Short Summary
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Macro Environment: The U.S. government shutdown has entered its second week. The Senate once again rejected a temporary funding bill, prolonging the shutdown. Gold continued its record-breaking rally, with spot prices nearing USD 4,060. U.S. equities rebounded, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq recovering their previous day’s losses.
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Project Developments
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Hot Tokens: TOSHI, LISTA, ZEC
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BSC Ecosystem: Tokens such as CHEEMS, LISTA, 4, and GIGGLE continued to attract attention.
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The “financial world reset” narrative boosted interest in privacy technologies. Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation increased its investment in privacy tech, driving broad gains in privacy tokens such as ZEC, XMR, and DASH.
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TRUMP: TRUMP meme coin issuer Zanker plans to raise at least USD 200 million to increase its TRUMP holdings.
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THE: THENA released its updated roadmap, announcing upcoming THE Launchpad and a loyalty program.
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Mainstream Asset Changes
Crypto Fear & Greed Index: 70 (up from 60 twenty-four hours ago), categorized as Greed.
Today’s Outlook
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Fed Chair Jerome Powell will deliver opening remarks at a community banking conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Board.
Macroeconomics
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The U.S. Senate again rejected a bipartisan funding bill, extending the federal government shutdown.
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FOMC Minutes: Most participants emphasized upside risks to their inflation outlook, and the majority indicated that further policy easing may be appropriate this year. About half of respondents expect another rate cut at the October meeting.
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Poll: Crypto investors are becoming a key voting bloc in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections.
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Geopolitics: Trump announced that Israel and Hamas have signed the first phase of a peace agreement.
Policy Trends
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The UK officially lifted its retail crypto ETN ban, allowing retail investors to access Bitcoin and other digital asset ETNs alongside institutions.
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The UK will appoint a “Digital Markets Lead” to drive financial market tokenization initiatives.
Industry Highlights
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MetaMask announced that it will launch a rewards program and confirmed plans to issue a token by the end of October; MetaMask mobile also launched perpetuals trading functionality.
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Ethena partnered with Jupiter to launch the native Solana stablecoin JupUSD.
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Base initiated token and governance research positions, formally advancing its decentralization roadmap.
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Grayscale completed its quarterly portfolio rebalancing across three major funds, increasing holdings in AERO and Story while removing MKR.
Expanded Analysis of Industry Highlights
MetaMask: The Evolution from Wallet Tool to Ecosystem Token
As the most widely adopted non-custodial wallet in the Web3 space, MetaMask's latest actions signal a transition from a simple tool provider to a complete, community-incentivized financial ecosystem.
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Rewards Program and Confirmed Token Launch (Major Catalyst): MetaMask officially announced the launch of a rewards program set for the end of October, along with formal confirmation of its token issuance plans. This news is a long-awaited and major catalyst for the market. The rewards program will use a point and tier system to incentivize users for their on-chain activities (such as token swaps and contract trading), aiming to boost user loyalty and platform stickiness. The token launch will not only strengthen community governance but is also expected to unlock MetaMask's immense latent value in the DeFi sector, making it a primary focal point for the market in the coming months.
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Mobile Launch of Perpetuals Trading: The MetaMask mobile application has concurrently launched perpetual futures trading functionality. This move integrates complex derivatives trading directly into users' everyday mobile wallets, significantly lowering the barrier to entry for perpetual contracts. This is projected to notably increase trading volumes and further solidify MetaMask's dominance in the DeFi landscape.
DeFi Cross-Chain Convergence: Solana Ecosystem's Stablecoin Ambitions
Innovation and collaboration in the DeFi space are breaking through public chain boundaries, targeting broader market liquidity.
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Ethena Partners with Jupiter to Launch JupUSD: The stablecoin protocol Ethena announced a collaboration with Jupiter, a key aggregator in the Solana ecosystem, to launch the native Solana stablecoin, JupUSD. This partnership aims to introduce Ethena's innovative synthetic dollar model into Solana's high-performance ecosystem. Crucially, Jupiter plans to gradually convert approximately $750 million worth of USDC within its liquidity provider pools into JupUSD. If successful, this large-scale conversion would dramatically boost JupUSD's liquidity and adoption on Solana, marking a major upgrade for Solana's stablecoin infrastructure.
Infrastructure Decentralization: Base Chain's Governance Progress
Base, the Layer 2 network incubated by Coinbase, is actively pursuing its decentralization roadmap to ensure the network's long-term health and resilience.
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Initiating Token and Governance Research: Base has officially launched research positions dedicated to its native token and governance structure. This indicates that Base is formally moving from the technical deployment phase to the stage of network autonomy and decentralized governance. By studying how to build a fair, efficient governance model and determining whether to issue a native token, Base is laying the groundwork for the network's future decision-making authority, a critical sign of maturity in the Layer 2 space.
Institutional Investment Strategy Upgrade: Grayscale's Quarterly Rebalancing
Changes in the investment strategies of traditional financial institutions often reveal shifts in market preferences for specific asset classes.
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Grayscale Completes Quarterly Portfolio Rebalancing: Grayscale, the institutional asset management giant, finalized its quarterly rebalancing across three major funds. This adjustment signals a bullish outlook on specific DeFi and ecosystem tokens:
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Increased Holdings in AERO and Story: Grayscale increased its holdings in AERO (likely linked to Base or another key DeFi protocol) and Story (potentially an emerging content or social protocol). This suggests that institutional capital is actively allocating to small- and mid-cap tokens with strong ecosystem backing or unique vertical innovation.
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Removal of MKR Holdings: Grayscale decided to remove the MakerDAO governance token, MKR. This move could reflect institutional considerations regarding MKR's complex governance structure, recent changes to its revenue model, or simply a portfolio concentration adjustment, signaling that institutional investors are raising their screening criteria for DeFi governance tokens.
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