Zcash price has gained about 102% over the past month to trade near $1,535 as co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson has repeated his forecast that ZEC will reach $5,000 by the end of 2026.

Ben-Sasson said in a recent X post that he still considers his $5,000 year-end prediction on track. He also said large holders had asked him about ZEC’s latest rise, while acknowledging that he did not know precisely what caused the move.

The forecast follows an earlier call for ZEC to exceed $1,200 by Sep. 25. Zcash passed that price during its September rally and later traded above $1,600, putting the token well beyond the level Ben-Sasson had named for the month.

At roughly $1,535, a move to $5,000 would require ZEC to rise about 226%. The year-end figure remains Ben-Sasson’s prediction; his post did not identify a price model or a sequence of levels leading to it.

Zcash price holds above $1,500 after its monthly surge

Zcash price traded near $1,535 on the Binance daily chart captured on Sep. 26. The session showed an opening price of $1,555.74, a high of $1,559.02, and a low of $1,527.56 at the time of the reading.

Price remained above the chart’s $1,500 Murrey Math level after pulling back from a recent peak above $1,600. The next marked level above price was $1,625, followed by $1,750. Below $1,500, the chart placed the next levels at $1,375 and $1,250.

The daily average directional index, or ADX, stood at 60.44. ADX measures the strength of a trend without showing its direction; ZEC’s price action supplies the directional context after its climb through the September levels.

The speed of the advance has also brought sharp reversals. On Sep. 18, ZEC reached $1,535.82 before retreating toward $1,455, as previous Zcash price coverage detailed. At the time, the $1,500 level acted as resistance. ZEC has since moved above it, though its retreat from the latest high leaves that level close to the market again.

Earlier in September, ZEC rose from around $814 to more than $1,200. The rise included a move above $1,000 on Sep. 4, when short liquidations added to trading activity. Price then crossed $1,250 and $1,375 during the next leg of the rally.

Grayscale’s Zcash fund gives U.S. investors exchange access

Grayscale’s Zcash product began trading on NYSE Arca under the ticker ZCSH on Aug. 25 after the firm converted its existing trust into an exchange-traded fund. The listing gave U.S. brokerage investors a way to gain ZEC exposure without buying and storing the token themselves, as crypto.news covered after its launch.

Grayscale launched the product with about $304 million in assets held by the former trust. Its assets passed $500 million within weeks and reached more than $1 billion roughly one month after the listing, according to Grayscale’s reported fund figures. Asset growth includes changes in the value of ZEC already held by the fund, as well as investment flows.

ZCSH is also approaching a change to its share structure. Grayscale has scheduled a three-for-one forward split, with investors on record at the close of Sep. 28 set to receive two additional shares for each share held. Distribution is scheduled for Sep. 29, and split-adjusted trading is due to begin before the market opens on Sep. 30.

The split will triple the number of shares held by each eligible investor while reducing the net asset value per share proportionately. It will not change the value of the investor’s holding at the time of the adjustment, according to the ZCSH split filing.

For U.S. investors comparing the fund with direct ZEC ownership, Grayscale states that ZCSH is not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Its shares trade through brokerage accounts, while direct holders own the cryptocurrency itself.

Network upgrade plans add dates to the ZEC calendar

Zcash developers have set an Oct. 6 testnet activation target for Network Upgrade 7, or NU7, according to the project’s published upgrade timeline. The plan includes reducing the target time between blocks from 75 seconds to 25 seconds.

The proposed schedule calls for a final decision on mainnet activation on Oct. 20, after developers review the testnet rollout. Mainnet activation is targeted for Nov. 5. The upgrade package also includes changes to older transaction formats and the network’s funding mechanism.

Coinholders had backed the faster block target in a September poll. Nearly 99.9% of the participating ZEC supported the 25-second proposal, while about 98.9% favored retaining the existing halving schedule, according to coverage of the NU7 vote.

Outside the U.S., 21Shares launched a physically backed Zcash exchange-traded product on Euronext Paris and Amsterdam in September. The product gives eligible European brokerage customers another route to ZEC exposure, weeks after ZCSH began trading in New York.

Ripple’s RLUSD has reached a circulating supply of about 2.49 billion tokens as the value of stablecoins on the XRP Ledger has risen roughly 6% in a week.

CoinMarketCap data places RLUSD’s circulating supply at approximately 2.49 billion tokens and its market value close to $2.5 billion. The stablecoin trades near $1, so the increase in market value comes mainly from more tokens in circulation, rather than a rise in its price.

Ripple said RLUSD had crossed $2 billion in market value in late August. At the time, close to $1 billion had been issued on the XRP Ledger, according to the company. The latest total puts circulation roughly $490 million above that milestone, though tracker readings can differ by snapshot time and by how they count tokens across networks.

The XRPL figures describe a smaller pool. DefiLlama data cited in the source report placed all stablecoins on the ledger at approximately $1.19 billion, up about 6% over seven days and 11% over 30 days. About $1.10 billion of that amount was attributed to RLUSD, giving Ripple’s token more than 92% of the ledger’s tracked stablecoin supply.

RLUSD supply has grown beyond its August milestone

Ripple launched RLUSD in December 2024 as a dollar-pegged token for payments and other financial transactions. The company first issued it on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum and has since listed additional supported networks in its documentation.

When RLUSD passed $2 billion in August, Ethereum held slightly more of the token than XRPL. As crypto.news reported at the time, on-chain figures put about $963 million on XRPL and $1.05 billion on Ethereum. Ripple described the ledger’s share as close to $1 billion.

The current XRPL figure of about $1.10 billion points to further issuance on Ripple’s home ledger. It also means that well over $1 billion of the roughly $2.49 billion total remains on other supported networks. The figures should be kept separate: RLUSD’s total circulating supply counts the token wherever it has been issued, while the XRPL stablecoin total counts dollar tokens on that ledger.

Institutional clients have a direct route to create and redeem the token through Ripple Mint. Ripple introduced the service in July with an interface and API for eligible clients to manage RLUSD operations. The company presents it as a way to fit stablecoin issuance into existing treasury and payment systems.

Ripple has also identified corporate treasury payments as a possible use for RLUSD. In September, the company pointed to clients handling an estimated $13 trillion annually, according to earlier treasury coverage. That figure describes the payments handled by potential clients; it is not a measure of transactions already settled in RLUSD.

XRP Ledger stablecoins remain concentrated in RLUSD

DefiLlama’s XRPL total puts other stablecoins on the network at roughly $90 million after subtracting the reported $1.10 billion in RLUSD. The estimate depends on the timing of each tracker reading, but it shows the size of Ripple’s token relative to the ledger’s other dollar assets.

For XRPL users, RLUSD provides a dollar-denominated asset that can move on the same ledger as XRP. Ripple’s documentation describes the stablecoin as redeemable for U.S. dollars through its issuer’s arrangements. XRP serves a different role as the ledger’s native token and is used to pay network fees.

The difference matters when assessing what the new supply means for XRP holders. More RLUSD on XRPL can produce additional ledger activity, but it does not require holders of the stablecoin to buy an equivalent value of XRP. A September report on XRP examined the two assets’ separate price and usage trends as RLUSD grew past $2.3 billion.

Ripple has described RLUSD uses that include payments, trading collateral and tokenized assets. In August, it joined Clearpool and Cicada on a planned institutional credit fund denominated in RLUSD. The proposed credit fund was still under development when announced, and its planned size had not been disclosed.

New York oversight governs RLUSD’s reserves

In the United States, RLUSD’s issuer is Standard Custody & Trust Company, a Ripple subsidiary chartered as a limited-purpose trust company by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Ripple says the tokens are backed by cash and permitted cash equivalents held in segregated reserve accounts.

According to Ripple’s transparency disclosures, the company publishes monthly third-party attestations of the assets backing RLUSD. Those reports show reserves and circulation at a specified date, while market trackers update their supply estimates more frequently. Ripple selected BNY in 2025 as the primary custodian for RLUSD reserves.

Ripple’s terms state that RLUSD is not an insured bank deposit. For U.S. holders, redemption rights and the assets in reserve therefore depend on the issuer’s arrangements and applicable oversight, rather than Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation coverage.

Separately, the Federal Reserve released two proposed rules on Sep. 24 to implement parts of the GENIUS Act for issuers under its supervision and for insured state member banks seeking to issue payment stablecoins through subsidiaries. The Fed’s proposed rules cover permitted reserves, capital, risk controls, and bank applications. Public comments are due 60 days after the proposals appear in the Federal Register.

Solana’s Alpenglow upgrade has reached its public developer network, letting application teams test a system designed to cut transaction finality from about 12.8 seconds to roughly 150 milliseconds.

According to the Solana Foundation’s upgrade page, Alpenglow is now active on devnet and testnet but has not been activated on mainnet. Anza, which develops Solana’s core validator software, announced the devnet switch on Sept. 25, one day after testnet completed its transition.

The two networks serve different parts of the rollout. Application teams can use devnet to check how their software behaves with tokens that have no real value, while testnet gives validators and infrastructure operators a place to test the network software under more demanding conditions.

For developers, the new devnet stage means they can check applications against Alpenglow without waiting for the system to reach the blockchain that handles users’ funds. Solana’s mainnet continues to use TowerBFT, so the 150-millisecond figure remains a target for the planned upgrade rather than a finality time available to users today.

Solana’s Alpenglow changes how validators finalize blocks

Under TowerBFT, validators submit votes as transactions that appear inside blocks. Enough votes must accumulate across 32 slots before a block becomes final, which currently takes about 12.8 seconds, according to the Foundation.

Alpenglow’s first phase, called Votor, has validators send votes directly to one another instead. The Foundation says a block can reach finality after one voting round if validators representing at least 80% of stake vote to accept it. A second round provides another path when the first does not meet that threshold.

Finality is the point at which the network has agreed on a transaction strongly enough that it can no longer be reversed under its consensus rules. A faster result could matter to a U.S. exchange deciding when to credit a Solana deposit or to a payment provider deciding when to treat a merchant’s sale as complete. Each service may still apply its own checks before releasing funds or confirming a payment to a customer.

The Foundation separates finality from the time it takes to produce a block. In September, Solana reduced its target slot time from 300 milliseconds to 250 milliseconds, with a further reduction to 200 milliseconds planned under a separate upgrade. Shorter slots change how often the network can produce them; Alpenglow changes how validators agree that a block is final.

A previous crypto.news report covered the testnet preparations on Sept. 23, when developers were preparing Agave 4.3 for the public test. The move to devnet now gives application teams access to the upgraded consensus system in the network they commonly use for development.

Block-data services face changes before mainnet

For an application that sends transactions and reads account balances, the Foundation says Alpenglow requires no migration. Transaction execution, fees, and the formats used to send transactions remain the same under the consensus upgrade.

Services that build transaction histories have more work to do. Alpenglow can expose competing candidate blocks for the same slot before the network selects one. The Foundation tells data providers to keep those candidates separate, then retain the block that reaches confirmation. Combining transactions from different candidates could leave an explorer or other service with an incorrect record.

Validator votes will also disappear from blocks because they will no longer be submitted as transactions. As a result, a chart that counts both user transactions and validator votes will show a lower transaction total after activation even if users make the same number of payments and trades. The Foundation has told data providers to reset comparisons and alerts built on the old figures.

Some services also read validator participation from vote transactions. Under Alpenglow, the Foundation says that information moves to certificates attached to block data, requiring those services to change where they obtain it. Operators using Solana’s Geyser or gRPC data streams must also account for the identifiers that distinguish candidate blocks within a slot.

The changes make devnet testing relevant to exchanges, explorers and other firms that rely on transaction records, including U.S. services connected to Solana. Their deposit rules remain their own operational decision; the network upgrade does not automatically change when a platform makes funds available.

Mainnet activation still has no firm date

Solana’s earlier Alpenglow roadmap tied the proposed mainnet rollout to Agave 4.3 and an October target. Neither the testnet transition nor the devnet activation sets a confirmed date for the live-network switch.

Anza’s software schedule tentatively allows mainnet feature activations to resume on Sept. 28. The schedule does not identify that day as Alpenglow’s activation date, and the Foundation’s status page still lists the upgrade as inactive on mainnet.

The Foundation describes Votor as the first phase of Alpenglow. A later phase, Rotor, is planned to replace the system used to spread blocks across the network. The current rollout concerns the voting and finality changes, while the roughly 150-millisecond target comes from testing and simulations rather than transactions settled under live-market conditions.

Bitcoin has gained about 3.8% over seven days as U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have drawn $2.39 billion this week, while Quant, Ethena and Bitway have led the 100 largest crypto assets by weekly price gain.

According to CoinGecko, Bitcoin traded near $84,077 on Sep. 26, and the total crypto market value stood near $2.98 trillion. Quant (QNT) ranked first among the top 100 seven-day gainers at 61.8%, followed by Ethena (ENA) at 54.1% and Bitway (BTW) at 48.0%. The rankings use rolling seven-day price changes, so the figures can change during the weekend.

Bitcoin ETF inflows set the market backdrop

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows on all five trading days from Sep. 21 through Sep. 25, according to Farside Investors. The funds drew $999 million on Monday and $714.7 million on Tuesday, followed by $346.9 million, $190.7 million and $134.5 million over the next three sessions. Combined inflows reached about $2.39 billion.

Bitcoin reached $87,392 on Sep. 21 before retreating toward $84,000. In a report on ETF demand published Sep. 24, crypto.news quoted BTCS S.A. strategy adviser Wojciech Kaszycki, who said cash entering spot funds supported the initial price rise while futures positions also increased. He put the next major test near $90,000 if buying continued.

CoinGecko’s seven-day figures showed a much larger move in the three leading tokens than in Bitcoin. Each also had a separate development or trading pattern behind its advance, leaving different price levels in focus for the coming week.

Quant tests $106 after clearing $100

Quant traded near $104.48 in the CoinGecko snapshot, giving it the strongest seven-day return among the 100 largest assets. On Sep. 24, The Clearing House announced that it had selected Quant to power its On-Chain Money Initiative in the United States.

Quant will provide technology to connect banks and coordinate the clearing and settlement of tokenized-deposit transactions. The Clearing House said the network will also connect with payment systems already used by financial institutions, including RTP and CHIPS. It expects the service to become available to participating banks in the first half of 2027.

The U.S. selection follows Quant’s work on a separate British bank project. On Sep. 24, six UK institutions completed live customer transactions through the Great British Tokenised Deposit initiative, which Quant supported alongside EY and Linklaters. The British project tested payments involving customers at different banks.

On the TradingView daily chart, QNT rose through the Murrey Math $100 level and traded around $104.57. Its Average Directional Index stood at 39.13, indicating a strong trend after the steep advance. Price reached $108 during the session before easing below the chart’s $106.25 overshoot level.

A move back above $106.25 would put $112.50 in focus, followed by $118.75 if buyers sustain the advance. If QNT falls below $100, the breakout would face a more demanding test at $93.75, the next marked level on the daily chart.

Ethena approaches $0.28 with RSI near 80

Ethena’s ENA traded near $0.2781 on CoinGecko after gaining 54.1% over seven days. On Sep. 25, the protocol said it would add tokenized U.S. stocks and corresponding equity perpetual futures on Binance to part of the strategy used to back its USDe synthetic dollar.

As reported on Sep. 25, Ethena plans to hold Binance bStocks for stock exposure and take offsetting positions in equity perpetuals. Ethena said Binance’s equity perpetual market had more than $2.9 billion in open interest. The stock-linked positions add another market for a strategy the protocol has also used with crypto assets.

Ethena Labs founder Guy Young called it “the most significant expansion of USDe’s funding mechanism since we started.” The company said its Risk Committee had approved a framework for the stock-based trades.

The strategy involves tokenized U.S. equities, but Binance’s bStocks offering is available to eligible users where permitted by local law. Binance’s original bStocks launch included tokens linked to Nvidia, Tesla, Circle, Micron, and Sandisk shares. The tokens provide stock-linked exposure without the voting rights held by direct shareholders.

On the TradingView daily chart, ENA traded around $0.2756 after touching $0.2807. Price stood above its 20-day moving average at $0.1808, its 50-day average at $0.1491, its 100-day average at $0.1160, and its 200-day average at $0.1082. Daily RSI reached 79.85, above the commonly watched 70 level.

A move above $0.2807 would extend the latest breakout. The day’s $0.2632 low is the first level to watch on a pullback; below it, the earlier $0.22–$0.23 trading area would come back into view. Ethena’s fee-switch proposal links future ENA buybacks to USDe supply thresholds, starting at $7.5 billion, rather than providing an immediate buyback at the supply level cited in the proposal.

Bitway’s reversal puts $0.76 in focus

Bitway traded near $0.9032 on CoinGecko, up 48.0% for the rolling seven-day period. Its daily TradingView chart showed a much sharper move within that window: BTW reached $1.3661 before falling to about $0.9033, with the session’s low at $0.7620.

Earlier in the week, on-chain analyst Ai Yi reported that a new address withdrew 5 million BTW, worth about $3.71 million at the time, from Gate. Other reports of the analyst’s findings put the combined withdrawals by three new addresses at 15 million BTW within three hours. The transfers occurred during the rally, but the transactions alone do not establish who controlled the wallets or why BTW’s price rose.

Bitway also has a staking program running from Sep. 1 to Oct. 1, with an 8% stated annual rate on USDT and an additional 3% offered in BW Points. Its earlier incentive programs were covered in an August Bitway price report after the token rose sharply that month.

The latest daily candle leaves BTW below the Bollinger upper band near $1.1513 but above its middle band near $0.7121. Regaining $1.00 and then $1.1513 would bring the $1.30–$1.37 area back into focus. A fall through the $0.7620 daily low would put the $0.7121 middle band next on the chart.

Bitget has launched a recovery bounty offering 5% for freezing stolen assets and another 5% for recovering them after an attack it initially valued at $351.6 million.

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen announced the bounty on X and called on exchanges, security researchers, and on-chain investigators to help track the funds. She also thanked Circle and Tether for freezing assets linked to the attack.

The two rewards cover different results. Under Bitget’s program, an eligible participant can receive 5% of the affected funds they directly help freeze and 5% of funds they directly help recover. The exchange said voluntary actions that had already led to a freeze can qualify alongside future efforts.

Bitget bounty covers freezing and recovery separately

Bitget will decide who qualifies, how each contribution is measured, and how much to pay. Participation alone does not guarantee a reward, and the exchange excludes actions taken under court orders, law enforcement requests or other legal processes.

The company has opened a live tracing dashboard and a portal for submitting information about affected funds. Its published list of primary receiving addresses spans Ethereum and other compatible networks, XRP Ledger, Zcash and TRON. Bitget said the dashboard will be updated as investigators identify more addresses and follow further movements.

Bybit’s LazarusBounty initiative will also serve as a channel for the effort, according to Bitget. Exchanges, stablecoin issuers, bridges and custodians are among the groups the company has asked to monitor the listed addresses.

Circle and Tether have frozen 99,990 USDC and 218,023 USDT, respectively, at addresses tied to the attack, according to the earlier report shared on the incident. The amounts total roughly $318,000. Bitget’s update says other affected assets have also been frozen through work with industry partners, without giving a combined frozen or recovered total.

The freeze follows scrutiny of USDC movements during the attack. Security researcher Taylor Monahan flagged transfers and swaps involving the attacker, as crypto.news reported on Friday. Her account described stolen USDC moving through wallets while some assets were converted into ETH.

Bitget raises transferred-assets estimate to $387.5 million

Bitget’s latest tracing puts the value transferred to attacker-controlled addresses at approximately $387.5 million, up from its initial $351.6 million estimate. The company said the revised figure includes affected assets on Zcash and TRON that were absent from its first calculation. It attributed the increase to a fuller accounting of the original incident, rather than further unauthorized transfers.

The exchange detected unauthorized transfers from some hot wallets at 18:31 UTC on Sep. 24. Its initial security notice said portions of its hot and warm wallet systems were affected, while cold wallets remained secure. Bitget paused withdrawals after detecting the transfers but kept deposits and trading available.

Investigators believe an attacker compromised a backend wallet service, fed false transfer information into Bitget’s systems, and triggered its authorization process. Chen said the preliminary probe had ruled out a private-key leak. The account of the suspected entry route was covered by crypto.news on Sep. 25, before Bitget published its revised asset total.

In its later update, Bitget said its team had identified the attack path and fixed the underlying vulnerability. Mandiant and SlowMist are assisting with the investigation and security checks. The exchange said it had contained the incident and that no further unauthorized transfers were possible.

The affected assets include XRP, ETH, USDT, ZEC, USDC, USDT0, XAUt, BNB, AVAX and TRX, according to Bitget. Its tracing information identifies four primary receiving addresses so far, one each for EVM networks, XRP Ledger, Zcash and TRON.

Withdrawals are scheduled to return in phases

Bitget published a withdrawal schedule on Sep. 26 after conducting further checks on its systems. Bitcoin withdrawals are set to resume at 08:00 UTC on Sep. 28. Ethereum withdrawals on the listed networks are scheduled for the same time on Sep. 29, followed by USDT on Sep. 30 and other tokens, fiat and peer-to-peer services on Oct. 2.

The exchange said customer account balances remain unaffected and its Protection Fund covers the financial impact of the incident. Its first notice valued the fund at more than $464 million, before the company revised its estimate of the transferred assets. Bitget has not published a new fund valuation alongside the $387.5 million figure.

For U.S. readers, the issuer freezes concern dollar-linked tokens that can also be held outside Bitget. Circle’s USDC terms allow it to block transfers involving certain on-chain addresses. A recent U.S. Justice Department case separately involved Tether’s help in tracing and restraining crypto tied to an alleged illicit network; authorities have made no comparable public announcement about U.S. action in the Bitget investigation.

Chen is scheduled to host a live question-and-answer session at 07:30 UTC on Sep. 28 to discuss the incident, the restoration of withdrawals, and Bitget’s next steps.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce has submitted her formal resignation, effective Oct. 2, according to a letter she posted to X. Peirce—often dubbed “Crypto Mom” for her consistent calls for clearer, rules-based crypto regulation—has spent roughly eight years on the commission.

Peirce’s departure comes as the SEC’s leadership and regulatory posture toward digital assets has shifted under the current administration. With her resignation, the commission’s membership will again be shaped by the remaining Republican commissioners, Paul Atkins (chairman) and Mark Uyeda.

Key takeaways

• SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce’s resignation is effective Oct. 2, with the letter posted on her X account.
• Peirce served on the SEC for about eight years and has been director of the agency’s Crypto Task Force since Feb. 4, 2025.
• Her SEC term had already expired in June 2025, but commissioners can continue serving for up to about 18 months if replacement nominations are not made.
• Peirce is expected to join Regent University’s law school as an associate professor in November, per earlier reporting.
• The SEC’s stance toward crypto has changed since Trump took office in January 2025, including reductions in certain enforcement actions and investigations involving crypto firms.

Resignation letter and SEC staffing expectations

Peirce posted a copy of her resignation letter to X on Friday. In the letter, she expressed gratitude for “the honor of her professional lifetime” serving as a commissioner. She also said she would be leaving the SEC under the “excellent leadership” of Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda, the two remaining members.

Peirce’s letter also fits into a broader SEC timeline. While her official term expired in June 2025, the SEC’s structure allows commissioners to remain in office for approximately 18 months after their term ends if they are not replaced before then. This is part of the reason her role continued despite the expiration date.

There is an additional staffing factor: Caroline Crenshaw, the prior Democratic commissioner, left the SEC in January—18 months after her term ended—without any new nomination yet made by President Donald Trump to fill her seat.

Role in the SEC’s Crypto Task Force

Beyond her commissioner duties, Peirce has been director of the SEC’s Crypto Task Force. According to Peirce’s designation letter on the SEC website, she assumed that role on Feb. 4, 2025.

The Crypto Task Force has focused on how existing securities laws could apply to digital assets and decentralized systems. For investors and builders, that work matters because it influences how the SEC interprets “securities” questions in contexts that may not map cleanly onto traditional financial products.

Peirce has repeatedly emphasized the need for clearer, more predictable frameworks. In June 2025, Cointelegraph reported on remarks she made regarding decentralized finance and developer liability, including an argument that publishing open-source code should not automatically subject software developers to federal securities regulations. Her position touches a long-running debate in crypto: whether and how legal risk should attach to developers contributing software that others may use in decentralized networks.

Academic move signals a shift in influence

Peirce’s resignation does not appear to mark a retreat from crypto policy and legal issues. In May 2025, Cointelegraph reported that she planned to join the law school of Regent University in Virginia as an associate professor in November.

Regent University’s academic plan, as described in that reporting, would include strengthening focus areas such as federal litigation, securities regulation, and digital assets. For market participants, this matters because Peirce’s perspective has been closely watched in policy circles—both for its critique of regulatory uncertainty and for its emphasis on how legal doctrines apply to decentralized technology.

Still, the practical impact of her exit remains tied to how her responsibilities are redistributed at the SEC. With her resignation effective Oct. 2 and no immediate indication of a replacement commissioner in the supplied material, the SEC’s internal balance and external messaging could continue to reflect the views of the two remaining Republican commissioners.

A SEC regulator’s approach in transition

Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, the SEC has “radically changed” its approach to crypto regulation and enforcement, according to Cointelegraph’s coverage referenced in the source text. That reporting noted that the SEC dropped several enforcement actions and investigations tied to crypto companies, including those connected to Trump and his family.

The SEC leadership’s direction has been a central part of the crypto industry’s expectations. In remarks earlier referenced by Cointelegraph, Chairman Paul Atkins characterized the previous era of enforcement as “regulation by enforcement.” In that context, Peirce’s own arguments—particularly on how rules should apply to decentralized systems and developers—can be read as consistent with a broader push toward clearer standards rather than case-by-case enforcement.

However, much will depend on what comes next: whether the Crypto Task Force’s work accelerates, how it is framed under the remaining commissioners, and whether the SEC’s enforcement posture toward crypto will continue to shift in the absence of a fully staffed leadership lineup.

As Peirce prepares to step away from the SEC, investors and builders should watch two things closely: how the Crypto Task Force continues its work without her direct leadership, and whether the commission’s membership changes before— or after—Oct. 2 alters how the SEC signals its interpretation of securities laws for digital assets.

Backpack CEO Armani Ferrante has laid out a plan to expand tokenized stock access on Solana from about 200 symbols to 10,000, with shares moving between brokerage accounts and decentralized finance through one API.

According to a post shared by Solana on Sep. 26, Ferrante wants to make the full stock market available through a system that connects conventional securities accounts with DeFi applications.

“Not 10 stocks, not 100 stocks. We want to bring the entire stock market to Solana,” Ferrante said in the clip shared by Solana.

He described a single API through which a real share could move from a brokerage account into DeFi and back. Ferrante called the move from 200 to 10,000 symbols “the next leap,” though the post did not identify a launch date or set out which stocks would be added first.

The 200-symbol figure comes from Ferrante’s description of the starting point. The post does not establish that Backpack Securities has already issued 200 separate tokenized stocks on Solana, so the proposed expansion should not be read as a count of tokens currently in circulation.

How Backpack moves stocks onto Solana

Backpack introduced its securities platform in June, saying customers could hold U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds through a brokerage service and convert eligible holdings into tokenized securities. Depositing a supported token through Backpack Exchange converts it back into a traditional security entitlement, according to the company.

The company says its brokerage holdings are security entitlements governed by New York’s Uniform Commercial Code Article 8. Backpack also says the service supports cash dividends, corporate actions and transfers involving established brokerage infrastructure, including ACATS and Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation systems.

On Solana, Backpack-issued tokens can be held in compatible wallets and transferred between users. The company says they can also be used in DeFi applications, subject to the features and rules of the particular product and service.

A June report on SPCX covered Backpack Securities’ first tokenized SpaceX product, issued with Sunrise on Solana. Backpack said eligible holders could convert the token into the corresponding share through its brokerage route, while Sunrise provided infrastructure for issuing and distributing the token.

Backpack subsequently added tokenized versions of other U.S.-listed companies. In July, crypto.news covered its continuous trading for a group of equities available to users outside the United States, including products tied to SpaceX, Micron and SanDisk. The company said users could redeem supported Solana tokens one-for-one for the corresponding shares through its platform.

The conversion process is also described in Backpack’s Sep. 23 CoreWeave announcement. A customer can withdraw a CoreWeave holding from Backpack Exchange as a CRWV token on Solana, then deposit the token to convert it back into a brokerage holding, the company said. Backpack identified decentralized exchanges, wallets and other Solana applications where the token could be accessed.

What ownership rights Backpack describes

Backpack draws a distinction between a brokerage holding and its tokenized form, even when it says the two can be converted one-for-one. In its Micron product description, the company says brokerage holders receive cash dividends and corporate actions through traditional securities infrastructure.

For holders of its tokenized Micron security, Backpack says dividend payments are reinvested into additional tokens. It says applicable corporate actions are handled through proportional changes to token balances intended to preserve the economic value of the underlying holding.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has warned that tokenized securities created by third parties do not all give holders the same rights. In a January staff statement, the agency said the rights attached to a token depend on its structure and may differ from those attached to the underlying security. The statement also distinguished tokens backed by securities held through custody arrangements from synthetic products that create different claims.

For American readers, those differences matter when comparing stock tokens with conventional brokerage positions. Backpack’s descriptions of redemption, dividends and corporate actions apply to its stated product structure; they should not be assumed to apply to every token carrying a familiar stock ticker.

Where U.S. tokenized stock rules stand

On Sep. 17, the SEC granted conditional relief for certain venues to trade tokenized National Market System stocks through permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools. The five-year framework places limits on the number of symbols and trading volume a qualifying venue may handle.

Under the SEC’s published conditions, a venue must verify that a tokenized stock gives its holder the same rights and privileges as the equivalent traditional share. When an unaffiliated third party tokenizes a company’s stock, the venue must notify the issuer and give it an opportunity to object.

The SEC also requires public, auditable smart contracts and a halt in token trading whenever the underlying stock is halted on its primary exchange. The agency’s announcement does not identify Backpack as a participating venue or state that its current products operate under the exemption.

Backpack’s U.S. plans have involved a separate corporate step as well. In September, the company’s U.S. arm appointed Kyle Samani to its board. Backpack said the former Multicoin Capital executive would support its work across regulated U.S. financial services and onchain markets; the appointment did not include a timetable for expanding its U.S. stock or tokenized asset services.