Bitcoin (BTC) returned to $79,000 on Friday after key US inflation data broadly conformed to expectations.

Key points:

• US core CPI inflation data gained 0.3% month-on-month, surpassing expectations of 0.2%.
• Implied probabilities of an interest-rate hike by the Federal Reserve at the Sep. 16 meeting rose to 85%.
• US bond yields will cause Bitcoin pain amid Fed policy tightening, QCP analysis warns.

Bitcoin jumps 3% as “nervous” market digests CPI numbers

Data from TradingView showed renewed BTC price volatility ensuing after the August release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which came in at 3.4% year-on-year.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

After initially dropping to $76,000, BTC/USD quickly reversed upward, gaining more than 3% on the day.

The move echoed US equities, which also turned green after a weak start to the session. This was catalyzed by CPI conforming to expectations only a day after the Producer Price Index (PPI) overshot. The S&P 500 was up 1% at the time of writing, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.1%.

S&P 500 one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

US bond yields also saw snap volatility. On the back of the CPI print, the 30-year yield whipsawed, first reaching its highest levels since June 2004 before falling to 5.309%.

“This is a nervous market,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter summarized in a response on X.

US 30-year bond yield one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

As WTI crude oil continued to circle $100 per barrel, the impact of the expanding US-Iran war and associated oil-supply squeeze was noticeable in the CPI numbers.

“The index for gasoline rose 3.9 percent in August, accounting for over one third of the monthly all items increase. The index for energy increased 2.1 percent over the month,” an official news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) confirmed.

The release also reported that core CPI increased by 0.3% in August, 0.1% more than anticipated.

US CPI 12-month % change. Source: BLS

In response, traders doubled down on bets that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates by 0.25% at its Sept. 16 meeting. The latest data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool showed odds of such an outcome rising to 85% on Friday, increasing from 60% a week ago.

Fed target-rate probability comparison for September FOMC meeting (screenshot). Source: CME Group

Fed officials are known to be split on the correct path for policy, with governor Christopher Waller last week indicating that he would be inclined to hold rates in their current 3.50-3.75% range should inflation data show at least “some signs of disinflation.”

“What’s the cost of waiting one meeting? Hiking 25 basis points, one meeting right now, is not going to bring the CPI down to 2%,” he told Reuters.

Analysis: Yield surge to become Bitcoin headwind

Discussing the implications of high bond yields going forward, trading company QCP Capital warned that Bitcoin bulls had little to look forward to. This is despite BTC/USD surging 25% in August after the US Treasury announced that it would step up debt buyback interventions.

Related: Bitcoin buyers wary of July sub-$58K floor amid onchain data ‘anomaly’

“The rise in US yields this year has been driven increasingly by tighter policy expectations and a risk premium common to both stocks and bonds, rather than by growth,” it wrote in its latest analysis. 

“This is the worst mix for Bitcoin: a competing 5% risk-free rate without the nominal-growth impulse that usually accompanies yield moves. It directly undercuts the narrative that carried Bitcoin from $63,000 to $82,000 in the second half of August, which leaned on the idea of a Treasury liquidity put providing structural support.”

QCP argued that Bitcoin would ultimately benefit from these developments, but only once buyback operations have had time to inject sufficient liquidity into markets.

An attacker minted over 40 BTC worth of Nomic’s nBTC out of thin air on June 25. It took Osmosis, whose allBTC later turned out to be 36% unbacked, a whole 74 days to notice.

Neither of the Cosmos-based projects seemingly discovered nor disclosed the loss during that period. The exploit only came to light following a halt of the Nomic protocol, which prompted an investigation into its holdings by Osmosis.

Nomic itself appears not to be actively maintained; the project’s X account last posted in 2024 and its GitHub saw its last commit two years ago.

Read more: Across, Allbridge, TeleSwap lost $5.7M to bridge hacks in past week

The exploiter combined two separate bugs to generate a transaction which “minted 40.650602 BTC of nBTC on Osmosis with no BTC behind it.”

Luckily for Osmosis, the attacker left a considerable chunk of the proceeds untouched as allBTC, which was frozen earlier this week through an “emergency upgrade.”

They did manage to cash out approximately $1 million (at the time) worth of the loot, though, by sending 671 ETH to Tornado Cash via Ethereum.

A post to the project’s governance forum details how Osmosis proposes filling the 40 BTC shortfall in allBTC backing. On top of seizing the 22.65 allBTC frozen in the attacker’s account, it suggests cancelling a “pending liquidity re-deployment” of USDC.noble and pulling additional allBTC from a Community Pool.

Read more: Cosmos Labs under fire over disclosure of bug affecting four blockchains

Disclosure lag in the Cosmos ecosystem

Both Osmosis (a decentralised exchange) and Nomic (a bridge) are part of the wider Cosmos ecosystem, which was recently hit by a string of incidents stemming from an unrelated bug in a widely used Cosmos EVM module.

While the timeline was considerably shorter than following the nBTC exploit, developers Cosmos Labs drew criticism for the manner in which it disclosed the bug.

One of the victim projects, KiiChain, branded its loss “avoidable,” adding that publishing a critical security fix before advising affected teams effectively “hands the vulnerability to anyone reading the commit.”

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news and investigations, follow us on X, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Anchorage Digital has partnered with stablecoin protocol Frgmnt to give institutional clients access to its fUSD and sfUSD tokens through Anchorage’s custody platform.

The integration will allow institutions to hold, mint, redeem, stake and unstake fUSD without setting up a separate custody arrangement, according to a Friday announcement.

Frgmnt is a stablecoin protocol built on Base that issues fUSD against USDC, with the backing deployed across onchain lending markets. Users can stake fUSD for sfUSD to earn rewards generated by the protocol’s underlying strategies.

The protocol has about $100,000 in total value locked, according to DeFiLlama data, while operating under a capped, invite-only beta. Frgmnt plans to open public access and raise its deposit cap on Sept. 15.

Frgmnt said sfUSD was generating 13.32% APR as of Sept. 4, though yields vary with conditions in the underlying lending markets.

Source: frgmnt

Anchorage Digital Bank is a US federally chartered crypto bank regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and operates as part of the broader Anchorage Digital platform, which was valued at $4.2 billion in February following a $100 million investment from Tether.

Related: Anchorage Digital brings off-exchange settlement to Binance

Anchorage expands institutional onchain access

The Frgmnt partnership adds to Anchorage Digital’s growing role as a regulated gateway for institutions seeking access to stablecoins, staking and other onchain financial products.

Tether tapped Anchorage Digital Bank in January to issue USAt, its US-focused stablecoin designed to operate under the GENIUS Act. The deal put Anchorage on the issuance side of the stablecoin market, rather than solely providing custody for tokens issued elsewhere.

The company has also sought to extend stablecoin infrastructure into payments and treasury operations. In May, Mexico’s Grupo Salinas partnered with Anchorage to support blockchain-based dollar transfers, cross-border settlement and treasury activity through its Coinpro digital asset subsidiary.

Beyond stablecoins, Anchorage has expanded its institutional staking services, allowing clients to earn protocol rewards while keeping assets within its custody environment. An April integration with Marinade Finance added Solana staking strategies, followed in July by native staking for TRX, the Tron network’s native token.

Magazine: Trading stocks against BONER is the latest trend for DeFi degens

India’s Maharashtra state has begun preparing policies to tokenize up to 50% of selected electricity transmission assets to finance new power lines and solar energy storage facilities.

Maharashtra considers tokens tied to power revenue

Praveen Pardeshi, chief economic adviser to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and CEO of the Maharashtra Institution for Transformation, outlined the plan at The Box Launch, an invitation-only event held at the World Trade Center in Mumbai.

Real estate tokenization company RealX and MST Blockchain hosted the event, where Pardeshi described how Maharashtra could use digital tokens to raise money against revenue-producing state assets without selling the assets outright.

Under one possible structure, the state could tokenize 40% to 50% of an electricity transmission line. Investors who purchase the tokens would then receive a share of the income earned by Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company, commonly known as Maharashtra Transco.

Pardeshi said Maharashtra could direct the capital raised through token sales toward additional transmission lines. Funding could also support storage centers designed to hold solar power until electricity demand rises.

Rather than transferring full control of the infrastructure to private owners, the proposed model would allow investors to take part in the income generated by a defined portion of a public asset. Pardeshi described tokenization as a financing tool that could open public infrastructure development to more citizens.

Detailed terms have not been disclosed, including which transmission assets could enter the program, how token holders would receive revenue, who could invest, or which blockchain network would record ownership. The state has also not announced the size or timing of a possible token sale.

Limited grid capacity leaves solar power unused

Maharashtra’s interest in new financing stems partly from a mismatch between its solar power output and transmission capacity, according to Pardeshi.

The state produces more solar electricity than it can use during certain periods, yet its grid cannot always move the power to areas where demand exists. Without enough transmission lines and storage, low-cost electricity generated during surplus hours may not be available when consumption reaches its daily peak.

Pardeshi said electricity can be traded for as little as two paise per unit on the power exchange when supply exceeds demand. During peak hours, however, distribution companies may have to purchase power at rates ranging from 16 rupees to 18 rupees per unit.

Energy storage facilities could hold part of the daytime solar surplus and release it later, while new lines could carry electricity from generation sites to consumption centers. Maharashtra plans to use proceeds from any infrastructure tokenization program for both types of projects, based on the model presented at the event.

Token holders would rely on the revenue rights and legal protections attached to each asset rather than owning the entire physical transmission line. The final structure would therefore need to define how income is calculated, distributed, and recorded, as well as what rights investors would have if revenue falls below expectations.

Liquidity would present another consideration for any tradable version of the tokens. As crypto.news reported in September, the value of tokenized real-world assets had reached $34.6 billion, but only $3.79 billion was being used within protocols, leaving about 89% of the issued value inactive.

Falcon Finance chief RWA officer Artem Tolkachev said in the report that low utilization should be assessed against an asset’s intended use. A token designed primarily to distribute yield may still serve its purpose without frequent trading, while an asset created for use as collateral would face a different test.

DELTA Act would set rules for property tokenization

Alongside its power infrastructure proposal, Maharashtra is drafting the Maharashtra Digital and Land Token Asset Trading Act, known as the DELTA Act.

If enacted, the proposed law would make Maharashtra the first Indian state to adopt legislation specifically covering blockchain-based property tokenization, according to details presented at The Box Launch. The available information does not provide a legislative timetable or state whether a draft has reached the Maharashtra legislature.

Pardeshi used Mumbai’s Express Towers commercial building to explain how property tokenization could operate. The building was tokenized through a real estate investment trust structure, dividing an interest in the property into smaller investment units.

A June 2026 explainer described real-world asset tokenization as the process of representing rights to an off-chain asset through tokens recorded on a blockchain. Depending on the legal structure, a token may represent ownership, income rights, debt, or another contractual claim.

In Maharashtra’s proposed infrastructure model, the legal connection between a token and Maharashtra Transco’s revenue would be central. Blockchain records alone would not determine whether investors hold enforceable claims; those rights would depend on the state’s legislation, offering documents and contractual framework.

Pardeshi also rejected the idea that tokenizing a portion of a government asset automatically amounts to privatization. Under the model he presented, the state would continue creating and operating public infrastructure while token buyers would participate financially in the asset’s revenue.

U.S. rules show why token rights matter

For American investors, any access to Maharashtra-linked tokens would depend on the eventual offering terms and applicable U.S. securities rules. No plan has been announced to market the proposed tokens in the United States or make them available through U.S.-registered platforms.

Recent disputes involving stock tokens show why the legal rights attached to a digital asset matter. Robinhood’s conflict with AMC Entertainment raised questions over third-party tokens linked to publicly traded shares, including whether buyers receive the same rights as shareholders in the underlying company.

Robinhood’s tokenized stock products cited in the September report were offered through an offshore unit and were unavailable to U.S. users. AMC CEO Adam Aron objected to an AMC-linked product created without the company’s approval, while Robinhood said the tokens followed the value of the underlying shares through a custodial structure.

Maharashtra’s proposal differs in form because the state is considering a direct financing arrangement tied to public infrastructure revenue. Pardeshi’s presentation indicates that Maharashtra would establish the model through state policy and the proposed DELTA Act, though the final investor protections, eligibility requirements, trading rules and revenue-distribution process remain subject to the legislation and any later offering documents.