UnitedHealth finds itself in a genuinely split narrative right now, trading near $388, down about 15.9% from its 52-week high, even as the fundamental picture keeps improving. Q2 earnings beat expectations, with revenue of $112.03 billion, and the company followed through with a significant policy shift: lifting prior-authorization requirements on roughly 1,700 diagnostic codes starting October 1, a move that could meaningfully ease administrative friction with providers and support margins going forward.

Wall Street’s conviction has only grown stronger as a result. Wells Fargo and Bernstein both reaffirmed Buy ratings this month, with price targets near $526 and $512 respectively, while the broader consensus, a Moderate Buy across 27 analysts, points to an average target of $456.56, implying roughly 17% upside from current levels.

The stock has nonetheless struggled to find sustained momentum, weighed down by lingering concerns over Medicare Advantage margin recovery and, more recently, the shock of losing a senior executive, an event that has triggered internal restructuring and closer scrutiny of governance and security practices.

The result: a company delivering genuinely solid operational improvement, but one whose stock price has yet to fully reflect it.

Technical Analysis of UnitedHealth

As the UNH daily chart shows, the stock remains in a broader downtrend from July’s highs near $459.51, currently testing a critical confluence near $374–383, where the 0.382 Fibonacci retracement and the 200-period EMA all converge. Adding intrigue to the setup, the RSI is forming a bullish divergence, printing higher highs even as price carved a fresh low in recent sessions.

Bullish Scenario

Should buyers break above this EMA-Fibonacci confluence, the divergence would gain real technical credibility, opening the path towards a retest of the broader downtrend structure and potentially challenging the $450–$460 area, where the stock has its recent high in July.

Bearish Scenario

Conversely, a rejection at this confluence would keep sellers in control, invalidating the divergence and exposing the 0.5 retracement near $357.46, with a deeper slide risking a retest of the 0.618 level around $333.37, the support zone that held throughout last autumn and winter.

With price testing a stubborn multi-factor confluence while the RSI quietly hints at fading downside momentum, UnitedHealth’s next move looks set to determine whether the fundamental recovery story finally gains technical confirmation, or whether the broader downtrend still has room to run.

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Ethereum price fell toward $2,475 after a brief move above $2,600 failed, leaving ETH exposed to weaker momentum and leveraged volatility ahead of two major U.S. events.

Ethereum price falls back below $2,500

According to data from crypto.news, Ethereum (ETH) price traded near $2,475 on Sept. 15 after dropping approximately 2% over the previous 24 hours. The decline followed a sharp rejection above $2,600, where buyers failed to sustain a breakout.

The daily chart shows ETH opening at $2,515.72 before trading between $2,465.60 and $2,520 during the latest session. The token was down 1.65% at the time of writing.

Price action remains volatile after ETH climbed above $2,600 during the prior session and quickly surrendered the entire move. The reversal pushed the token below the $2,500 psychological level and back into the consolidation range that has controlled trading since late August.

Crypto trader Daan Crypto Trades described the move as pre-positioning ahead of the U.S. Senate’s CLARITY Act vote and the Federal Open Market Committee meeting. According to the analyst, the initial rally removed leveraged short positions before the decline forced out traders positioned long.

The pattern shows traders reducing risk before events that could affect both monetary policy and U.S. digital-asset regulation. Failure to advance the bill could produce another move lower before attention shifts to the Fed decision, Daan added.

Weak momentum leaves Ethereum near 4-hour support

On the 4-hour chart, ETH has moved below the Bollinger Band midpoint at $2,509.64. The lower band stands at $2,469.41, placing the current price close to its first immediate volatility support.

A break below that band would expose the recent intraday lows and the $2,450 area. Buyers would need to recover the midpoint before attempting another move toward the upper Bollinger Band at $2,549.86.

The Average Directional Index is at 17.73. Readings below 20 normally indicate that the prevailing trend lacks strength, meaning ETH could remain range-bound even as short-term swings become sharper.

Daily indicators also show fading momentum. The relative strength index has dropped to 56.89 from its recent highs and sits below its moving average of 62.14. ETH is not oversold, leaving room for further downside if sellers retain control.

The daily MACD line remains positive at 72.86 but has fallen below the signal line at 90.93. The histogram has turned negative at -18.07, showing that the momentum behind the August rally is weakening.

Liquidation clusters frame the next ETH move

CoinGlass’s one-week liquidation heatmap shows a concentration of leveraged positions immediately below the market around $2,450–$2,470. ETH’s decline toward that area increases the chance of further volatility if the price moves through the cluster.

A stronger pocket of downside liquidity appears around $2,390–$2,410. Failure to hold the current range could draw price toward that zone, particularly if leveraged long positions are forced to close.

Liquidity also sits above ETH around $2,535–$2,580, followed by brighter concentrations near $2,630 and $2,650. A recovery above $2,550 could therefore trigger short liquidations and support another attempt at $2,600.

The heatmap does not establish the direction of the next move. It identifies areas where forced position closures could accelerate volatility after ETH reaches those levels.

On the broader daily chart, the 0.786 Fibonacci retracement at $2,253.61 remains the main structural support. The next major upside Fibonacci level stands at $2,833.75, but ETH must first overcome the nearer resistance between $2,550 and $2,600.

Analysts identify $2,550 as the key resistance

Crypto analyst Ted Pillows said ETH’s upside would remain capped until the asset reclaims $2,550 on the weekly timeframe. His chart places the first major support near $2,175 and the next resistance around $2,860 if buyers establish a weekly close above the current ceiling.

Key takeaways

• Bitcoin’s four-hour chart is forming a potential rounded-top pattern after its rally from $63,000.
• The $76,000–$76,300 region serves as the pattern’s critical neckline and support zone.
• A decisive breakdown could produce a technical downside target near $70,900–$71,000.

Bitcoin could decline toward $71,000 if a potential rounded-top pattern on its four-hour chart confirms with a decisive breakdown below the $76,000 support level.

BTC rallied from approximately $63,000 in mid-August before reaching the $80,000–$81,500 region. 

However, bullish momentum has since weakened, with the price gradually curving lower and forming the dome-like structure associated with a rounded top.

Weak spot-market demand is adding to the bearish risk, even as demand for Bitcoin perpetual futures remains positive.

Bitcoin rounded top places $71,000 in focus

Bitcoin’s potential rounded top has developed following its strong recovery from the August lows.

The cryptocurrency was trading near $76,870 on Monday, September 15, holding above an important support zone between $76,000 and $76,300. This area effectively represents the neckline of the bearish chart formation.

A decisive four-hour candle close below the zone could confirm the pattern and increase the probability of a deeper correction.

The distance between the pattern’s peak and neckline is approximately $5,000 to $5,300. Subtracting this range from a possible breakdown near $76,000 produces a downside target between $70,900 and $71,000.

Technical indicators show market indecision

Bitcoin’s four-hour Relative Strength Index stood near 54.5, reflecting broadly neutral momentum rather than strongly overbought or oversold conditions.

BTC was also trading around its 20-period, 50-period, and 100-period exponential moving averages. The clustering of these indicators highlights the continuing struggle between buyers and sellers.

A sustained recovery above the $79,500–$80,000 range would weaken the rounded-top scenario. A breakout above the recent highs near $81,500 would largely invalidate the bearish formation and restore the case for further gains. Until then, the $76,000 support remains the most important level to monitor.

Bitcoin’s underlying demand profile provides limited support for the bullish outlook. CryptoQuant’s 30-day demand-growth data shows that demand in the perpetual futures market remained positive during September. Spot demand, however, stayed negative.

Consequently, Bitcoin’s overall demand remained below zero despite continued activity from derivatives traders.

The divergence suggests that leveraged futures positions are driving much of the recent buying pressure rather than investors accumulating BTC directly through the spot market.

Futures-led demand makes BTC vulnerable

A rally driven primarily by derivatives can be more fragile than one supported by strong spot buying.

Futures demand can disappear quickly when traders close leveraged positions or face liquidations during a price decline. This can accelerate selling and increase volatility if Bitcoin breaks below an important support level.

A somewhat similar divergence developed in January and February 2026, when futures demand briefly recovered before overall demand and Bitcoin’s price weakened.

The current structure does not guarantee the same result. However, without a recovery in spot demand, a confirmed breakdown below $76,000 would make the rounded-top target near $71,000 increasingly relevant.

Bitcoin price fell below $77,000 as traders reduced risk before a key U.S. Senate vote on the CLARITY Act, while technical charts showed weakening short-term momentum.

Bitcoin price action today

According to data from crypto.news, Bitcoin (BTC) price traded at about $77,059 at the time of writing, down 1.45% on the daily candle. The cryptocurrency opened at $78,189, reached an intraday high of $78,250, and dropped to $76,704 before recovering slightly.

The decline followed another failed attempt to hold the $79,000 area. Bitcoin has recorded lower highs since reaching roughly $82,000 in early September, while buyers have repeatedly defended the region between $76,500 and $77,000.

Bitcoin also fell below the middle line of its 4-hour Bollinger Bands, which stood at $77,474. The move left BTC closer to the lower band at $76,359 than the upper band at $78,589, showing that sellers retained control of the short-term range.

The 4-hour relative strength index stood at 44.20, below its signal line at 48.76. Although the indicator had not reached oversold territory, its position below 50 showed that bullish momentum had weakened.

CLARITY Act vote adds to market pressure

Uncertainty surrounding the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act contributed to the cautious trading conditions. The U.S. Senate was preparing for a cloture vote that would require 60 votes to open debate on the market-structure bill.

Traders had previously responded positively to reports of a revised draft. Doubts about whether the legislation could reach the required threshold later reduced that optimism.

The bill remains important for U.S. investors because it seeks to clarify how federal agencies oversee digital assets. Failure to advance the measure could delay broader market-structure legislation and leave parts of the U.S. crypto industry operating under the existing regulatory framework.

Macro conditions also remained a risk for Bitcoin. Hotter August inflation data and rising oil prices are factors behind stronger expectations for restrictive Federal Reserve policy.

Higher interest rates can weigh on cryptocurrencies by increasing the returns available from Treasury securities and other yield-bearing assets. The next Fed decision could therefore affect whether Bitcoin holds its current support or extends the decline.

Bitcoin liquidity builds around $76K and $78.4K

CoinGlass’ 24-hour liquidation heatmap showed Bitcoin falling steadily from nearly $79,400 before stabilizing around $76,600.

One of the strongest liquidity concentrations below the market appeared near $76,000. Additional liquidity was visible around $75,000, making the $75,000–$76,000 region a possible target if sellers force another move lower.

The heatmap also showed large pools above the current price. The nearest major concentration sat around $78,300–$78,500, followed by another broad cluster near $80,000.

Those levels could attract price if Bitcoin recovers, but they may also act as resistance because traders caught in losing positions could close exposure as the market approaches their entry levels.

A sustained break above $78,600, corresponding with the upper 4-hour Bollinger Band, would improve the short-term setup. Bitcoin would then need to reclaim $80,000 before testing the September highs near $82,000.

Key Bitcoin support remains near $75,500

The daily chart showed Bitcoin trading above its Supertrend support at $72,786 despite the latest pullback. The indicator’s green reading means the broader daily recovery from the August range remains intact unless the price falls below that level.

Shorter-term support is considerably closer. The recent low around $76,700 and the lower Bollinger Band at $76,359 form the first defense area, followed by the liquidation concentration near $76,000.

Trader Lennaert Snyder said he entered a short position after Bitcoin was rejected near $79,000 and closed the trade when BTC reached his $77,300 target.

Snyder identified $76,000 and $75,500 as the main levels for a possible rebound. He said a brief move below $75,500 around the CLARITY Act vote could create a long setup if Bitcoin quickly recovers with strong buying pressure.

A daily close below $75,500 would weaken that rebound scenario and expose lower support. The daily Supertrend at approximately $72,800 would then become the next important technical level.

Analysts warn about the 50-week EMA

Crypto analyst Ted Pillows said Bitcoin had moved back below its 50-week exponential moving average. According to Pillows, BTC also closed below the indicator in the previous week, and another weekly close beneath it could accelerate the existing downtrend.

The chart shared by Pillows placed the 50-week EMA near $78,300, making the $78,300–$78,600 range an important recovery zone. Bitcoin would need to reclaim that area to reduce the immediate risk of another rejection.

The technical and liquidation charts leave BTC between clearly defined levels. A rebound above $78,600 could open a move toward $80,000, where the heatmap showed heavy liquidity. A confirmed loss of $75,500 would instead raise the risk of a decline toward $72,800.

Bitcoin (BTC) speculators have held onto profits for nearly a month in what new analysis sees as a key sign of market strength.

Key points:

• Bitcoin short-term holders were in partial profit for the past month, marking the longest consecutive in-profit stint of 2026.
• STH profitability — a historical hallmark of bullish BTC price reversals — currently stands at $168.2 billion in profit versus $102.6 billion in loss.
• The broader Bitcoin investor base has stayed in net profit since Aug. 19.

Short-term holders boost optimism over BTC price comeback

Data from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant shows that a subset of Bitcoin’s short-term holder (STH) cohort has been in profit since Aug. 16.

STH investors are wallets holding an unspent transaction output (UTXO) for less than six months. They correspond to newer buyers who are more sensitive to short-term price moves and volatility, adding or reducing exposure more readily than seasoned Bitcoin holders.

Since Aug. 16, the STH investor base has been split in terms of profits on their existing exposure. STH coins held in profit total $168.2 billion as of Tuesday, while $102.6 billion are held below acquisition price.

Bitcoin STH holdings in profit and loss. Source: CryptoQuant

To CryptoQuant, however, the ratio is less important than the fact that STHs have held onto at least some profit for 30 consecutive days.

“This is the first time STH have sat in profit territory for a sustained stretch since the market top. The last time was in January, but that episode didn’t last more than a week. In May, losses held by STH remained dominant,” it wrote in an accompanying blog post.

The phenomenon of lengthening uninterrupted periods of STH profitability is one that has characterized Bitcoin market recoveries throughout BTC price cycles. It was also observed at the end of Bitcoin’s 2022 bear market. CryptoQuant thus sees it as a prerequisite for the return of a long-term BTC price uptrend this cycle.

“The bear market trend only truly reverses once profits settle in for good STH and then push them to hold their positions and ride the upside,” it added.

Bitcoin STH holdings in profit and loss through year-end 2023. Source: CryptoQuant

Newer investor cost bases cluster above $70,000

The data echoes a similar stint of aggregate profitability currently being witnessed across the Bitcoin investor base as BTC/USD retains the majority of its 25% August upside.

Related: CLARITY Act vote meets Fed rate hike: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week

As Cointelegraph reported, the spent output profit ratio (SOPR), which tracks net profits or losses across all investors, passed its breakeven level of 1 on Aug. 19 and has narrowly held above it since. Last week, onchain analytics suite Checkonchain argued that STH profitability in particular was “starting to look more like those early bull-market recoveries.” 

STH profitability is currently being driven by entities holding between one and three months, CryptoQuant data shows, with that cohort having a cost basis (also known as realized price) at $63,372. The cost basis of the more mature end of the STH base — wallets holding for between three and six months — now sits at $73,190.

Bitcoin realized price by wallet age. Source: CryptoQuant

Fin.com has raised $20 million in seed funding as the New York payments startup expands infrastructure for moving stablecoins into local bank accounts and digital wallets.

Fortune reported on Sept. 15 that the financing closed in August and was led by Expa and Uber cofounder Garrett Camp, with Coinbase Ventures, Tenet Fund, founders of Figure, Mesh founder Bam Azizi, Second Sight Ventures and investors linked to sovereign and royal family offices in the Gulf and Africa participating. Fin.com did not disclose its valuation.

Founded by Nabeel Alamgir and Mustafa Dar, the company is building white-label payment infrastructure that lets businesses collect, convert and distribute money using a mixture of stablecoins and local banking rails. Its focus includes South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, regions the founders identified as central to the company’s expansion strategy.

Fin.com funding targets the stablecoin-to-fiat gap

Fin.com’s product focuses on a point in cross-border payments where blockchain settlement still depends on conventional financial systems: delivering digital dollars as spendable local currency. Alamgir described the company’s objective as solving the “last mile delivery problem,” referring to the process of moving funds from stablecoin rails into bank accounts and wallets.

Through one API, Fin.com says businesses can accept bank transfers, international wires and stablecoins while sending payouts to bank accounts, mobile wallets and local payment networks. Its current platform lists support for more than 40 currencies and payouts across over 30 countries, with USDC and USDT available as settlement assets.

The service supports local methods including ACH, SEPA, Faster Payments, PIX and UPI. On the payout side, Fin.com lists mobile-money services such as M-Pesa, GCash and Airtel Money among the available routes. The company says its routing technology selects payment paths based on factors such as speed, cost and availability.

Fin.com claims most transfers can settle in under 60 minutes, compared with the two-to-five-business-day window it assigns to conventional cross-border banking. The performance figures are company claims and will vary by corridor, banking partner, currency and compliance requirements.

Expa backed Fin.com after working with its founders

Fin.com’s relationship with Expa developed before the seed announcement. Dar joined Expa as an investor in 2023 after stepping away from private aviation company 24/7 Jet, while Alamgir previously founded restaurant technology company Lunchbox. The pair began working on Fin.com after reconnecting in late 2025.

Expa now lists Fin.com among its portfolio companies and describes the startup as an operating system for cross-border payments. The venture firm says the platform combines local payment networks with stablecoins for settlement through a single API. Expa identifies Alamgir and Dar as the founders and places the company in New York City.

Fortune reported that Expa founding partner Vitor Lourenço joined the investment after Dar moved from prospective investor to company cofounder. Garrett Camp, who founded Expa and co-founded Uber, participated in the seed financing.

Other investors bring direct exposure to crypto infrastructure and payments. Coinbase Ventures was the most active crypto-focused venture investor during the first half of 2026, completing 30 investments, according to data previously covered by crypto.news. Payments, DeFi and AI ranked among the main areas attracting its capital.

Fin.com focuses on emerging-market payment corridors

Fin.com has identified South Asia, Africa and the Middle East as priority regions. Besides New York, Fortune reported that the company has operations or offices in Las Vegas, Dubai, Dhaka, Bangalore and Lahore.

Its website gives several examples of how those corridors can work. For South Asian payments, Fin.com says it supplies infrastructure supporting local-currency accounts and stablecoin settlement for users receiving Indian rupees, Philippine pesos and Pakistani rupees. The examples are company case studies and should not be treated as independently audited transaction data.

For African routes, the company says its infrastructure can connect USDC settlement with local currencies including Nigerian naira and Kenyan shillings. Fin.com positions stablecoins as the middle settlement layer while recipients receive local money through banking or mobile-payment networks.

Its crypto service supports BTC, ETH, USDC and USDT, with options for automatic conversion into fiat and payouts to external wallets. Fin.com says it performs wallet screening, transaction monitoring and Travel Rule processing on covered transfers. Crypto payment documentation lists exchanges including Crypto.com and Kraken among supported payment channels.

The company’s legal structure remains relevant as it expands. Fin Inc. is a Delaware holding company, while regulated activities run through separate entities and payment partners. Current legal disclosures state that Wind Technologies holds a Dubai Financial Services Authority Innovation Testing Licence, which is limited to approved testing conditions.

Fin.com’s licensing page says the UAE authorization is not unrestricted permission for full-scale financial activity and notes that some standard protections may not apply during the testing phase. It states that financial transactions under the relevant entity cannot begin until an approved client-money account is in place.

Stablecoin payment infrastructure keeps drawing capital

Fin.com enters a market where venture firms have continued financing companies connecting stablecoins with bank accounts and local payment networks.

TransFi raised $19.2 million in March to expand stablecoin payment infrastructure across South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Its financing combined $14.2 million of Series A equity with a $5 million liquidity facility.

In June, El Dorado secured a $9 million Series A led by Paradigm, with Coinbase Ventures participating. The company said it was expanding stablecoin-powered payments across Latin America after processing more than five million transactions.

More recently, crypto.news reported that stablecoin payments startup Latitude raised $35 million in a Series A during the week ended Sept. 11, placing stablecoin cross-border payment infrastructure among the larger crypto venture deals announced immediately before Fin.com’s funding.

Current DeFiLlama data puts the total stablecoin market capitalization near $305 billion, with Tether’s USDT accounting for roughly 60.1% of supply and USDC remaining the second-largest stablecoin.

Fin.com said its business customers collectively serve more than 800 million end users, although it declined to identify those clients in Fortune’s report. The company plans to use the seed capital to continue building its cross-border network and payment infrastructure across the markets it has selected for expansion.

Once a household name in the DeFi sector, decentralized exchange Balancer is considering calling it quits.

In a proposal posted to the project’s governance forum, Balancer Labs CEO Marcus Hardt suggests a “phased sunset of the protocol.”

The post explains that none of the efforts to return to profitability, employed in response to last year’s hack, “converted into sustained revenue growth.”

Under Hardt’s proposal, Balancer’s $9 million treasury would be distributed to BAL holders, pro-rata.

Read more: Balancer exploit drains $129M in DeFi disaster

The problem

Launched just in time for 2020’s “DeFi summer,” Balancer innovated on the existing two-asset automated market maker model used by Uniswap and Bancor to introduce multi-asset pools and custom pool weighting.

It was a successful project in itself and was widely ‘forked,’ its popular v2 code has been used in 27 protocols across multiple blockchains, according to DeFiLlama data. Balancer’s total value-locked (TVL) peaked in November 2021 at over $3 billion, and now stands at just $58 million.

Then on its third iteration, Balancer’s v3 protocol was hit by a devastating exploit in November last year, with losses totalling almost $130 million and causing a ripple effect across the sector.

Both before and since, the project experienced a handful of smaller security incidents. The latest came just last month, when its original v1 codebase was exploited for over $200,000.

Read more: Osmosis took 74 days to discover 40-BTC Nomic exploit

Previously, in September 2023, Balancer lost approximately $1.2 million from “Boosted Pools” across its Ethereum and Optimism deployments. DeFiLlama’s database includes incidents from 2023 and 2020, totalling a further $1.3 million in losses. 

The proposal

Hardt proposes an “orderly wind down,” which would include stripping back the DAO as much as possible and distributing treasury funds to BAL holders.

The wind down would see all pools moved to withdrawal-only mode on October 30, and the fate of DAO-owned assets beyond the treasury would be subject to a further vote.

The proposal brings forward a pending review of the recovery plan’s success, as Hardt feels that “waiting for the calendar would change the numbers, not the conclusion, and every month of waiting is spent from the treasury.”

He further detailed his reasoning in a post on X. The cost-reduction side of the recovery plan was a success, he claims, but protocol revenue failed to grow.

He “underestimated how much the exploit would continue to limit adoption,” which led to smaller sums deployed and hesitation from counterparties.

He also paid tribute to the Balancer team who kept v3 “safe,” “usable” and “alive,” during the “hardest year the protocol has had,” all as “smaller team and with less money.”