Here's your weekly crypto industry catch-up!📰

Crypto & Blockchain Update: September 16-22

📈Market Highlights

- Ether outperforms Bitcoin last week, with $ETH up 14.3% in last 7 days while $BTC only 7.7%, according to CoinMarketCap
- After the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates by 50 bp, Bitcoin market cap increased 4.4% and altcoin market cap increased by 5.7%, while gold hits new all-time high
- 3 biggest altcoins to increase over last 7 days were TAO (81%), IMX (44%), and SUI (39%); while 3 biggest losers were KAS (-3.5%), KCS (-3.3%), and NOT (-0.5%)
- “Satoshi era” wallets move $16M worth of $BTC in 5 separate transactions after being dormant for 15 years

🎮Blockchain Tech & Gaming

- Early version of Jump Crypto’s anticipated Solana validator, Frankendancer, is now live
- PancakeSwap plans v4 update to improve liquidity provision, interoperability and scalability
- Solana revealed its newest smartphone, Seeker, half the cost of previous (Saga) and not solely focused on memecoins, states Solana Labs’ general manager Hollyer
- Vitalik Buterin shares he needs to solve 2 major issues - governance and membership, to make his “network states” concept workable
- Neo X, an EVM-based sidechain, introduces a new approach to tackle toxic MEV
- Securitize integrates Wormhole for multi-chain RWA tokens
- Hamster Kombat will airdrop 60 billion tokens, only 43% of users (131 million) qualified for the airdrop and 2.3 million players were banned due to cheating
- Flappy Bird returns as tap-to-earn Telegram game, with plans to integrate TON network

📃Regulatory Updates

- US lawmaker criticizes SEC of “enforcement abuse and making it hard for legitimate actors to bring innovation to our (US) markets”
- Binance CEO states they’re working around the clock to get Tigran released from Nigeria and brought home to the United States
- Louisiana joins the list of US states that accept Bitcoin payments
- Tether’s market share has exceeded 75% of entire stablecoin market, investor concerns rise about lack of third-party audits and liquidity risks

💰Investments & Partnerships

- Solana-based DeFi platform, Drift, raises $25M to expand financial services for DeFi trading
- Blockchain infrastructure platform, Blockdaemon, considers potential 2026 IPO listing
- Deus X Capital to launch Solstice Labs, a business that offers institutional-grade DeFi investment products
- DZ Bank partners with Boerse Stuttgart to bring crypto trading and custody services to its customers and cooperative bank network
- Bitget and Foresight Ventures invest $30M into TON blockchain

🛡️Cybersecurity

- Crypto exchange BingX was hacked with $43M drained mainly in $ETH and $BNB
- India Supreme Court’s YouTube page was hacked to promote XRP and Ripple Labs
- WazirX hackers moving stolen funds to Tornado Cash in batches of 5,000 $ETH since last Monday

🗞️Miscellaneous

- Trump bought burgers with Bitcoin at NYC’s bar Pubkey
- Latest statistics show emerging economies across Africa have high potential for crypto adoption
- Three-Mile Island, which was ground zero since partial meltdown in 1979, is now reopening to power AI operations for Microsoft
- Crypto native travel agency, Travala, has integrated Solana blockchain for payments

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Have a successful new week ahead, everyone!🤝