September marked a significant period for markets as the Federal Reserve cut its rate by 25bps for the first time since December of last year, reaffirming the weakening labour market reports as well as economic uncertainty. HashKey Capital further noted in their latest update that moving forward, based on Fed dot plot projections, it is likely that the market “will see 2 more 25bps rate cuts in October and December this year.”
HashKey Capital further noted in their report that markets reacted positively to this news as the overall crypto market surged to a high of “$4.13T post Fed rate cut, although subsequent performance of the market remained choppy as other economic metrics such as consumer spending and core PCE continued to paint a mixed outlook.”
The team at HashKey Capital added that overall, despite the month of September being a historically bearish month for equities as well as crypto market, it “appeared to be different this time as crypto market ended the month up 3.72%.”
Other notable events in the digital asset landscape include “the first launch of XRP and DOGE ETFs. REX-Osprey launched U.S. spot XRP (XRPR) and Dogecoin (DOJE) ETFs; the pair debuted with about $55 million in first-day trading volume.”
However, despite the highly anticipated launch of XRP and DOGE ETFs with more to “come against the backdrop of smoother listing procedure, market appetite for these products has failed to sustain beyond initial rally, underscoring institutional preference for Bitcoin and Ethereum.”
As far as key regulatory developments, South Korea’s FSC capped crypto‐lending rates at “20% and outlawed leveraged lending, tightening retail risk controls and restricting eligible collateral to large-cap tokens or those listed across multiple KRW venues.”
In the U.S., the SEC approved generic listing standards that let NYSE Arca, Nasdaq, and Cboe BZX list “qualifying commodity- and crypto-based ETPs without product-by-product Commission orders — materially shortening time-to-market.”
Complementing that, Nasdaq has filed to enable trading of tokenized securities and ETPs on its main market “under a 19b-4 proposal emphasizing equivalence with existing shareholder protections.:
Beyond U.S. and South Korea, the European Union pushes to tighten MiCA implementation and Bank of England work “on stablecoin holding caps, underscoring a global tilt toward harmonized, risk-based oversight rather than outright prohibition.”