- Cryptocurrency weekly highlights mixed sentiment as U.S. data and Powell’s remarks raised doubts on consecutive Fed rate cuts.
- Bitcoin held modest gains, but Ethereum and Ripple closed the week on negative notes.
- Hopes for a Fed rate cut and ETF buzz gave crypto a boost, but stronger U.S. data lifted the Dollar and brought downside pressure.
- BTC dominance rebounds, casting doubt on a potential altseason in 2025.
- Preliminary PMIs for September, Fed Chair Powell’s speech, and the U.S. Core PCE Price Index are eyed.
Cryptocurrency Weekly Snapshot
Cryptocurrency markets initially cheered the U.S. Federal Reserve’s (Fed) Interest Rate cut and buzz around the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) move to ease rules for faster spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The optimism, however, faded as U.S. data and a reassessment of Fed Chair Powell’s speech raised doubts about the Fed’s further rate cuts, even as markets anticipate two more rate cuts in 2025.
With this, Bitcoin (BTC) struggles to keep its three-week uptrend, while Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP) are both down for the week. That said, the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) prints the first weekly gains in three, despite falling to the lowest since 2022 earlier in the week.
Bitcoin Stays Defensive: Bitcoin (BTC) posted its consecutive third weekly gains, despite rising a meagre 0.10% on a week to $115,500. Still, the crypto major’s gains were smaller compared to gold and equities, but challenged the altseason talks. Notably, BTC’s losses in August were the first in five, but the following rise reversed losses.
Ethereum Retreats: Ethereum (ETH) reversed back into the red after snapping a two-week downtrend the last week, as crypto bulls reassessed bullish ETH calls amid doubt about the Fed rate cuts and the market’s rush towards other coins, like Solana (SOL) and Dogecoin (DOGE). That said, ETH drops over 3.0% a week to $4.453 at the latest.
Ripple Stays Firmer: Ripple (XRP) traces Ethereum while posting a weekly loss. That said, the Altcoin struggles to cheer the REX-Osprey XRP ETF launch while posting around a 2.0% weekly loss to $2.97 by press time.
The Weekly Moves
Key Macro Catalysts
“Buy the rumours, sell the news” aptly describes last week’s market behavior as traders initially cheered the U.S. Federal Reserve’s (Fed) 0.25% interest rate cut and hints of two more reductions in 2025. However, Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference raised doubts about the Fed’s future actions and allowed traders to book profits.
U.S. Treasury bond yields rose across all maturities, extending the post-Fed recovery in longer-dated bond coupons, while also portraying a reversal from a multi-month low on the short-term bond yields, as financial market traders consider the U.S. central bank’s rate cut as hawkish.
The reason could be linked to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference, as he termed the rate cut a “risk management” decision and emphasized that future policy would remain data-dependent. Powell also downplayed revisions to employment data and pointed to immigration as a key driver in changes to the labor market, rather than job market weakness.
Elsewhere, upbeat U.S. data also favored the USD’s rebound and helped the Wall Street optimists. That said, U.S. Initial Jobless Claims for the week ended on September 16 dropped to a three-week low of 231K versus 241K expected and 264K prior (revised). Notably, the Continuing Jobless Claims also eased to 1.92 million, from a revised prior of 1.927 million, compared to the analysts’ estimation of 1.95 million.
Also positive for the U.S. Dollar was the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey results for September. The regional manufacturing gauge jumped to the highest since January, to 23.2, from -0.3, versus the market expectations of 2.3.
Elsewhere, the political blame game starts after Bloomberg revealed that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bassent had listed two separate homes as his “principal residence” when securing mortgages in 2007. This appears to be the same situation for which U.S. President Donald Trump fired Fed Governor Lisa Cook, but failed.
Also likely to have favored the U.S. Dollar and weighed on the cryptocurrencies could be the news that President Donald Trump’s administration is considering a major initiative to boost U.S. manufacturing, potentially tapping a $550 billion fund created during trade talks with Japan.
Furthermore, U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held talks on Friday, and both policymakers sounded optimistic about striking a good trade deal. This adds to the market optimism and helps the U.S. Dollar remain firmer, while also exerting additional downside pressure on the cryptocurrencies amid firmer yields and equities.
For more macro updates like this, please check our news section here!
Crypto Market News
In the crypto universe, Bitcoin (BTC) struggles to cheer the Fed rate cut while Ripple (XRP) and Ethereum (ETH) are both down on the week as traders cheer better gains in equities and bond yields. Meanwhile, the Bitcoin dominance regains after a few weeks of downtrend, up from 56.7% to 57.00% at the latest.
That said, some of the top crypto news are as follows, while more updates like this could be traced to our Coin Bytes.
The U.S. SEC approved new rules allowing exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq to list spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under simplified standards, cutting approval times significantly and boosting market confidence.
Read More: SEC Greenlights Crypto ETF Generic Listing Standards in Landmark Vote
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer (CIO), Matt Hougan, questions the market’s optimism surrounding the crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopts generic listing standards. The crypto wizard argued that the mere existence of crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) does not guarantee significant inflows. You need a fundamental interest in the underlying asset.
Also read: Crypto ETFs Could Multiply Under New SEC Rules — But Will Money Follow?
The global payment processor, MoneyGram, unveiled a next-generation stablecoin app to facilitate the USDC transactions, a big step towards crypto usage in remittance. The application will first be launched in Colombia.
Check Details: MoneyGram Stablecoin App Launches to Revolutionize Remittances
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is requesting victims of fraud by SafeMoon’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Braden John Karony, to complete a confidential questionnaire. This will assist the investigation and help victims potentially recover their losses following Karony’s conviction.
Also Read: FBI Seeks SafeMoon Victims for Restitution After Founder’s Conviction
Alchemy Pay launched a platform to enable fiat-to-Real World Assets (RWA) investment easy. With this, participants can invest in tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs while using their local currency.
Google unveiled an open-source payment protocol that enables the Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents to transact autonomously using stablecoins and traditional financial rails, per a Fortune report.
Read details: AI Agents Just Got a Wallet: Google Enables Payments with Stablecoins
Citigroup expects a pullback in the Ethereum prices, from $4,500 to $4,300 by the year’s end, with a bull case of $6,400 and a bear case of $2,200. The U.S. bank cites the current ETH growth depending on the Layer 2s, with only 30% reaching the foundation Layer, as the base for their conservative forecasts.
A division of Standard Chartered, SC Ventures, unveiled plans to raise $250 million for a new digital assets fund that will prioritize the Financial Technology (FinTech) investments, up for launch in 2026.
Elsewhere, American Express is launching a new blockchain-based passport stamp on Base, enabling the cardholders to digitally collect and share their travel memories as customisable NFT stamps.
On a major front, the Western payment giant PayPal introduced a ‘Links’ feature in an upgrade to its peer-to-peer (P2P) payment system, allowing users to transact in cryptocurrencies like sending a text.
Read Details: Introducing P2P PayPal Links for Effortless Transfers
A Nasdaq-listed medical instrument company, Helius Medical Technologies (HSDT), shocked markets with a 220% run-up in a single day based on its rush towards forming Solana (SOL) Treasury. The firm raised $550 million in a private investment in public equity (PIPE) offering.
More Here: Nasdaq-Listed Helius Soars 220% on $500M Solana Treasury Pivot
The Bank of England (BoE) proposed stringent restrictions on the amount of stablecoin that people and businesses can acquire, gaining backlash from pro-crypto groups arguing that it could challenge the UK’s growth and make it lag behind its counterparts. Also from the UK was news that the London Stock Exchange (LSE) launched blockchain platforms for private funds, per CoinTelegraph.
Further, the Ethereum ecosystem’s stablecoin supplies hit an all-time high of $166 billion, with USDT leading the pack, as investors seek solace in secured crypto avenues.
Meanwhile, Pump.fun excels in its buyback strategy, with the total amount of tokens repurchased being $94.5 million, around 6.58% of the supply in circulation.
On the same line, Galaxy Digital increases buying of Solana (SOL) tokens as a part of its SOL Treasury drive. The pro-crypto firms recently teamed up with Multicoin and Jump Crypto to add $306 million worth of SOL coins.
Elsewhere, Native Markets won the race for the Hyperliquid’s USDH ticker, after the governance vote by HYPE stakers and validators. The start-up firm beat major contenders like Paxos and Frax Finance by promising a natively integrated, yield-sharing model.
Also read: Native Markets Wins Hotly Contested Race for Hyperliquid’s USDH Ticker
Bitcoin, Equities, and Gold in Sync
Bitcoin (BTC) notched its third weekly gain in four, up slightly week-over-week (WoW), amid mixed Fed bets. Elsewhere, the spot Gold (XAU) rose for the fifth consecutive week and refreshed a record high before ending the week with around 1.2% weekly gains to near $3,685. On the same line, S&P 500 (SPX) refreshed a record high and ended the week on a positive note, with 1.2% weekly upside. With the BTC in sync with the other risk assets, the hopes of its fresh ATH, like XAU and SPX, also gain momentum.
To clearly visualize links among these key risk assets, let’s see the correlation chart from TradingView.
BTC, S&P 500 and Gold
With the clearly linear relations between Bitcoin, Gold, the U.S. equities, the BTC traders should stay optimistic as the latest data and news answer many questions and have already flashed record tops in XAU and SPX. Still, uncertainties around the Fed interest rate decisions, concerns over the Fed’s independence, the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, and the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs could cloud the market outlook.
ETF Signals, Whale Moves
Starting with the latest U.S. spot Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) data from the SoSoValue, the Bitcoin (BTC) spot ETFs reported a two-day inflow pattern, with a daily inflow of $222.62 million on Friday.
Still, the weekly ETF performance marked a consecutive fourth inflow, worth $886.65 million for the last week.
It’s worth observing that August reported the first monthly outflow in five months, the biggest since March, but September’s inflows have been stellar, with the latest figures of $3.48 billion.
With this magnitude of surprise from the ETF flows on a monthly basis, the BTC bulls seem to be keeping the reins for a while.
On the flip side, whale activities, wallets holding over 10,000 BTC, appear to be downbeat as CoinCentral reports $4.0 billion worth of Bitcoin sell transactions that were swapped into Ethereum.
Technical Analysis Signals BTC Consolidation
As per Bitcoin’s daily chart, BTC’s early-week optimism faded as the price hovers around the upper Bollinger Band (BB) while the Directional Movement Index (DMI) momentum indicator suggests sluggish moves. Still, the quote’s sustained trading beyond the key Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) and bullish Moving Average Convergence and Divergence (MACD) signals challenge bears.
Bitcoin Price: Daily Chart Points To Short-Term Pullback
Bitcoin’s sluggish performance near the upper Bollinger Band (BB) joins sluggish signals from the DMI indicator to lure short-term sellers.
That said, the DMI’s Upmove line (Blue) holds the top spot on the daily chart, but stays beneath the 25.0 neutral level to indicate slow buying strength. On the same line, the Average Directional Index (ADX in red) and the Downmove (D- in Orange) seesaw near 15.00, reflecting the need for a strong bullish catalyst to fuel the prices beyond the immediate resistance. Meanwhile, MACD histograms (green) are bullish and defend the overall bullish bias.
With this, Bitcoin’s retreat toward the middle BB support of $113,400 can’t be ruled out, unless the quote defies the $118,700 hurdle comprising the upper BB.
Still, an ascending support line from late April, close to $109,900, appears to be an important level to watch for sellers, before the monthly low of $107,270 and the lower BB of $109,200.
Above all, the 200-day EMA near $105,930 becomes the final defense of the Bitcoin buyers, after which the $100K threshold and June’s low of $98,250 should grab the bear’s attention.
Alternatively, a daily closing beyond $118,700 hurdle could propel prices toward a two-month-old horizontal resistance near $123,300.
Beyond that, the all-time high around $124,500 holds the key to BTC’s potential rally toward the $130K psychological magnet.
Ethereum Drops Back!
Ethereum dropped back into the bear’s claw after snapping a two-week downtrend, as market players reassess the previous bullish momentum surrounding the second-largest cryptocurrency. Also weighing on Ethereum (ETH) is growing optimism around altcoins like Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and Avalanche (AVAX), fueled by ETF enthusiasm and rising corporate interest in diversifying crypto treasury reserves.
ETH ETFs Report Easing Inflows, But Whales Keep Buying
As per the latest SoSoValue data, the U.S. Ethereum (ETH) spot ETFs reported inflows for the second consecutive week, but with a lesser amount. That said, ETH ETF inflows dropped for the three days the last week, despite posting a weekly inflow, while justifying ETH’s latest weakness in prices.
On September 19, the U.S. Spot ETH ETFs reported its second daily inflow, with a weaker $47.75 million figure.
This also resulted in the weekly ETH ETF inflows, with a total of $556.92 million for the week, after reversing a surprise outflow in the previous week.
Meanwhile, the monthly ETH ETF scenario is downbeat as it reports the lowest monthly inflow in five, worth a meagre $406.87 million.
Elsewhere, whale wallets, holding over 10,000 to 100,000 ETH, showed resilient buying and pushed back against the bearish bias. That said, crypto transaction tracker Lookonchain stated on Friday that whales have purchased 820,000 ETH, worth $3.8 billion. This substantial accumulation was recorded over the past 72 hours, or three days.
Ethereum Technical Analysis Teases Sellers
Ethereum’s technical analysis portrays its struggle with the upper Bollinger Band (BB) amid bullish signals from MACD and DMI momentum indicators. Still, the quote’s sustained trading beyond the key EMAs keeps the long-term buyers hopeful.
Ethereum Price: Daily Chart Points To Further Retreat
Ethereum pokes the middle Bollinger Band (BB) within a five-week ascending triangle, currently between $4,385 and $4,830.
The ETH recovery was previously supported by an impending bullish crossover on the MACD, but lost momentum afterward. Meanwhile, with the DMI’s D+ (Upmove, blue) line being closer to the 25.00 neutral level, as well as above the ADX (Average Directional Index, red) and the D- (Downmove, orange) lines, the bearish momentum seems weak.
With this, the altcoin could defend the monthly recovery, if it manages to stay beyond the middle BB support of $4,450, a break of which could direct sellers toward the stated triangle’s lower boundary of $4,385.
That said, a clear break of $4,385 could trigger a theoretical fall targeting $3,600, with the 100-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) of $3,825, acting as intermediate halts along with the lower BB support of $4,185.
Notably, an ascending trend line from early April, near $3,200, appear to be tough nuts to crack for the Ethereum bears before taking control.
Alternatively, the upper BB hurdle of $4,715 appears to be an immediate resistance level to watch during the ETH’s fresh upside. However, the quote’s further rise appears to be challenging, as multiple hurdles since August, forming part of the triangle, could challenge the bulls around $4,768-$4,830.
Beyond that, the all-time high (ATH) of $4,954 and the $5,000 psychological magnet will gain the Ethereum buyer’s attention.
Ripple Retreats despite ETF Optimism…
Ripple (XRP) posted its first weekly loss in three, falling around 2.0% over a week to $2.97 by the press time.
The coin’s latest weakness fails to justify the market’s optimism surrounding the XRP ETF launch, as well as the Fed rate cuts. The reason could be linked to the old adage, “buy the rumours, sell the news”.
During the last week, “The REX-Osprey XRP ETF recorded the highest debut volume of any ETF this year, surpassing $37 million,” per CoinDesk. On the same line was news about Grayscale’s spot XRP ETF approval.
However, it all felt like a déjà vu as the much-awaited XRP ETFs couldn’t lift the prices, similar to Ripple’s failure to cheer the formal closure of the Ripple vs. U.S. SEC battle. This raises questions among the XRP trader fraternity about the coin’s fundamental strength, despite a major institutional rush and multiple positive news.
Ripple Technical Analysis Lures Short-term Bears
Ripple’s struggle to keep gains joins sluggish momentum and a pullback within the Bollinger Band (BB) to lure the short-term sellers.
Ripple Price: Daily Chart Challenges Bullish Bias
The MACD signals are mostly indecisive and the DMI’s Upmove (Blue) line is also below the 25.00 neutral mark, suggesting downbeat momentum. Additionally, the Downmove (Orange) line is above the ADX (red) line, pointing toward sluggish price action.
With this, the XRP’s fall beneath the middle BB support of $2.97 appears imminent, which in turn can drive the prices down toward the 100-day EMA support of $2.84 and then to the lower BB support of $2.77.
However, the previous resistance line from early March, close to $2.65, and the 200-day EMA support of $2.59 are the last line of defense for the bulls.
On the flip side, the upper BB guards the immediate XRP upside near $3.17.
Beyond that, the monthly high of $3.19 could lure short-term XRP bulls before highlighting the key resistance area from mid-January, between $3.33 and $3.40.
That said, the XRP’s break of $3.40 will potentially open the door to challenge the record high near $3.67 and target the psychological $4.00 level.
Conclusion
Looking forward, preliminary readings of September Purchasing Managers Indexes (PMIs) for major economies, a speech from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, and the U.S. Core Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) Price Index for August, the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge, will be important to watch on the economic calendar.
Also important to observe will be the developments about the U.S. tariffs and geopolitical tensions surrounding Russia, Israel, and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Given the market’s recently dim reaction to the Fed rate cuts, as well as the fresh doubts about the further rate reductions in 2025, despite the dovish dot-plot, cryptocurrency sellers seem to be flexing their muscles.
If upcoming U.S. data boosts Treasury yields and the Dollar, cryptocurrencies could face more downside. XRP remains under pressure, failing to rally on Ripple’s win against the U.S. SEC and recent ETF approvals—raising concerns of a deeper drop. Bitcoin (BTC), however, may stay resilient amid strong price action and rising market dominance, while Ethereum (ETH) might find support from whale accumulation, despite near-term technical weakness.
