Bitcoin, Ethereum and Fed Insights: Top Crypto Stories This Week

Top crypto news highlights of this week, you should know!

Institutional Demand Fuels Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF Flows

Institutional demand is propelling Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF flows with Bitcoin ETFs having $642M one-day inflows and Ethereum ETFs at $405M on September 12. Net weekly inflows for BTC totaled $2.34B, with ETH spiking $637M following historic outflows.

Fidelity and BlackRock are taking the lead on inflows which is indicating increasing market confidence. Positive expectations of Fed rate cuts are adding liquidity, supporting BTC’s potential toward $150,000 and fueling bullish sentiment for ETH’s ongoing growth.

Fed Rate Cut 2025: Gold and Stocks Rally While Bitcoin Holds

Markets are reacting ahead of the Fed’s expected rate cut on September 17. Gold at $3,650, S&P 500 at $6,584.29, and NASDAQ at $22,141 all recording strong gains. Bitcoin stabilizes at $116,000, with $300M of inflows to ETFs and institutional purchase.

Weakening economic data, such as increased unemployment and tempered PPI, underpin the rate cut, which will further lift risk assets. Analysts predict that BTC can move towards $200K, while Ethereum and altcoins also attract interest.

Galaxy Digital Pumps $1.1B Into Solana, Boosting Market Confidence

Galaxy Digital bought nearly 5 million SOL worth $1.16B in three days, moving $1.11B into Coinbase Prime custody. Solana now trades at $243, up 2.53% in 24 hours.

The acquisition is a positive sign of strong institutional belief and long-term intent, aided by Solana's expanding base of 58 million monthly active addresses and $290B in 30-day transacting volume.

ThorChain Co-Founder Wallet Breach Clarified

ThorChain co-founder JP Thor’s personal wallet lost $1.2M in a phishing attack but the official THORChain protocol was unaffected. The confusion arose because the hacked account shared his username.

RUNE was flat at $1.28, up 6% over 7 days. The incident reflects individual risk and not a project-level vulnerability and investors are recommended to stick to official announcements.

Paxos Eyes Hyperliquid Stablecoin Partnership

Paxos will market itself as the Hyperliquid USDH stablecoin issuer, leveraging its regulatory experience (NYDFS, MAS) and $160B stablecoin issuance track record. Integration with PayPal and Venmo would reach 400M+ users, catalyzing adoption.

Paxos is in competition with others including Native Markets for Hyperliquid's $5.9B reserve since community votes will decide the partnership, potentially reorienting DeFi influence and stablecoin adoption.

Fed Rate Cut 2025 Could Boost Crypto and Risk Assets

The Fed will lower rates to 4.00%-4.25% on September 17 due to decreasing job growth and increasing unemployment at 4.3%. This relaxation might advantage risk assets such as Bitcoin ($115,287), Ethereum ($4,545), and Solana ($238) drawing institutional investors and ETFs.

Decreasing rates might increase demand for crypto, making potential gains possible even with temporary market fluctuations.

SSV Labs Clarifies Validator Slashing Incident

SSV Labs assured its network remained secure following two Ethereum validator slashing incidents on September 10. The initial one ran one validator, and the second one slashed 39 validators run by Ankr, due to external key management mistakes—not protocol issues.

The incident underlines good validator key handling, while SSV's infrastructure remains intact and stakers need not do anything.

India’s Crypto Regulation on Hold Despite High Adoption

India paces worldwide crypto adoption but shies from complete regulation because of financial system vulnerabilities and historic hacks such as WazirX ($230Million) and CoinDCX ($44M). RBI mentions difficulties in managing decentralized transfers.

Experts advocate for stablecoin regulations to reduce remittance fees and stimulate the economy, but authorities prefer careful, partial regulation while monitoring international developments before providing legal certainty.

Sol Strategies Hits Nasdaq, Boosting Solana Access

Sol Strategies, previously Cypherpunk Holdings, started trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol STKE, and it holds 435,000 SOL worth $94M. Apart from token positions, it operates validator nodes and staking solutions, exposing investors to Solana's business model and ecosystem.

The listing enhances liquidity and U.S. investor access, while Solana price jumped to $220.70, marking increasing optimism for the network's long-term prospects.

FedNow Raises Instant Payment Limit to $10M

The U.S. Federal Reserve’s FedNow service will increase its transaction limit from $1M to $10M starting November 2025. This allows instant, 24/7 high-value payments for corporate treasury, payroll, vendor settlements and real estate.

With ISO 20022 messaging and risk management tools, businesses and banks gain faster, secure and more flexible payment options, modernizing the U.S. financial ecosystem.