providers as institutional adoption picks up.

Fed raises rates 25bps to 3.75%–4% – Link

The Fed unanimously approved a 25bp rate hike on September 17 — its first increase since 2023. BTC briefly dropped to $75,700 before rebounding to $76,400. CME FedWatch now puts the odds of a cumulative 25bp hike by December at 49.6%, with 37.2% odds on 50bp.

The market absorbed this hike well, but tightening ahead could still squeeze crypto liquidity. October and December are the next catalysts to watch.

Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade passes rehearsal, testnet launch set for Oct 6 – Link

The upgrade cleared key tests on Sepolia and now moves toward testnet on October 6.

• Raised the block gas limit from 60M to 200M gas
• Added block-level access lists for parallel transaction processing
• Aims to boost throughput and ease fee spikes, though larger blocks may push up node operating costs

If it delivers, Ethereum's throughput and fee behavior improve meaningfully. Mainnet timing is becoming a bigger factor for ETH sentiment.

$386M in liquidations hit the market in 24 hours, mostly shorts – Link

CoinGlass data shows $386M in total liquidations over 24 hours — $140M longs against $246M shorts. ZEC accounted for about $59M, while BTC and ETH each sat near $98M.

Short-heavy liquidations after the Fed decision point to a squeeze on bearish positioning. That can push prices higher short-term, but it also raises pullback risk once the forced buying dries up.

BlackRock bought ≈$1.5B in ETH over the past 20 days via ETHA/ETHB – Link

Arkham reported BlackRock accumulated roughly $1.27B in ETH through ETHA and $296.5M through ETHB over 20 days, with no single-day outflows from ETHB in that stretch.

Daily ETF headlines show short-term outflows, but this accumulation tells a different story — institutional conviction on ETH still looks intact over the longer stretch.

Backpack's BP token jumps 18.4% on SEC tokenized-stock exemption news – Link

Backpack's platform token BP surged past $0.53 after the SEC's tokenized securities exemption announcement. The platform already runs a 24/7 US stock trading market for international users, with actual equity ownership rather than synthetic derivatives.

The SEC decision is already moving token prices for platforms positioned in tokenized equities. BP's jump shows where traders see the immediate regulatory upside.

Asentum just launched its Incentivized Testnet for $ASE airdrop – Link

Asentum is a JavaScript-native, post-quantum L1 focused on making blockchain development and network participation more accessible.

The Incentivized Testnet is now live, which gives users access to the XP campaign tied to the $ASE airdrop through:

• Network activity
• dApp quests
• Validators
• Referrals
• Bug reports
• Content creation

Running a validator gives 5,000 XP + a permanent x1.2 multiplier, while staking $ASE can boost multipliers up to x10.

There’s also a way to earn additional XP from bug reports (depending on severity), so technical users have another route beyond standard quests and transactions.

Join the campaign: airdrop.asentum.com

Circle launches Arc mainnet with BlackRock, Visa, DTCC as validators – Link

Circle's USDC-native Layer-1, Arc, went live with more than 100 institutional and crypto partners. BlackRock, Visa and DTCC are running as network validators, while Aave, Uniswap and Aerodrome are live on Arc from day one.

Big names validating a stablecoin-based network on day one — that's a real vote of confidence in USDC's shot at becoming a settlement layer.

Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill clears House Financial Services Committee – Link

The American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026 (H.R. 8957), which would codify Trump's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve into federal law, passed committee 28-21.

This offsets some of the sting from the CLARITY Act failure and keeps federal momentum behind BTC alive — though full passage still isn't guaranteed.

Kraken's parent to offer Hyperliquid perpetual futures to US clients – Link

Payward confirmed a regulated US futures route for Hyperliquid (HYPE) markets — the first legal path for US traders to reach these products through a CFTC-regulated venue. HYPE rose roughly 4% intraday on the news.

If this launches as planned, it opens a regulated on-ramp for DeFi-native derivatives and could add fuel to HYPE demand.

AI Overviews are shrinking organic CTR

The chart behind this claim comes from Seer Interactive’s Nov 2025 analysis of 3,119 queries across 42 organizations and 25.1 million impressions. For queries with AI Overviews, organic CTR fell from 1.76% to 0.61% – a 61% drop.

That does not mean search volume disappears. It means Google is answering more queries before the click, so top rankings can lose traffic even when they still exist.

My read: the useful debate is not SEO vs AEO as labels. It is whether the engine you optimize for still delivers a click.

Data source: Seer Interactive

Related read: Are we optimising for the right engine? Insights from the latest SEO / AEO research

Symbiosis DeFi bridge exploited, hacker mints 46 billion fake syBTC – Link

A hacker exploited two bugs in the Symbiosis cross-chain bridge and turned 25 cents of BTC into more than 2,000x Bitcoin's total supply in unbacked syBTC. Symbiosis puts preliminary losses at around 9.97 BTC, roughly $750K at current prices.

Smart-contract risk in cross-chain bridges isn't going away, and this kind of exploit doesn't help confidence in wrapped assets.