Market Insights September 2026

In September the Fed raised rates for the first time since 2023, the CLARITY Act failed in the Senate, and banks moved further into stablecoins. Here's what mattered for institutional investors.

Regulation

  • The CLARITY Act failed its Senate cloture vote 49 to 50 on 15 September and is effectively dead for 2026. Talks broke down over ethics rules, stablecoin yield and developer liability.
  • Market structure now sits with the SEC and CFTC. Bernstein expects both to move quickly on token classification, DeFi and tokenised equities.
  • The SEC proposed its first overhaul of transfer-agent rules since the 1970s. The proposal allows blockchain recordkeeping and tokenised securities.
  • The SEC granted tokenised US stocks on public chains a five-year exemption. Holders must keep full shareholder rights.
  • The House Ways and Means Committee advanced the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act 38 to 5. The GENIUS Act takes effect in January 2027.
  • The ECB asked for MiCA to ban indirect stablecoin yield and to replace bank-deposit reserve rules with liquidity thresholds. Tether said it declined an EU licence over the deposit requirement.
  • Germany drafted a flat 25% tax on crypto gains for assets bought from 1 January 2027. The one-year tax-free holding period would end.
  • Australia's ASIC ended its no-action relief on 30 September. From 1 October, firms without a licence face fines of up to 10% of turnover.
  • Thailand issued its Travel Rule, effective 27 February 2027. It is also drafting rules for spot BTC and ETH ETFs.
  • VARA signed an MoU with Securitize on regulated tokenisation in Dubai.

TradFi

  • Standard Chartered became the first G-SIB to offer spot BTC and ETH trading to institutional clients in the UAE. The service runs through its DIFC entity.
  • Deutsche Bank will offer custody for BTC, ETH, USDC, EURC and EURAU to institutions in Europe by year end. It expects its MiCA licence in October.
  • Nasdaq invested $100M in Payward, Kraken's parent, at a $21B valuation. Kraken will offer tokenised Nasdaq-listed stocks, and Nasdaq Equity Tokens follow in Q2 2027.
  • Grayscale put the cycle bottom at about $58K and told clients it is time to allocate.
  • Bitcoin Suisse is refocusing on HNWIs, family offices and institutions. It holds full approval in Abu Dhabi.
  • A Revolut data breach exposed passports, KYC selfies and BTC transaction histories of some high-net-worth users.

Payments

  • 21 banks will form a joint stablecoin company, including BofA, Citi, Goldman, Deutsche, UBS, Santander, Wells Fargo, MUFG and Fidelity. They plan a USD token in H1 2027.
  • Binance bought a $100M stake in Circle and signed a five-year USDC distribution deal. Circle launched its Arc mainnet, with BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Mastercard and Visa among its validators.
  • Circle is buying Tazapay for $400M in stock. The deal adds payout rails in more than 100 markets.
  • Visa launched on-chain lending for stablecoin card programmes. Its stablecoin settlement runs above $20B a year.
  • BlackRock published research arguing that AI agents will drive the next wave of stablecoin demand.
  • DBS and Citi completed the first weekend cross-border USD payment with tokenised deposits on Swift's Digital Ledger.
  • Apple and Google Cloud posted roles in stablecoins and tokenised deposits.

Tokenisation and infrastructure

  • Standard Chartered expects tokenised assets to grow from $340B to $4T by the end of 2028.
  • MoonPay is buying SEC-registered North Capital for over $60M in stock. The aim is regulated RWA infrastructure.
  • IBM connected its Digital Asset Haven platform to Swift's ledger. Banks can move tokenised deposits over ISO 20022 messaging.
  • Chainlink launched CCIP 2.0. Token issuers can set their own verifiers and compliance controls on cross-chain transfers.
  • Pineapple Financial put more than $1B of mortgages on Injective.
  • The Solana Foundation hired former Binance CMO Rachel Conlan as Chief Strategy Officer to lead institutional partnerships.
  • Consensys is splitting into MetaMask and an institutional infrastructure company built around Linea and Besu.
  • The RWA market reached $38.5B.

Derivatives

  • Binance launched options on more than 1,000 US stocks for non-US users. The product runs through its ADGM-licensed broker.
  • Crypto.com's Nadex became an SEC-registered futures exchange that can list single-stock futures in the US. Coinbase filed to list equity perps.
  • The CFTC moved to dismiss CME's lawsuit against its approval of Kalshi's BTC perpetuals.
  • CME will launch BCH futures on 19 October.
  • Robinhood took stakes in Crypto.com at a $20B valuation and in OG.com at $5B.
  • Bernstein expects prediction-market volume to reach $10T by 2035. New Jersey asked the Supreme Court to rule on state versus CFTC authority, and New York sued Polymarket.

Capital

  • Strategy ended the month at 847,666 BTC. MSCI decides on 16 October whether to exclude Bitcoin treasury companies from its indices.
  • Strive grew to 27,462 BTC and became the fifth-largest public holder. It raised most of the capital through its SATA preferred stock.
  • Bitmine reached 5.98M ETH, 98% of its target of 5% of supply.
  • Remixpoint went BTC-only with 1,506 BTC. Capital B raised €7.6M from Adam Back.
  • Tether and Fasanara launched a $400M private-credit fund settled in USDT.
  • S&P Global agreed to acquire OpenZeppelin and led Kaiko's Series B.
  • Blockchain.com is targeting a $500M IPO at a valuation of up to $6B. HIFI closed a $37M Series A.

Markets

  • The Fed raised rates 25bp to a range of 3.75% to 4.00% on 16 September, its first hike since 2023. The Bank of Japan hiked to a 31-year high.
  • BTC reached $87,350 on 21 September, its highest since January. Total crypto market cap returned above $3T.
  • The US Treasury doubled its long-bond buybacks to $4B per operation. About $3B of spot BTC ETF inflows followed, erasing the ETFs' 2026 losses.
  • Altcoin spot volume reached about four times Bitcoin's, the highest since September 2025.
  • Chainalysis found the crypto economy shrank only 1.6% in the year to June, even though market cap fell about 50%.
  • CoinShares reported that miners are moving capacity to AI, which earns about three times more per MW than BTC mining.
  • 21Shares listed Zcash and ether.fi ETPs on Euronext, and Bitwise filed a final prospectus for a spot NEAR ETF.

With CLARITY gone, the SEC and CFTC now set the pace. In October we're watching their first rules, MSCI's decision on treasury companies and Deutsche Bank's MiCA licence.

MidChains is a VARA-licensed regulated digital asset infrastructure provider headquartered in the UAE, serving institutional and corporate clients globally. Operating as a regulated entity since 2019, MidChains holds a VARA Broker-Dealer licence for institutional and qualified investors.

MidChains is backed by Mubadala Investment Company, Lunate, MIAX Exchange Group, Brevan Howard, GSR, Emurgo, Dhabi Holdings and Ava Labs. Services include institutional digital asset execution, OTC settlement, and stablecoin-enabled corporate treasury and cross-border payment solutions.

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