Bitcoin has climbed above $77,400 on Sept. 18 after the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.25%, its highest level in roughly 31 years, while the yen weakened following the decision.

The Bank of Japan said the Policy Board approved the increase from 1.0% by a 7–2 vote as officials responded to inflation risks and continued progress toward the central bank’s 2% price stability target. Reuters reported that policymakers retained guidance indicating rates could rise further if economic activity and prices develop in line with the BOJ’s projections.

Bitcoin price holds above $77K after BOJ decision

At the time of checking, CoinGecko showed Bitcoin at $77,409.41, up 1.4% over 24 hours. The cryptocurrency had traded between $75,971.64 and $77,623.53 during the period, placing the current price close to the upper end of its daily range.

The move followed an overnight decline toward $76,200. BTC recovered to roughly $77,400 after the BOJ decision, while BTC/JPY on Tokyo-based bitFlyer rose around 0.5% to 12.06 million yen.

Foreign-exchange trading moved in the opposite direction. USD/JPY rose from around 156.20 before the rate announcement to approximately 156.70 afterward, showing that the yen weakened despite the higher Japanese policy rate.

Reuters said investors focused partly on the two dissenting BOJ members and the lack of stronger language pointing toward rapid additional tightening. The yen therefore failed to strengthen after a rate decision that had already been widely expected.

Bitcoin’s rise should not be attributed solely to the BOJ meeting. BTC had already started recovering from the $76,000 area before the announcement, while U.S. ETF flows, Federal Reserve policy, Treasury yields, oil prices and geopolitical conditions were moving at the same time.

As recent Bitcoin central-bank coverage previously reported, analysts had identified the BOJ meeting as a potential source of volatility because tighter Japanese monetary policy can increase the cost of yen-funded positions.

BOJ raises rates as inflation risks stay elevated

Friday’s increase took the BOJ policy rate from 1.0% to 1.25%, extending a tightening cycle that has moved Japan further from the ultra-low borrowing costs maintained for much of the previous three decades.

The increase was the BOJ’s second rate hike in roughly three months after policymakers raised the benchmark to 1% in June.

Two Policy Board members opposed Friday’s increase. Reuters reported that the dissenters argued economic conditions did not yet justify another increase, while the majority pointed to inflation risks connected with import prices, energy costs and domestic price-setting behavior.

Japan’s central bank said the economy had continued recovering moderately, although some sectors remained weak. Officials maintained that underlying consumer inflation was gradually moving toward 2%.

Higher oil costs remain one source of pressure because Japan imports much of its energy. A weaker yen can raise those costs further by making dollar-priced commodities more expensive in local currency terms.

The BOJ said it would continue raising its policy rate and adjust monetary accommodation if its economic and inflation outlook is realized. The statement does not commit the bank to a date or size for the next increase.

As earlier BOJ crypto coverage reported after the June increase, higher Japanese rates have drawn attention from digital-asset traders because yen borrowing has historically financed leveraged positions across global markets.

Yen carry trade remains a crypto risk factor

For years, very low Japanese borrowing costs encouraged investors to borrow yen and deploy capital into currencies or assets offering higher returns.

Higher BOJ rates increase the funding cost of those strategies. A rapid rise in the yen can create an additional problem because traders who borrowed the currency must repay liabilities at a stronger exchange rate.

The latest decision did not produce that pattern immediately. The yen weakened and Bitcoin rose after the announcement, meaning Friday’s first reaction did not resemble a disorderly carry-trade unwind.

The interest-rate gap with the U.S. remains sizable. The Federal Reserve raised its target range to 3.75%–4.00% earlier this week, compared with Japan’s new 1.25% policy rate. The difference remains approximately 2.5 to 2.75 percentage points. The Fed’s own rate data confirms the latest U.S. range.

The August 2024 market selloff remains a common reference point because equities and crypto dropped sharply as yen-funded trades came under pressure. Past market behavior does not establish that the same response will occur after subsequent BOJ decisions.

Meanwhile, U.S. monetary policy remains another factor for Bitcoin. Reuters reported that Goldman Sachs and BofA Global Research expect the Federal Reserve to raise rates again in October. Most major brokerages expect another increase later in 2026, commonly in December.

Morgan Stanley does not currently share the October call cited in some reports. Reuters said Morgan Stanley and Macquarie expect a December increase followed by another rate hike in March 2027.

Bitcoin ETFs return to $159.5M net inflows

Institutional flows provided another data point for Bitcoin before the BOJ announcement.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $159.5 million in net inflows on Sept. 17, reversing two consecutive trading sessions of withdrawals, according to SoSoValue data.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust recorded $183.7 million of net inflows. Fidelity’s FBTC posted $16.6 million in outflows, while VanEck’s HODL lost $7.6 million. The remaining products recorded no meaningful net movement in the reported figures.

The result means IBIT was the only fund with positive net flows in the Sept. 17 dataset, but saying it received $159 million would be incorrect. BlackRock attracted more than the group’s net total because withdrawals from Fidelity and VanEck reduced the combined result.

The inflow followed withdrawals of roughly $450.4 million on Sept. 15 and $295.9 million on Sept. 16, according to the same Farside-based data.

BlackRock’s product remains the largest U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF by holdings. Bitbo data placed U.S. spot ETF holdings collectively at approximately 1.259 million BTC as of Sept. 17, with IBIT holding roughly 784,526 BTC.

In earlier U.S. Bitcoin ETF coverage, the funds recorded a much larger $730.9 million daily inflow on Sept. 3, showing that daily institutional flows have remained volatile through September.

RSI and MACD show momentum cooling below $77,600

The supplied Bitcoin chart shows price recovering from approximately $76,200–$76,400 into the $77,400–$77,600 area before moving into a narrower consolidation.

The 14-period RSI stands at 56.89, below its moving average of 60.55. A reading above 50 keeps the indicator on the positive side of neutral, while remaining below the 70 level commonly associated with overbought conditions.

With the RSI below its moving average, the chart indicates that momentum has eased compared with the earlier stage of the rebound.

The MACD gives a more cautious reading. Its line is close to 73, below the signal line near 91, while the histogram is approximately -19. The bearish crossover shows that short-term momentum has weakened even as Bitcoin holds above $77,000.

Current CoinGecko data places the 24-hour high at $77,623.53, closely matching the $77,600 area where the supplied chart shows recent candles encountering resistance.

Below the market, the latest CoinGecko range places the daily low near $75,972. Earlier Bitcoin technical coverage identified the $75,000–$76,000 region as an area where buyers had recently returned.

The BOJ’s next policy moves remain conditional on inflation and economic data. For Bitcoin, the immediate market now combines the Japanese rate increase, a still-large U.S.-Japan policy-rate gap, recovering ETF inflows and technical resistance around the upper $77,000 to $78,000 region.

Solana has cut its target slot time from 300 milliseconds to 250 milliseconds, increasing the rate at which the network produces slots by nearly 17% without raising its overall processing ceiling by the same amount.

According to blockchain data, the new setting went live on Sept. 18 and brings Solana to four targeted slots per second, compared with roughly 3.3 under the previous 300ms configuration. The change is the third stage of SIMD-0525, which is designed to gradually reduce slot times from the network’s original 400ms setting to a final target of 200ms.

A slot is the period in which a designated validator can produce a block. Shortening that period gives wallets, exchanges and trading applications more frequent updates on the state of the network.

Validators continue to serve as leaders for four consecutive slots. With each slot now targeted at 250ms, a validator’s nominal leader window has fallen from 1.2 seconds at the previous setting to one second.

Solana slot time reaches 250ms

Solana began the current rollout in August when it cut its slot time from 400ms to 350ms for the first time since the network launched, as crypto.news previously reported.

SIMD-0525 divided the process into four stages at 350ms, 300ms, 250ms and 200ms instead of moving directly to the final target. Each reduction requires a separate feature activation, allowing developers and validator operators to assess network performance before moving ahead.

At 250ms, four slot opportunities arrive each second. The shorter intervals can give applications a more current view of transactions and network state while passing block production from one validator to another sooner.

Oracle based markets and automated market makers are among the applications covered by the proposal because their operations can depend on the age of onchain data. A shorter interval reduces the amount of time between network updates, while users can see transaction status changes sooner.

For swaps, the shorter timing can narrow the period between a transaction being submitted and reaching the network. The underlying proposal identifies faster confirmations and more frequent updates as benefits of reducing slot duration.

The change does not increase Solana’s raw transaction capacity by nearly 17%.

Under SIMD-0525, resource limits are reduced in proportion to the slot duration. More slots are produced over a given period, but each slot is permitted to carry less computation and data, keeping the amount of work the network can process over real time at roughly the same level.

At the 60 million compute unit baseline used by the proposal, the per slot limit falls as the clock gets faster. The 250ms configuration corresponds to a 37.5 million compute unit limit, while the planned 200ms stage would lower it to 30 million.

Faster blocks change Solana infrastructure requirements

Infrastructure providers now have more individual blocks to process and store even though the wall clock processing ceiling remains broadly unchanged.

Applications that calculate elapsed time by multiplying slot numbers by a fixed slot duration may need to account for the faster clock. Blockhashes expire sooner in real time as slots advance more quickly, leaving less time for transaction processes involving offline signing or delayed human approvals.

Epoch timing changes for the same reason. Solana keeps each epoch fixed at 432,000 slots, meaning an epoch becomes shorter as the duration of each slot falls.

At the earlier 300ms target, an epoch lasted roughly 36 hours. The 250ms setting cuts the expected duration to around 30 hours. A move to the final 200ms target would reduce it to approximately 24 hours.

Solana’s staged slot reductions form part of the Agave 4.2 rollout. The client release began activating several network changes in August, including lower onchain storage rent, larger transactions and the path toward 200ms slots.

The staged design includes a safeguard tied to block skip rates. Progress toward the next slot setting can be halted if skip rates rise beyond the level developers consider acceptable, giving validators time to operate under each configuration before another reduction is activated.

No mainnet date has been set for the 200ms stage.

Solana upgrades extend beyond faster slots

Slot timing is only one part of the network changes being rolled out through Agave.

Solana separately introduced Transaction V1, which raises the maximum serialized transaction size from 1,232 bytes to 4,096 bytes. The larger transaction format can accommodate data heavy operations such as zero knowledge proofs and complex multisignature instructions within a single transaction.

Transaction V1 is optional, while legacy and version zero transactions remain supported. Applications that read blocks need to support the newer format to correctly handle V1 transactions.

The transaction size increase is separate from SIMD-0525. Larger individual transactions therefore do not determine the slot clock, while shorter slots do not automatically increase the maximum size of a transaction.

Solana has been activating the changes independently through feature gates. The structure allows one upgrade to proceed without requiring the other features included in Agave 4.2 to activate at the same time.

Solana is still targeting 200ms slots

The final stage under SIMD-0525 would reduce the target slot time from 250ms to 200ms, bringing the network to five targeted slots per second.

A four slot validator leader window would consequently fall to roughly 800ms. Epoch duration would decline from around 30 hours under the current 250ms setting to approximately 24 hours.

Solana developers have not provided a mainnet activation date for the final reduction. Progress depends on network behavior under the current setting, including whether validators can maintain acceptable block skip rates.

The slot reductions are separate from Alpenglow, Solana’s planned consensus redesign. Alpenglow is intended to replace TowerBFT with a voting system called Votor and remove onchain vote transactions from the network’s core consensus process.

The Alpenglow consensus upgrade targets roughly 150ms finality. Its code has been included for testing, while mainnet deployment has been tied to Agave 4.3 rather than the slot time feature gates used for SIMD-0525.

Alpenglow entered community validator testing earlier in 2026, allowing operators to run the consensus design on a test cluster before deployment on mainnet. Anza has described the system as the largest consensus change in Solana’s history.

For SIMD-0525, the network remains at the 250ms stage until developers activate the final feature gate. The 200ms configuration would complete a rollout that began at 400ms and moved through 350ms, 300ms and 250ms while reducing resource limits at each step.

Top 10 Creations (All ETFs)

Top 10 Redemptions (All ETFs)

ETF Daily Flows By Asset Class

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U.S. spot ether exchange-traded funds recorded roughly $39 million of net outflows on Thursday, a third consecutive day of withdrawals after about $224 million left on Wednesday and $141 million on Tuesday, according to SoSoValue. Ether itself rose 2% to about $2,470 over the same stretch.

XRP funds lost about $5 million, reversing a small inflow the day before. Bitcoin ETFs took in roughly $159 million, and the single U.S. Zcash fund added nearly $47 million, its strongest showing yet in a month that has brought it more than $230 million.

Over 30 days the ether funds remain more than $1.5 billion ahead and bitcoin nearly $2.5 billion.

Zcash led the majors again at 10% higher to about $1,488, with hyperliquid’s HYPE close behind at nearly 10% to just above $86. Solana gained 5% to nearly $105 and BNB nearly 4% to about $750. Dogecoin rose about 4%, ether and XRP 2% each, and bitcoin more than 1% to about $77,216, according to CoinDesk data. Tron was the only major that barely moved.

World has launched World Money, a self-custody financial “super app” combining stablecoin payments, digital asset rewards and trading.

The rollout began Thursday in more than 150 countries, World said, with features varying by location. Users can send supported digital assets, including stablecoins, to a recipient’s World username, deposit eligible assets to earn rewards, and buy and sell digital assets through exchanges.

The app lets users access “Mini Apps” such as Kalshi, Credit and Morpho. A partnership with Stripe allows users to fund their accounts and buy stablecoins with Apple Pay, starting with users in the US. 

World has been expanding the financial capabilities of World App since its launch in May 2023, when it combined World ID with a crypto wallet, stablecoin transfers and token trading.

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In October 2024, World introduced World App 3.0 as a “super app for humans,” adding third-party Mini Apps and a Vault feature for earning on assets. In November 2025, it piloted virtual bank accounts in the US before rolling it out to more countries a month later, allowing paychecks and bank deposits that are converted into USDC. 

Related: Tools for Humanity expands World app toward super-app model

With the launch of World Money, World said its identity and financial services are now split across two dedicated apps. 

World ID App handles identity verification and credentials, while World Money provides wallet, payment and other financial features. Existing World App and World ID App users can use their existing accounts for World Money, the company said. 

World Money is operated by Tools for Humanity, the company co-founded by Sam Altman and Alex Blania that develops technology for the World network.

Magazine: Bitcoin treasury firms can outperform BTC… but is the risk worth taking?

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World has rolled out “World Money,” a new self-custody financial super app that combines stablecoin payments, digital asset rewards and in-app trading. The launch began Thursday in more than 150 countries, with some functions varying by region, according to World’s announcement on its website (https://world.org/blog/announcements/world-money).

The app is designed to let users move supported digital assets—such as stablecoins—to recipients using a World username, deposit eligible assets to earn rewards, and buy or sell digital assets via built-in exchange access. World is also positioning the product around its broader ecosystem, including “Mini Apps” that bring third-party services into the same interface.

Key takeaways

• World Money launches in 150+ countries, with feature availability tailored by location.
• Self-custody wallet functions include stablecoin transfers to a World username, rewards for eligible deposits, and trading access.
• Mini Apps extend functionality through third-party integrations such as Kalshi, Credit and Morpho.
• Stripe integration enables funding and stablecoin purchases via Apple Pay initially for users in the US.
• World is splitting responsibilities across apps: World ID App for identity, and World Money for wallet and financial services.

What World Money adds for users

World Money brings together several functions that are typically distributed across different financial apps. World says users can send supported assets—including stablecoins—to another person’s World username. That approach aims to simplify transfers by avoiding traditional address-sharing workflows, while still keeping the process connected to the app’s self-custody wallet experience.

Beyond transfers, the platform includes a rewards mechanism. World states that users can deposit eligible assets to earn rewards, though the specific reward parameters are not detailed in the rollout description. The app also provides access to buy and sell digital assets through exchanges, positioning World Money as more than a payments layer.

World further emphasizes an app-to-app experience through its “Mini Apps.” These third-party modules—named by World as Kalshi, Credit and Morpho—are meant to expand the range of financial actions available without requiring users to leave the World Money interface.

Funding and stablecoin onboarding via Stripe

A key part of any stablecoin “super app” strategy is removing friction from onboarding and account funding. World says it partnered with Stripe to let users fund their accounts and buy stablecoins using Apple Pay, starting with users in the US.

In practice, that means eligible users can convert fiat purchasing power into stablecoins without switching to a separate exchange app for initial funding. For traders and everyday users alike, this can reduce the steps needed to go from payment rails to on-chain asset usage—particularly important for stablecoin payments where timing and convenience matter.

Splitting identity and financial services into two apps

With the introduction of World Money, World says its identity and financial stack is now split across two dedicated applications. The World ID App handles identity verification and credentials, while World Money provides the wallet, payments, trading and other financial capabilities.

World also says existing World App and World ID App users can use their existing accounts for World Money. That matters because it keeps the onboarding path consistent for users who already hold identity credentials or have previously engaged with World’s wallet and trading features under the prior unified app experience.

How this fits World’s “super app” roadmap

World has been steadily expanding the World App concept since its launch in May 2023, when it combined World ID with a crypto wallet, stablecoin transfers and token trading.

In October 2024, World introduced “World App 3.0” as a “super app for humans,” adding third-party Mini Apps and a Vault feature aimed at earning on assets. Then, in November 2025, the company piloted virtual bank accounts in the US—before rolling them out more widely a month later—allowing paychecks and bank deposits to be converted into USDC.

Against that timeline, World Money appears to be both a product expansion and a structural change. Functionally, it continues the super app direction: wallet + payments + rewards + trading access. Strategically, it clarifies the user journey by separating identity tooling from financial operations, which can make the ecosystem easier to understand and maintain as more services are added.

World Money is operated by Tools for Humanity, the company co-founded by Sam Altman and Alex Blania that builds technology for the World network. The rollout therefore links the app’s financial features directly back to the organization behind World ID and the infrastructure underneath World’s ecosystem.

What to watch next

For users, the immediate open questions are how rewards are structured and which specific digital assets and exchanges are available in each region. For builders and investors, the bigger signal is whether World Money can sustain a seamless onboarding funnel—especially via Apple Pay and Stripe—while keeping self-custody and identity credentials tightly integrated as the app expands beyond its initial US-focused funding path.

S&P Global has announced an agreement to acquire OpenZeppelin, a blockchain security firm known for its open-source smart contract tooling and security review services. The move is designed to broaden S&P Global’s ability to evaluate risk across the digital asset ecosystem, particularly where smart contracts and onchain infrastructure are central to financial activity.

The companies did not disclose financial terms. S&P Global said the transaction is still subject to customary closing conditions.

Key takeaways

• S&P Global’s planned acquisition of OpenZeppelin targets stronger smart contract and onchain technology risk assessment capabilities.
• The deal does not include publicly disclosed pricing; the agreement remains subject to closing conditions.
• OpenZeppelin’s software and contracts library will remain free and publicly maintained on GitHub.
• OpenZeppelin will operate as a separate business unit within S&P Global, with its CEO continuing in a leadership role.
• The acquisition follows S&P Global’s earlier investment activity in crypto market infrastructure, including a strategic investment in Kaiko.

Why the acquisition matters for digital asset risk

In a statement accompanying the announcement, S&P Global’s ratings president Yann Le Pallec said the company’s digital assets strategy focuses on bringing “trusted data, benchmarks and transparent risk assessment” as markets increasingly move onchain. According to the company, OpenZeppelin will deepen its ability to analyze smart contract and other onchain technology risks—an area that has become more important as tokenized products, stablecoin-based rails, and decentralized applications extend into regulated financial contexts.

Smart contract security is often treated as a technical specialty, but for mainstream finance players it can become part of broader credit and operational risk frameworks. By adding OpenZeppelin’s capabilities to its ratings and ecosystem development efforts, S&P Global is positioning itself to assess not only market-related factors, but also the underlying code-related risks that can affect asset safety and system reliability.

OpenZeppelin’s role and what will stay open-source

Founded in 2015, OpenZeppelin develops open-source smart contract software and performs security assessments for blockchain projects and financial institutions. The announcement states that OpenZeppelin’s smart contracts have supported more than $37 trillion in value transferred and that it has completed over 900 security engagements.

Importantly for developers and auditing teams, OpenZeppelin says its contracts library and other open-source applications will remain free and publicly maintained on GitHub. This helps address a common concern when security tooling moves under corporate ownership: whether developers will still be able to rely on transparent, community-auditable code.

Under the proposed structure, OpenZeppelin will operate as a separate S&P Global business unit. The company also stated that OpenZeppelin’s CEO, Demian Brener, will continue to lead and will report to Le Pallec.

How this fits S&P Global’s broader move into crypto infrastructure

S&P Global’s acquisition announcement comes shortly after the company took another step into crypto data infrastructure. Earlier this week, S&P Global led a strategic investment in Kaiko, the Paris-based crypto market data provider. The investment extended Kaiko’s Series B funding to $110 million as the firm expands data infrastructure for tokenized financial markets, according to the prior coverage referenced by Cointelegraph: S&P Global leads $110M Kaiko funding round as Wall Street eyes tokenized markets.

Taken together, the two moves suggest a consistent theme: building a stack around digital asset markets that includes both data and security/risk assessment. Kaiko focuses on market data and related infrastructure for crypto trading and tokenized environments, while OpenZeppelin’s value proposition centers on smart contract security and the evaluation of onchain technology risk.

That pairing may be particularly relevant as more financial products and services attempt to connect legacy risk frameworks with blockchain systems. Market data without security assurance can leave a gap, while security expertise without dependable market benchmarks and transparency can limit how effectively risk is communicated to investors and institutions.

What to watch before the deal closes

With no financial terms disclosed and the transaction still pending closing conditions, the near-term focus for market participants is likely to be procedural rather than operational. OpenZeppelin’s continued open-source maintenance on GitHub is already a meaningful signal for developers, but investors and institutions will also want to monitor how S&P Global integrates the security team into its ratings and ecosystem development processes after closing.

Readers should keep an eye on the final deal timeline and any updates on how OpenZeppelin’s security engagement workflow—especially for financial institutions and blockchain teams—will be maintained or expanded within S&P Global’s broader digital assets strategy.

Iran has spent this year charging tankers between $1 million and $2 million to cross the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. Treasury said that since June, part of that money has moved through a cryptocurrency exchange in Tehran.

A Thursday release shows The Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated BitBank, a Tehran crypto exchange set up in 2024, alongwith Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, the software firm that built it.

“Today’s designations of Iranian digital asset infrastructure make perfectly clear that efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond OFAC’s reach,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The OFAC alleged BitBank moved hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the branch of Iran’s armed forces that controls much of the country’s economy and is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S.

Over the same period, Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority — the outfit Tehran uses to sell ships “safe passage” insurance, itself sanctioned on July 29 — began using BitBank to pass what it collected on to regime entities.