Fed Rate Decision, MKR-SKY Conversion Deadline: Crypto Week Ahead

The U.S. Federal Reserve is likely to dominate markets, both crypto and traditional, in the coming week. Traders are positioned for a rate cut of at least 25 basis points when the Fed announces its decision on Sept. 17, according to CME's Fedwatch tool.

What to Watch

• Crypto
  • Sept. 16, 12 p.m. ET: Solana AMA on X.
  • Sept. 18: Mavryk Network launches its mainnet and native MVRK token.
  • Sept. 18: Rex-Osprey Dogecoin ETF expected to begin trading on Cboe BZX Exchange under ticker DOJE.
  • Sept. 18: Unipoly Chain (UNP) mainnet launch.
• Macro
  • Sept. 16: Brazil July unemployment rate Est. N/A (Prev. 5.8%).
  • Sept. 16: Canada August headline CPI YoY Est. N/A (Prev. 1.7%), MoM Est. N/A (Prev. 0.3%); core YoY Est. N/A (Prev. 2.6%), MoM Est. N/A (Prev. 0.1%).
  • Sept. 16: U.K. July unemployment rate Est. 4.7%.
  • Sept. 17: U.K. August headline CPI YoY Est. 3.9%. MoM Est. N/A (Prev. 0.1%); core YoY Est. 3.7%, MoM Est. N/A (Prev. 0.2%).
  • Sept. 17: Canada benchmark interest rate Est. N/A (Prev. 2.75%) followed by a press conference.
  • Sept. 17: The Fed's FOMC decision on U.S. interest rates. Est: 25 bps cut to 4.00%-4.25% followed by a press conference.
  • Sept. 17: Brazil benchmark interest rate Est. N/A (Prev. 15%).
  • Sept. 18: Bank of England decision on U.K. interest rates. Est: unchanged at 4%.
  • Sept. 19: Bank of Japan interest-rate decision. Est: unchanged at 0.5%.
• Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
  • Sept. 18: Lite Strategy (MEIP), pre-market

Token Events

• Governance votes & calls
  • Curve DAO is voting to changes to donation-enabled Twocrypto contracts. Voting ends Sept. 16.
  • Sept. 16: Aster Network to host a community call.
  • MantleDAO is voting on keeping the 2025-2026 budget at $52 million USDc and 200 million MNT. Voting ends Sept. 18
  • Sept. 18, 6 a.m.: Mantle to host Mantle State of Mind, a monthly townhall series.
  • Sept. 16, 12 p.m.:Kava to host a community Ask Me Anything (AMA) session.
  • Sept. 23: SwissBorg to make a live announcement.
• Unlocks
  • Sept. 15: Starknet (STRK) to unlock 5.98% of its circulating supply worth $17.09 million.
  • Sept. 15: Sei (SEI) to unlock 1.18% of its circulating supply worth $18.06 million.
  • Sept. 16: Arbitrum (ARB) to unlock 2.03% of its circulating supply worth $48.16 million.
  • Sept. 17: ZKsync (ZK) to unlock 3.61% of its circulating supply worth $10.54 million.
  • Sept. 18: Fasttoken (FTN) to unlock 2.08% of its circulating supply worth $89.8 million
  • Sept. 20: Velo (VELO) to unlock 13.63% of its circulating supply worth $43.39 million.
  • Sept. 20: KAITO (KAITO) to unlock 3.15% of its circulating supply worth $10.1 million.
• Token Launches
  • Sept. 15: OpenLedger (OPENLEDGER) to be listed on Crypto.com.
  • Sept. 18: Deadline to convert MKR to SKY before the delayed upgrade penalty takes effect.
  • Sept. 20: Reserve Rights (RSR) to conduct a token burn.
  • Sept. 22: Falcon Finance to host community sale on Buidlpad.

Conferences

• Sept.12-15: ETHTokyo 2025 (Tokyo, Japan)
• Sept. 15: TGE Summit 2025 (New York)
• Sept. 15-21: Budapest Blockchain Week 2025 (Budapest, Hungary)
• Sept. 16-17: Real-World Asset Summit (New York)
• Sept. 17: The Bitcoin Treasuries NYC Unconference (New York)
• Sept. 17-19: AIBC 2025 (Tokyo, Japan)
• Sept. 18: CBC Summit USA (Washington)
• Sept. 19: DEF-AI 2025 (Tblisi, Georgia)
• Sept. 17-20: Nomad Capitalist Live 2025 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
• Sept. 21: XRP Seoul 2025 (Seoul, South Korea)
  

source https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/09/15/fed-rate-decision-mkr-sky-conversion-deadline-crypto-week-ahead

Bank of England’s Proposed Stablecoin Ownership Limits are Unworkable, Say Crypto Groups

The Financial Times (FT) reported on Monday that cryptocurrency groups are urging the Bank of England (BoE) to scrap proposals limiting the amount of stablecoins individuals and businesses can own.

The groups warned that the rules would leave the UK with stricter oversight than the U.S. or the European Union (EU).

According to the FT, BoE officials plan to impose caps of 10,000 british pounds to 20,000 British pounds ($13,600–$27,200) for individuals and about 10 million British pounds ($13.6 million) for businesses on all systemic stablecoins, defined as tokens already widely used for payments in the U.K. or expected to be in the future.

The central bank has argued the restrictions are needed to prevent outflows of deposits from banks that could weaken credit provision and financial stability.

The FT cited Sasha Mills, the BoE’s executive director for financial market infrastructure, as saying the limits would mitigate risks from sudden deposit withdrawals and the scaling of new systemic payment systems.

However, industry executives told the FT the plan is unworkable.

Tom Duff Gordon, Coinbase’s vice president of international policy, said “imposing caps on stablecoins is bad for U.K. savers, bad for the City and bad for sterling,” adding that no other major jurisdiction has imposed such limits.

Simon Jennings of the UK cryptoasset business council said enforcement would be nearly impossible without new systems such as digital IDs. Riccardo Tordera-Ricchi of The Payments Association told the FT that limits “make no sense” because there are no caps on cash or bank accounts.

The U.S. enacted the GENIUS Act in July, which establishes a federal framework for payment stablecoins. The law sets licensing, reserve and redemption standards for issuers, with no caps on individual holdings. The European Union has also moved ahead with its Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), which is now fully in effect across the bloc.

Stablecoin-specific rules for asset-referenced and e-money tokens took effect on June 30, 2024, followed by broader provisions for crypto-assets and service providers on Dec. 30, 2024. Like the U.S. approach, MiCA does not cap holdings, instead focusing on reserves, governance and oversight by national regulators.

source https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/09/15/bank-of-england-s-proposed-stablecoin-ownership-limits-are-unworkable-says-crypto-group

What's Next for Bitcoin and Ether as Downside Fears Ease Ahead of Fed Rate Cut?

Fears of a downside for bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) have eased substantially, according to the latest options market data. However, the pace of the next upward move in these cryptocurrencies will largely hinge on the magnitude of the anticipated Fed rate cut scheduled for Sept. 17.

BTC's seven-day call/put skew, which measures how implied volatility is distributed across calls versus puts expiring in a week, has recovered to nearly zero from the bearish 4% a week ago, according to data source Amberdata.

The 30- and 60-day option skews, though still slightly negative, have rebounded from last week’s lows, signaling a notable easing of downside fears. Ether’s options skew is exhibiting a similar pattern at the time of writing.

The skew shows the market's directional bias, or the extent to which traders are more concerned about prices rising or falling. A positive skew suggests a bias towards calls or bullish option plays, while a negative reading indicates relatively higher demand for put options or downside protection.

The reset in options comes as bitcoin and ether prices see a renewed upswing in the lead-up to Wednesday's Fed rate decision, where the central bank is widely expected to cut rates and lay the groundwork for additional easing over the coming months. BTC has gained over 4% to over $116,000 in seven days, with ether rising nearly 8% to $4,650, according to CoinDesk data.

What happens next largely depends on the size of the impending Fed rate cut. According to CME's Fed funds futures, traders have priced in over 90% probability that the central bank will cut rates by 25 basis points (bps) to 4%-4.25%. But there is also a slight possibility of a jumbo 50 bps move.

BTC could go berserk in case the Fed delivers the surprise 50 bps move.

"A surprise 50 bps rate cut would be a massive +gamma BUY signal for ETH, SOL and BTC," Greg Magadini, director of derivatives at Amberdata, said in an email. "Gold will go absolutely nuts as well."

Note that the Deribit-listed SOL options already exhibit a strong bullish sentiment, with calls trading at 4-5 volatility premium to puts.

Magadini explained that if the decision comes in line with expectations for a 25 bps cut, then a continued calm "grind higher" for BTC looks likely. ETH, meanwhile, may take another week or so to retest all-time highs and convincingly trade above $5,000, he added.

source https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/09/15/what-s-next-for-bitcoin-and-ether-as-downside-fears-ease-ahead-of-fed-rate-cut

Asia Morning Briefing: Native Markets Wins Right to Issue USDH After Validator Vote

Good Morning, Asia. Here's what's making news in the markets:

Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a daily summary of top stories during U.S. hours and an overview of market moves and analysis. For a detailed overview of U.S. markets, see CoinDesk's Crypto Daybook Americas.

Hyperliquid’s validator community has chosen Native Markets to issue USDH, ending a weeklong contest that drew proposals from Paxos, Frax, Sky (ex-MakerDAO), Agora, and others.

Native Markets, co-founded by former Uniswap Labs president MC Lader, researcher Anish Agnihotri, and early Hyperliquid backer Max Fiege, said it will begin rolling out USDH “within days,” according to a post by Fiege on X.

According to onchain trackers, Native Markets' proposal took approximately 70% of validators' votes, while Paxos took 20%, and Ethena came in at 3.2%.

The staged launch starts with capped mints and redemptions, followed by a USDH/USDC spot pair before caps are lifted.

USDH is designed to challenge Circle’s USDC, which currently dominates Hyperliquid with nearly $6 billion in deposits, or about 7.5% of its supply. USDC and other stablecoins will remain supported if they meet liquidity and HYPE staking requirements.

Most rival bidders had promised to channel stablecoin yields back to the ecosystem with Paxos via HYPE buybacks, Frax through direct user yield, and Sky with a 4.85% savings rate plus a $25 million “Genesis Star” project.

Native Markets’ pitch instead stressed credibility, trading experience, and validator alignment.

Market Movement

BTC: BTC has recently reclaimed the $115,000 level, helped by inflows into ETFs, easing U.S. inflation data, and growing expectations for interest rate cuts. Also, technical momentum is picking up, though resistance sits around $116,000, according to CoinDesk's market insights bot.

ETH: ETH is trading above $4600. The price is being buoyed by strong ETF inflows.

Gold: Gold continues to trade near record highs as traders eye dollar weakness on expected Fed rate cuts.

Elsewhere in Crypto:

• Pakistan’s crypto regulator invites crypto firms to get licensed, serve 40 million local users (The Block)
• Inside the IRS’s Expanding Surveillance of Crypto Investors (Decrypt)
• Massachusetts State Attorney General Alleges Kalshi Violating Sports Gambling Laws (CoinDesk)

source https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/09/15/asia-morning-briefing-native-markets-wins-right-to-issue-usdh

AI, Mining News: GPU Gold Rush: Why Bitcoin Miners Are Powering AI’s Expansion

When Core Scientific signed a $3.5 billion deal to host artificial intelligence (AI) data centers earlier this year, it wasn’t chasing the next crypto token — it was chasing a steadier paycheck. Once known for its vast fleets of bitcoin mining rigs, the company is now part of a growing trend: converting energy-intensive mining operations into high-performance AI facilities.

Bitcoin miners like Core, Hut 8 (HUT) and TeraWulf (WULF) are swapping ASIC machines — the dedicated bitcoin mining computer — for GPU clusters, driven by the lure of AI’s explosive growth and the harsh economics of crypto mining.

Power play

It's no secret that bitcoin mining requires an extensive amount of energy, which is the biggest cost of minting a new digital asset.

Back in the 2021 bull run, when the Bitcoin network's hashrate and difficulty were low, miners were making out like bandits with margins as much as 90%. Then came the brutal crypto winter and the halving event, which slashed the mining reward in half. In 2025, with surging hashrate and energy prices, miners are now struggling to survive with razor-thin margins.

However, the need for power—the biggest input cost—became a blessing in disguise for these miners, who needed a different strategy to diversify their revenue sources.

Due to rising competition for mining, the miners continued to procure more machines to stay afloat, and with it came the need for more megawatts of electricity at a cheaper price. Miners invested heavily in securing these low-cost energy sources, such as hydroelectric or stranded natural gas sites, and developed expertise in managing high-density cooling and electrical systems—skills honed during the crypto boom of the early 2020s.

This is what captured the attention of AI and cloud computing firms. While bitcoin relies on specialized ASICs, AI thrives on versatile GPUs like Nvidia's H100 series, which require similar high-power environments but for parallel processing tasks in machine learning. Instead of building out data centers from scratch, taking over mining infrastructure, which already has power ready, became a faster way to grow an increasing appetite for AI-related infrastructure.

Essentially, these miners aren’t just pivoting—they’re retrofitting.

The cooling systems, low-cost energy contracts, and power-dense infrastructure they built during the crypto boom now serve a new purpose: feeding the AI models of companies like OpenAI and Google.

Firms like Crusoe Energy sold off mining assets to focus solely on AI, deploying GPU clusters in remote, energy-rich locations that mirror the decentralized ethos of crypto but now fuel centralized AI hyperscalers.

Terraforming AI

Bitcoin mining has effectively "terraformed" the terrain for AI compute by building out scalable, power-efficient infrastructure that AI desperately needs.

As Nicholas Gregory, Board Director at Fragrant Prosperity, noted, "It can be argued bitcoin paved the way for digital dollar payments as can be seen with USDT/Tether. It also looks like bitcoin terraformed data centres for AI/GPU compute."

This pre-existing "terraforming" allows miners to retrofit facilities quickly, often in under a year, compared to the multi-year timelines for traditional data center builds. Firms like Crusoe Energy sold off mining assets to focus solely on AI, deploying GPU clusters in remote, energy-rich locations that mirror the decentralized ethos of crypto but now fuel centralized AI hyperscalers.

Higher returns

In practice, it means miners can flip a facility in less than a year—far faster than the multi-year timeline of a new data center.

But AI isn’t a cheap upgrade.

Bitcoin mining setups are relatively modest, with costs ranging from $300,000 to $800,000 per megawatt (MW) excluding ASICs, allowing for quick scalability in response to market cycles. Meanwhile, AI infrastructure demands significantly higher capex due to the need for advanced liquid cooling, redundant power systems, and the GPUs themselves, which can cost tens of thousands per unit and face global supply shortages. Despite the steeper upfront costs, AI offers miners up to 25 times more revenue per kilowatt-hour than bitcoin mining, making the pivot economically compelling amid rising energy prices and declining crypto profitability.

A niche industry worth billions

As AI continues to surge and crypto profits tighten, bitcoin mining could become a niche game—one reserved for energy-rich regions or highly efficient players, especially as the next in 2028 could render many operations unprofitable without breakthroughs in efficiency or energy costs.

While projections show the global crypto mining market growing to $3.3 billion by 2030, at a modest 6.9% CAGR, the billions would be overshadowed by AI's exponential expansion. According to KBV Research, the global AI in mining market is projected to reach $435.94 billion by 2032, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40.6%.

With investors already seeing dollar signs in this shift, the broader trend suggests the future is either a hybrid or a full conversion to AI, where stable contracts with hyperscalers promise longevity over crypto's boom-bust cycles.

This evolution not only repurposes idle assets but also underscores how yesterday's crypto frontiers are forging tomorrow's AI empires.

source https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/09/14/ai-mining-news-gpu-gold-rush-why-bitcoin-miners-are-powering-ai-s-expansion

Bitcoin Climbs as Economy Cracks — Is it Bullish or Bearish?

Bitcoin (BTC) is about 4% higher than it was a week ago—good news for the digital asset but bad news for the economy.

The recent negative tone of the economic data points from last week raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates on Wednesday, making riskier assets such as stocks and bitcoin more attractive.

Let's recap the data that backs up that thesis.

The most important one, the U.S. CPI figures, came out on Thursday. The headline rate was slightly higher than expected, a sign inflation might be stickier than anticipated.

Before that, we had Tuesday's revisions to job data. The world's largest economy created almost 1 million fewer jobs than reported in the year ended March, the largest downward revision in the country's history.

The figures followed the much-watched monthly jobs report, which was released the previous Friday. The U.S. added just 22,000 jobs in August, with unemployment rising to 4.3%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. Initial jobless claims rose 27,000 to 263,000 — the highest since October 2021.

Higher inflation and fewer jobs are not great for the U.S. economy, so it's no surprise that the word "stagflation" is starting to creep back into macroeconomic commentary.

Against this backdrop, bitcoin—considered a risk asset by Wall Street—continued grinding higher, topping $116,000 on Friday and almost closing the CME futures gap at 117,300 from August.

Not a surprise, as traders are also bidding up the biggest risk assets: equities. Just take a look at the S&P 500 index, which closed at a record for the second day on the hope of a rate cut.

So how should traders think about BTC's price chart?

To this chart enthusiast, price action remains constructive, with higher lows forming from the September bottom of $107,500. The 200-day moving average has climbed to $102,083, while the Short-Term Holder Realized Price — often used as support in bull markets — rose to a record $109,668.

Bitcoin-linked stocks: A mixed bag

However, bitcoin's weekly positive price action didn't help Strategy (MSTR), the largest of the bitcoin treasury companies, whose shares were about flat for the week. Its rivals performed better: MARA Holdings (MARA) 7% and XXI (CEP) 4%.

Strategy (MSTR) has underperformed bitcoin year-to-date and continues to hover below its 200-day moving average, currently $355. At Thursday's close of $326, it's testing a key long-term support level seen back in September 2024 and April 2025.

The company’s mNAV premium has compressed to below 1.5x when accounting for outstanding convertible debt and preferred stock, or roughly 1.3x based solely on equity value.

Preferred stock issuance remains muted, with only $17 million tapped across STRK and STRF this week, meaning that the bulk of at-the-money issuance is still flowing through common shares. According to the company, options are now listed and trading for all four perpetual preferred stocks, a development that could provide additional yield on the dividend.

Bullish catalysts for crypto stocks?

The CME's FedWatch tool shows traders expect a 25 basis-point U.S. interest-rate cut in September and have priced in a total of three rate cuts by year-end.

That's a sign risk sentiment could tilt back toward growth and crypto-linked equities, underlined by the 10-year U.S. Treasury briefly breaking below 4% this week.

Still, the dollar index (DXY) continues to hold multiyear support, a potential inflection point worth watching.

source https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/09/14/sticky-inflation-softer-jobs-macro-headwinds-stir-bitcoin-tailwinds

Your Company Probably Doesn’t Need Its Own L2

More and more companies are attracted to the idea of launching their own Ethereum layer 2 network. Most of them shouldn’t bother. There’s already a staggering number of them — over 150. Quite a few of these are centralized and linked to a single enterprise and several companies such as Robinhood have recently announced plans to launch their own layer 2 networks.

The attractions for launching an Ethereum layer 2 network are significant, especially when compared to launching your own layer 1 (foundation layer) blockchain. Layer 1 networks must compete with networks like Ethereum and Solana in an already intensely competitive and crowded market. Layer 2 networks that run on top of Ethereum also face an intensely competitive marketplace but can simultaneously draw upon the strength of the Ethereum ecosystem, thanks to deep integration into Ethereum itself.

With Ethereum having turned 10 in July, it remains the dominant smart contract blockchain and it is the largest single home for digital assets, real-world assets (RWA), stablecoins and decentralized finance applications. Ethereum’s share of the overall decentralized finance ecosystem has been stable at about 50% for three years now. When layer 2 networks are included in the total, it appears to be rising modestly.

The temptation to launch your own Ethereum layer 2 network is easy to understand — they look like a useful concept with great economics. A layer 2 network on top of Ethereum offers a bit of “best of both worlds” functionality: you can control your own ecosystem within your layer 2 but retain integration with and access to the overall Ethereum ecosystem. Centralized layer 2 networks can set their own price structures and have nearly all the same controls as a stand-alone private blockchain such as deciding who has access to the network and what kind of data will be visible to others.

This comes with a cost. Layer 2 networks must purchase transaction processing space on the Ethereum mainnet to finalize their transactions (known as blob space) — but those costs are likely to be lower than those associated with starting a network from scratch and competing head-on with Ethereum. In fact, according to Token Terminal, the costs of developing a layer 2 are remarkably low. For Base, a layer 2 network run by Coinbase, during June of 2025, the network generated $4.9 million in fee revenue and spent just $50,000 on layer 1 settlement fees.

Indeed, the layer 1 settlement fees on Ethereum are so low they have set off a fiery debate within the network ecosystem about whether they are too low, and that layer 2 networks represent a transfer of benefits from layer 1 stakeholders to layer 2 networks. It is likely this will result in some re-balancing of fees, but even a 10x increase in fees is not likely to alter the fundamentally good value proposition that comes with scaling with layer 2 networks.

Furthermore, the recent announcement by Robinhood that they will be building their own layer 2 network on Ethereum fundamentally validates the overall layer 2 thesis within Ethereum: layer 2 networks are not only a good scaling option, they also enable a variety of business models that will entice a wide range of companies to join the network.The layer 2 ecosystem is likely to have a range of participants from the fully decentralized to the completely centralized.

And this brings us to the key question: does your company need its own layer 2 network? Chances are, you don’t. The real value proposition of a blockchain ecosystem is the ability to work in cooperation with others without any one party controlling the network. If you’re a manufacturing company, for example, you want to work with your suppliers and customers on a level playing field with your competitors. Blockchains let everyone join in without favoring any one participant. In the long run, working together on a level playing field is much cheaper and preferable to trying to integrate into different systems controlled by each one of your key customers or suppliers.

While some layer 2 networks look very profitable right now, this is only true if you can generate good transaction volume. Many of the layer 2 networks operating are doing little to no business as they struggle to differentiate themselves in a crowded market. According to L2Beat, most of these networks have less than $1mm in TVL bridged in from Ethereum and are averaging less than one user operation per second.

So when does a company need its own layer 2 network? My hypothesis is that this works best for firms that can aggregate significant transaction volume into the network and whose customers do not have the means or the individual volume to make their own direct connection to Ethereum. Right now, that largely means financial services firms that have thousands or millions of retail customers, from Coinbase to Kraken to Robinhood. More firms will surely follow. Having a layer 2 network might be seen, in the future, the way we looked at having a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Brokerage firms would want them, but a car maker wouldn’t find value in it.

Three questions would be useful in determining if a firm should launch its own Ethereum layer 2 network: first, is the company able to aggregate a significant volume of its own transactions or clients compared to other networks? Second, is transacting on-chain central to the company’s core business model (e.g., are you an intermediary, especially a financial one that presently transacts on traditional financial rails). Lastly, does your layer 2 approach offer a differentiated value proposition compared to the many other network options out there? If you can say yes to all three options, this is a possible path forward.

For most other types of firms, they may find the optimal value proposition to be connecting directly to Ethereum, or one of the other open layer 2 networks. It will be less costly and more private than going through an aggregator who will be able to mark up your transaction costs and see your transaction flow and less costly than running your own network.

I suspect, however, that before we are done, quite a few firms that have no need to run their own layer 2 will launch one anyway for the same reasons many firms launched private chains in the past.

No matter how reliably they have failed, the attraction of private blockchains was always hard to counter. The allure of “controlling your destiny” and “taxing the ecosystem” was hard to resist. Public chains, with their openness, interoperability, and permissionless nature can look scary to business users who would prefer more control.

To the same buyers who wanted private chains, centralized layer 2 networks look like a halfway house that may seem appealing. Unlike private chains, I don’t think they are all doomed to fail, but I do suspect only a few will succeed. History keeps repeating itself - mostly because we’re not very good at paying attention to it. Here we go again.

Disclaimer: These are the personal views of the author and do not represent the views of EY.

source https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2025/09/09/your-company-probably-doesn-t-need-its-own-l2