Bitcoin (BTC), which dropped below the key support level of $112,000 after the report, now appears to be forming a bullish inverse head-and-shoulders pattern, often a precursor to a strong rally. BTC's mining difficulty hit a new high and Strategy (MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor hinted at additional BTC purchases.
On-chain indicators, however, paint a more nuanced picture for the largest cryptocurrency: The proportion of illiquid supply has surged to record highs, signaling holder conviction. Yet, as CryptoQuant points out, whales are offloading coins at the fastest pace since 2022.
Meanwhile, a lively debate unfolded on X regarding the health of the Ethereum blockchain. One observer pointed to August’s revenue of $39.2 million, the fourth-lowest since 2021, proclaiming, “Ethereum is dying.”
In response, Tom Dunleavy, a senior research analyst at Messari, pushed back strongly, noting that Ethereum and Solana are thriving in terms of total value locked (TVL), active addresses, transaction volume, application revenue and stablecoin activity. He emphasized that revenue alone is a misleading metric for blockchain networks, as it contradicts their fundamental goal of enabling low-friction, decentralized financial activity and could ultimately hinder ecosystem growth.
Ethena’s governance token, ENA, surged to three-week highs after StablecoinX, a treasury company linked to a synthetic dollar issuer planning a Nasdaq listing, raised $530 million saying it intended to buy the tokens. The protocol’s robust fundamentals, highlighted by seven-day revenues of $53 million — more than double those of Hyperliquid — combined with anticipated benefits from StablecoinX’s Nasdaq listing and potential Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts, position ENA as a compelling investment opportunity, according to pseudonymous observer Crypto Stream.
Speaking of Hyperliquid, the layer-1 blockchain and decentralized exchange's plans to launch its own USDH stablecoin sparked a governance battle, with the community facing backlash over a proposal tied to Stripe’s Bridge platform's centralized influence.
On the macro front, the yen held steady against the dollar, shrugging off Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's resignation. France, meanwhile, seemed headed toward government collapse.
In the U.S., the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release annual benchmark revisions on Tuesday, which are expected to show significantly weaker job growth earlier in the year, with some surveys suggesting that between 500,000 and 1 million jobs could be revised away. Stay alert!
