$180 Billion XRP Faces Its Biggest Upgrade Yet With New Ripple DeFi Roadmap

Digital asset investment products recorded $1.9 billion in inflows last week following the Federal Reserve’s first interest rate cut of 2025, to data from CoinShares.

The inflows marked the second consecutive week of gains for the sector, lifting total assets under management (AuM) to a year-to-date high of $40.4 billion.Source: Bitcoin and Ethereum Lead $1.9B Crypto Inflows Following Fed Move

The Fed lowered its benchmark rate by 25 basis points on September 17, trimming the target range to 4.25%. It was the first cut since 2023, coming after a series of weaker labor market readings and softer inflation data.

While the move was characterized as a “hawkish cut,” with policymakers signaling caution on further easing, investors turned to crypto products later in the week, with $746 million flowing in on Thursday and Friday alone.

Bitcoin funds attracted the largest share, with $977 million in inflows. The gains followed $2.4 billion of inflows the prior week, bringing Bitcoin’s four-week total to $3.9 billion, to SoSoValue. Source:

Short-Bitcoin products continued to weaken, recording $3.5 million in outflows and driving their total AuM to a multiyear low of $83 million.

Ethereum also benefited strongly, seeing $772 million in inflows. That pushed its year-to-date total to a record $12.6 billion, underscoring the renewed demand for Ether-backed exchange-traded products.

Solana and XRP also drew investor interest, with inflows of $127.3 million and $69.4 million, respectively.

Market reaction to the Fed’s cut was volatile. Bitcoin briefly rose above $117,000 last Thursday before retracing to $115,089 at press time, down 1.2% in 24 hours and sitting 7% below its all-time high of $124,128.

Ether traded as high as $4,600 during the week before slipping back to around $4,465. More than $105 million was liquidated across the crypto market following Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference, with $88.8 million in long positions wiped out alongside $17 million in shorts.

📉 The Fed cut rates to 4.25%, citing weaker jobs and softer inflation. Markets now watch how responds. — Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews)

Institutional interest also remained strong through spot ETFs. On September 19, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total net inflow of $222.6 million.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust led with $246.1 million in daily inflows, while Grayscale’s GBTC posted $23.5 million in outflows.

The cumulative net inflow into Bitcoin spot ETFs now stands at $57.7 billion, with total net assets of $152.3 billion, representing 6.6% of Bitcoin’s market capitalization.

Ethereum ETFs also recorded notable activity. BlackRock’s ETHA product led with $144.3 million in inflows, while Grayscale, Fidelity, and Bitwise products saw modest outflows.Source:

Overall, the sector’s AuM hit $40.3 billion, its highest level on record.Crypto ETF Race Heats Up as SEC Clears Faster Listings, New Products Debut

The wave of fresh capital into crypto funds coincided with a flurry of ETF activity in Washington.

On Tuesday, five new applications were filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, signaling issuers’ growing appetite for products tied to assets beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.

🌊 Crypto ETF filings flood the SEC with Avalanche, Sui, and Bonk products as 92 applications await October deadlines, testing regulatory limits. — Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews)

The latest lineup includes Bitwise’s proposed spot Avalanche ETF, Defiance ETFs designed around Bitcoin and Ethereum basis trades, and Tuttle Capital’s “Income Blast” funds tracking Bonk, Litecoin, and Sui. T-Rex also entered the race with a leveraged 2x Orbs ETF.

ETF Institute co-founder Nate Geraci that the sector should expect “floodgates” of filings in the months ahead. These additions bring the number of pending crypto ETF applications above 92, with most facing SEC deadlines in October and November.

The pressure on regulators intensified on Wednesday, when the agency approved new listing standards for Nasdaq, Cboe BZX, and NYSE Arca.

📢 The SEC has approved new rules allowing Nasdaq, Cboe and NYSE to fast-track crypto spot ETFs, opening the door to wider listings. — Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews)

The rules will allow exchanges to list commodity-based trust shares, including crypto spot ETFs, without case-by-case reviews, cutting the timeline from more than 200 days to as little as 75.

The first products to benefit are expected to be Solana and XRP spot funds.

Notably, the SEC has Grayscale’s Digital Large Cap Fund (GDLC), marking the first multi-crypto ETP to hit the market.

The same day, two new ETFs began trading in Chicago: the Dogecoin ETF (DOJE) on Cboe BZX, which recorded $6 million in its first hour, and the spot XRP ETF (XRPR), which topped $24 million within two hours.

Both funds are issued by REX Shares and Osprey Funds.

(the first spot crypto '5' basket ETF) did $22m on its first day as an ETF. Really solid. did $12m and did $15m. All of them crush the avg ETF launch altho far cry from bitcoin. Still, gotta be happy with that if you are those issuers.— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas)

Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas that DOJE and XRPR, along with the first spot crypto “basket” ETF ($GDLC), all exceeded average launch volumes, though they still trailed Bitcoin products.

By Paul R. La Monica

It might not be another crypto winter just yet. But the current correction for Bitcoin from last month's all-time highs and the slides for Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and other top cryptocurrencies are starting to take their toll on stocks that have ties to the digital currency universe. Just look at Gemini Space Station, the crypto investment firm led by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss that recently went public.

Gemini fell 54% in midday trading Monday. When it debuted on Sept. 12, the stock surged 45% in the first few minutes of trading and finished with a gain of almost 15% from its initial public offering price. It's been all downhill since then. Gemini is now trading at about $23, nearly 20% below its $28 IPO price.

Investors may be worried about the volatility in crypto prices, as well as tough competition in crypto trading. Gemini's fundamentals are a bit shaky, too. Although revenue soared 45% in 2024, the company lost money. In the first half of this year, it posted a decline in revenue of 8% and has widened its losses as well.

Gemini is not the only crypto stock to take a hit Monday. Shares of rivals Coinbase, Robinhood, and Galaxy Digital were all lower along with the drop in Bitcoin prices. Bullish, another crypto stock that recently went public and reported strong earnings last week, was down 5% Monday.

Even though the price of Bitcoin is still up sharply this year and there is enthusiasm about digital assets over the longer term — thanks to a more favorable regulatory and legislative environment in Washington — investors still have to come to grips with the fact that crypto brokerage stocks are priced to perfection.

Coinbase, for example, is trading at almost 45 times earnings estimates for this year while Robinhood has a price-to-earnings ratio of 75. Galaxy is expected to lose money this year and in 2026.

So don't be surprised to see crypto brokerage stocks whipsawed even further as Bitcoin prices fluctuate wildly. Cryptocurrencies aren't for the faint of heart, and neither are the shares of the companies that are closely tied to digital assets.

Write to Paul R. La Monica at paul.lamonica@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

A group of Democratic senators in the US Congress has signaled its intention to work with Republicans on advancing legislation to establish a digital asset market structure framework.

In a Friday statement, 12 Democrats, including members of the Senate Banking Committee and Senate Agriculture Committee, issued a statement ahead of an expected vote on a crypto market structure bill pushed by Republican leadership.

“We hope our Republican colleagues will agree to a bipartisan authorship process, as is the norm for legislation of this scale,” the statement reads. “Given our shared interest in moving forward quickly on this issue, we hope they will agree to reasonable requests to allow for true collaboration.”

Though Republicans hold a majority in both chambers of Congress, they could still need some Democratic support to pass legislation.

Among the Democrats’ proposed “seven key pillars” for a market structure bill released about two weeks ago were protections to fight illicit finance and “closing the gap in the spot market” for digital assets not considered securities.

They also asked Republicans to support “preventing corruption and abuse” and illicit finance.

A top Democrats on the banking committee, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, did not sign onto the statement with the 12 other lawmakers. Warren gave an interview during the August recess, in which she said that while digital assets need regulation, she would not support legislation “written by the crypto industry.”

Republicans looking to pass market structure by 2026

Last week, several cryptocurrency industry executives, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, met with Republican lawmakers to discuss a path forward for crypto-related bills in Congress.

Though the US House of Representatives passed its version of market structure under the CLARITY Act in July, Senate Republicans have signaled they will build on the legislation to draft a different bill. 

This bill, tentatively called the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, is expected to go for a vote in the Senate Banking Committee by the end of September, according to Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis. Republicans expect the bill to be considered by the banking and agriculture committees before heading for a floor vote by the end of the year.

According to Cardano-focused X community account Cardanians, 1,600 ideas head to a vote as a new phase of Cardano's funding mechanism, Project Catalyst, takes off.

According to Cardanians, over 1,600 ideas across four categories were submitted for the review phase in the ongoing Project Catalyst round, with a total of 20,000,000 ADA to be distributed in funding.

According to the official Project Catalyst page, community voting for Project Catalyst fund14 is now live, marking the third phase after proposal submission, which began in late July, and community review, which spanned from late August to mid-September.

If community voting concludes successfully, the next phases will be the announcement of voting results — anticipated for the week of Oct. 6 — and project onboarding, anticipated for October to November, with the specific timeline yet unknown.

Categories listed

Recipients will be selected across four categories, which include "Cardano Open: Developers," which funds open source tools and environments to enhance the Cardano developer experience, with a total of 3.1 million ADA allocated for distribution.

The second category is "Cardano Open: Ecosystem," which funds nontechnical initiatives like marketing, education and community building to grow Cardano’s ecosystem and onboard new users globally, with a total of 3,000,000 ADA to be distributed.

The third category is "Cardano Use Cases: Concepts," which funds novel, early-stage Cardano-based concepts, developing proof of concept prototypes through deploying minimum viable products (MVP) to validate innovative products, services or business models driving Cardano adoption, with a total of 4,000,000 ADA to be distributed.

The fourth category is "Cardano Use Cases: Partners & Products," which empowers exceptional applications and enterprise collaborations to enhance products and services with capabilities that drive high-volume transactions and accelerate mainstream adoption, with total funds available being 8.5 million ADA.

Community voting is expected to conclude on Oct. 6, 2025.

The Shiba Inu chart does not leave much room for optimism. The price is currently holding at $0.00001207, but the monthly setup points directly to the lower Bollinger Band at $0.00000611. This would erase a digit from the price figure and take SHIB back to levels not seen since 2021, when the token first appeared in the crypto market's mainstream.

Past performance shows that every bounce has been weaker than the last. Attempts to climb above $0.00002000 have been unsuccessful, and the resistance level of $0.00002800 has not been approached in over a year. Instead, trading volume has decreased, the price range has narrowed and the Bollinger Bands are indicating a potential move. 

Usually, when the market moves in this way, the next expansion follows the dominant direction — and for SHIB, that still points lower.BINANCE:SHIBUSDT by TradingView">

A drop toward $0.00000611 would be more than just another sell-off. It would reset the entire meme coin narrative back to pre-mania levels. 

Goodbye, SHIB?

For long-term holders, such a move would mean seeing years of community hype and development marked down to a chart position that looks like a restart. For traders, it is a reminder that meme coins offer little support once momentum fades.

Shiba Inu coin has built its brand on wild gains, community and promises of DeFi prosperity, and some will see a decline as an opportunity to buy more.

However, much of this is gone; Shytoshi's disappearance and the Shibarium exploit are the stark proof. Thus, for now, the risk of losing a zero is real, and unless new demand emerges quickly, SHIB’s next destination may be a level that no one expected to see again in this cycle.

Forward Industries (ticker FORD), the largest Solana digital asset treasury firm backed by Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital, is looking to tokenize its shares using Superstate’s Opening Bell platform.

The announcement on Monday comes on the heels of Galaxy (GLXY) becoming the first U.S. Nasdaq-listed company to issue shares on Solana, via Superstate, a financial technology startup founded by Robert Leshner, who previously created DeFi protocol Compound.

It also comes amid rising interest in onchain equities and as firms like Kraken and Robinhood look to expand access to and the utility of U.S. and other global capital markets by issuing tokenized versions of popular stocks, including APPL and TSLA. Tokenized equities theoretically offer 24/7 trading, real-time settlement, and enhanced global liquidity.

"This partnership reflects the continued execution of our vision to make Forward Industries an onchain-first company, including tokenizing our equity directly on the Solana mainnet," said Kyle Samani, who was named Forward's chairman of the board.

According to the announcement, Forward is working with Solana-based lending protocols Drift, Kamino, and Jupiter Lend to expand the functionality of it onchain FORD shares. Forward's token will be added as an eligible collateral option across these systems. The DAT firm previously announced plans to deploy funds into various DeFi protocols.

Further, as part of the arrangement, Forward Industries "expects to take an equity stake in Superstate to further align interests and enable joint development of upcoming Superstate products," according to a press statement. 

Opening Bell, launched by Superstate in May, is a regulated onchain issuance platform enabling companies to issue tokenized public equity, initially using Solana. Galaxy, which recently uplisted onto the Nasdaq, tokenized its shares earlier this month.

Multicoin, alongside Galaxy and Jump, led a $1.65 billion private placement in Forward in early September. The effort quickly became the largest SOL treasury firm by total holdings, surpassing the combined value of the next three-largest SOL DATs, DeFi Development Corp., Sharps Technology, and Upexi, according to The Block's Data Dashboard.

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