TLDR

Ethereum rose from a July low near $1,510 to a late-September peak of about $2,777.
Analyst Michael van de Poppe says a break higher could send ETH toward $3,400.
Bitmine now holds 5,983,940 ETH, about 4.9% of Ethereum’s total supply.
Bitmine has staked about 85% of its ETH and projects $357 million in yearly staking revenue.
Ethereum network revenue hit $689,893 on September 21, its highest daily total in seven days.

Ethereum (ETH) is trading near $2,750 as buyers try to extend a recovery that started in July. The price is moving toward a resistance zone that traders are watching closely.

ETH climbed from a July low near $1,510 to a late-September peak of about $2,776.97, according to TradingView data. The latest session showed a 0.92% pullback, pointing to some short-term profit-taking.

Analyst Watches $3,400 Resistance

Crypto analyst Michael van de Poppe said in a post on X that ETH is “getting into an interesting zone.” He noted that a break above the current area could open the way toward $3,400.

Van de Poppe also said Ethereum is unlikely to return to the sub-$2,000 region in the near term. His view follows the stronger recovery structure ETH built after its July bottom.

After consolidating around $1,850, ETH broke above $2,400 in late August. It then pushed higher toward $2,750.

The Relative Strength Index sits at 69.50, just under the 70 level often seen as overbought. The MACD line at 97.20 remains above the 80.53 signal line.

A clear move through $3,400 could help ETH set a higher trading range. A rejection near that level could lead to another period of consolidation.

Bitmine Nears 5% of ETH Supply

Bitmine Immersion Technologies continues to add to its Ethereum treasury. The firm bought 27,562 ETH in the week ending September 21, worth about $74 million at $2,688 per coin.

Blockchain data firm Arkham reported on X that Bitmine now holds 5,983,940 ETH. That equals about 4.9% of Ethereum’s supply and is valued near $16.1 billion.

Arkham also tracked a separate 12,500 ETH transfer from Kraken, worth about $34.6 million. Bitmine’s stated goal, which it calls the “Alchemy of 5%,” is now close.

Bitmine has staked 5,067,309 ETH, or about 85% of its holdings. It reported a 7-day annualized staking yield of 2.62%, with projected yearly staking revenue of about $357 million.

Bitmine’s Tom Lee pointed to ETH’s 65.2% gain since June 30, compared with 52.2% for Solana and 36.3% for Bitcoin. He called the third-quarter outperformance “a prelude to a potentially stronger up move” in the fourth quarter.

Bitmine stock, BMNR, traded at $28.25 at press time, up 8.84% in one session. The company recently switched its staking deal to American Validator, cutting the revenue-sharing fee to 1.50%.

On-chain data added another data point. Chainspect reported on X that Ethereum earned $689,893 in transaction revenue on September 21.

That figure was the highest daily total of the past seven days. ETH remains below $2,780 as traders watch the $3,400 level.

“The DOGE breakout to $1 has begun. It will happen much faster than you think,” one popular analyst claimed.

The OG meme coin has been on a tear lately, with its price tapping $0.10 for the first time since the beginning of June.

Analysts have spotted highly bullish signals, and some think the token could be gearing up for a rally to a new all-time high.

Realistic and Wild Predictions

DOGE has risen by almost 20% over the past week, with its market capitalization surging to roughly $15.2 billion and making it the 12th-largest cryptocurrency.

Currently, it trades just below the $0.10 psychological mark, but according to X user Cyriptoman4, it seems well positioned to attack higher levels. The analyst claimed that if DOGE decisively breaks above that zone, the upward move could continue toward the $0.1175-$0.15 region.

For their part, BSC Gems Alert claimed that the price has started forming a higher-low structure and is pushing against the upper boundary of the latest descending pattern.

“If DOGE can break and hold above $0.22, momentum could accelerate toward the higher resistance zones. The setup is simple: Breakout → Retest → Continuation,” they said.

At the same time, the analyst warned that a loss of support would invalidate the bullish setup and could trigger a pullback.

Others, like X user Bark, are much more optimistic. The analyst argued that the breakout to $1 has begun, expecting the potential explosion to happen faster than most people think.

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MikybullCrypto issued a similar forecast, maintaining that the bullish move is about to kick off and setting the $1-$3 range as the bullish target.

Key Factors to Consider

Earlier this month, whales purchased more than 240 million DOGE in about a week. Many interpret such accumulations as bullish for several reasons.

First, the development reduces the tokens available on the open market, which, combined with steady or rising demand, is supposed to trigger a price pump.

Second, whales are experienced investors who make calculated moves and usually aren’t driven by pure instinct. Smaller players closely monitor their moves and might get encouraged to jump on the bandwagon, too, thus distributing fresh capital into the ecosystem.

However, some elements suggest that DOGE may be gearing up for a short-term correction. CoinGlass data shows exchange inflows have surpassed outflows over the past few days, suggesting some investors have moved from self-custody to centralized platforms. This, in turn, increases immediate selling pressure.

 

BCH Outperforms Market on Derivatives Expansion

Bitcoin cash (BCH) broke through $300 Tuesday for the first time in nearly three months after CME Group announced plans to add the token and Uniswap (UNI) to its crypto derivatives suite. Market data shows BCH outperformed the broader crypto market, surging nearly 30% from $269 to $345 to break a weeks-long spell of sideways price action.

The surge pushed BCH’s weekly gains to 57% and lifted its market cap to $6.95 billion. Despite the rally, the token remains down more than 43% from its Jan. 1 price of $600, a stark contrast to bitcoin and other altcoins, which have narrowed their year-to-date losses to single digits.

In a statement, CME Group announced it will launch BCH and UNI futures on Oct. 19, pending regulatory review. The derivatives venue said the expansion responds to strong client demand for institutional-grade risk management tools across high-liquidity altcoin markets, offering both standard and micro-sized contracts.

“As crypto markets continue to mature, participants require broader, regulated tools to navigate evolving digital asset–related price risk,” said Giovanni Vicioso, global head of cryptocurrency products at CME Group. “Designed for greater versatility and capital efficiency, these new BCH and UNI contracts allow clients to manage price risk and gain exposure to key crypto networks within our 24/7, regulated marketplace.”

Industry Leaders Highlight Demand for Regulated Derivatives

Justin Young, CEO and co-founder of Volatility Shares, called the addition another important step in expanding CME Group’s offerings.

“It gives market participants more ways to access these assets within a regulated futures framework, while providing additional tools to manage risk and express market views,” Young said.

Noel Kimmel, president at Ripple Prime, noted that institutions managing cryptocurrency exposure need around-the-clock access to regulated derivatives supported by robust clearing and financing infrastructure.

“With the addition of Bitcoin Cash and Uniswap futures to the existing set of XRP, Bitcoin and other products, CME Group’s cryptocurrency complex continues to lead the way in delivering capital-efficient risk management tools,” Kimmel said.

While BCH appeared set to build on its gains, UNI experienced a sharp reversal. Following the announcement, UNI surged 11% to $9.70 before giving back most of its advances within two hours. UNI was trading around $9.18 at publication time, up 5.4% on the day.

Pearl [PRL], the “Proof of Useful Work” Layer 1 blockchain token, made a new all-time high. At the time of writing, it had rallied 67% in the past 24 hours and was up 104.3% from $0.80, the low made on Monday, the 21st of September.

Why is PRL crypto rallying rapidly?

The September rally to ATHs was fueled by strong demand, reflected by the high trading volume. There were also many calls on social media from relatively popular crypto influencers explaining why they were long on the coin, further feeding the PRL buying pressure.

An intriguing aspect of Pearl’s popularity was how it changes the Proof of Work. The mining operation is matrix multiplication, which is also the native operation of GPUs. The computation serves as the energy cost of AI inference, while also securing the blockchain.

The Pearl coin emission curve rewards fall slightly with each mined block, further incentivizing early miners and activity. The network is designed to move PRL prices toward real economic AI computation costs.

PRL crypto reaches price discovery phase

The $0.50 level marked a swing high from July. PRL crypto price had been trending downward back then, and consolidation around the $0.25-$0.34 area in August and early September.

Within the first week of September, bullish intent was starting to show. The trading volumes surged higher, driving the OBV up and signaling steady demand. The $0.50 was broken on the 11th of September, shifting the price structure bullishly.

Since then, the uptrend has been unstoppable so far. The $0.80 level was a local support, and $1.20 is also expected to serve as a demand zone should PRL crypto see a retracement.

The RSI was in overbought territory once again, but that might do little to slow down a parabolic rally.

In the short-term, a price dip toward $1.10-$1.30 would likely give a buying opportunity.

Final Summary

The useful Proof of Work concept was helping drive miner profitability and bullish investor theses on social media, keeping the PRL crypto sentiment positive.
The altcoin was in price discovery territory, and a pullback toward $1 would offer a buying opportunity.

The top US derivatives regulator has warned that prediction market contracts tied to what a person says or does carry a heightened risk of manipulation, putting exchanges on notice as the industry faces increasing scrutiny over market integrity. 

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight on Tuesday said it issued an advisory to some of its regulated entities, advising that there are only “limited circumstances” in which “mention markets” — event contracts based on whether an individual will say certain words, attend or appear at an event or interact with another person — can be listed consistently with the Commodity Exchange Act. 

“These contract types present a heightened risk of manipulation because their settlement turns on the discrete conduct of a person that may be neither independently generated nor externally verifiable,” the regulator said. 

The warning follows several cases involving traders accused of exploiting privileged information on prediction markets, including a former White House teleprompter operator who was ordered last month to return $107,539 in profits and pay a $65,000 civil penalty for trading contracts tied to US President Donald Trump’s speeches. 

Related: Kalshi US visits soar 1,500% as regulatory pressure mounts

According to CNBC, the CFTC letter said exchanges listing mention markets should consider four factors: whether there are adequate oversight measures in place to detect manipulation, whether the words or actions used for settlement are independently verifiable, external pressure that could influence the subject’s conduct, and what outside obligations the subject of the mention market may have. 

CFTC Chair Mike Selig welcomed the guidance in an X post on Tuesday, saying that “regulatory clarity drives sound markets.” 

“Pleased to see staff provide guidance on the potential risks and unique considerations associated with the listing of mention markets on CFTC-regulated exchanges and remind DCMs of their obligation to list only contracts not readily susceptible to manipulation.”

Cointelegraph reached out to the CFTC for comment. 

The CFTC had reportedly already begun examining mention markets before Tuesday’s advisory. 

CNBC and NPR reported in August that the regulator had opened a review into the contracts over manipulation concerns, with Kalshi removing mention markets tied to sporting events “until further notice” as the regulator conducted its inquiry.

Prediction market Kalshi faces fresh scrutiny 

Separately, unusual trading activity on Kalshi has drawn fresh scrutiny over potential market manipulation.

In August, nearly one million trades worth more than $5 billion were made in a single market tied to the price of Ether, with more than a third occurring in nearly identical amounts of around $5,500, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. 

The activity has caught the attention of federal regulators and traders, according to the Journal, though Kalshi has rejected suggestions that the transactions amounted to wash trading. 

Magazine: How to fix suspected insider trading on Polymarket and Kalshi

Chainlink’s Institutional Push Adds Another IT Giant

Chainlink has logged quite a few institutional deals over the last two years, including Mastercard card-to-onchain rails, Fidelity International NAV data, Swift/Euroclear corporate-actions work, and working with SBI in Japan. On X, the oracle network platform announced a partnership with Infosys.

“Infosys (NYSE: INFY), the $40B+ global IT leader, enters a strategic partnership with Chainlink to accelerate institutional onchain finance,” Chainlink wrote on X. “Infosys supports critical banking and payments infrastructure for more than 1.7 billion customer accounts worldwide and is now standardizing the adoption of the Chainlink platform.”

Chainlink highlighted several of its technologies in the announcement, including the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE), Automated Compliance Engine (ACE), and Proof of Reserve. The company also pointed to its data streams and feeds, though it stopped short of explaining precisely how Infosys would use any of these tools.

Infosys Is No Stranger to Blockchain

Infosys is an Indian multinational corporation that offers several different services associated with consulting and IT. The publicly traded firm competes with companies like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, and Accenture. Infosys has already stepped into the blockchain arena in the past, and the firm’s Finacle banking software leverages distributed ledger tech.

Finacle works with Ethereum, R3-Corda, and Hyperledger. Infosys also worked with ICICI Bank and Emirates NBD on a blockchain pilot specifically designed for international payments. Infosys says it also utilizes blockchain for other enterprise sectors alongside banking. Applications and services like pharmaceutical supply chain tracking, healthcare provider data management, and insurance processing.

From Blockchain Pilots to Production-Ready Platforms

The Chainlink alliance shows that IT giants are no longer just dabbling with blockchain. Moreover, Infosys competitors like Accenture and TCS are doing the same, and Accenture is also partnered with Chainlink. The TCS approach, however, directly mirrors Infosys, utilizing proprietary software to bridge legacy finance with blockchain. The real winner in all of this? Institutional trust in decentralized rails and ideas that are finally moving from pilots to production-ready platforms.

Prediction market platform Trueo plans to migrate from Base to Ethereum, citing broader integration opportunities and plans to build the next iteration of its oracle system.

The project, which launched on Base in March 2025, said its priority after the migration will be attracting liquidity and launching the next generation of its oracle, the system used to verify real-world outcomes that are used to resolve prediction markets.

Trueo said it chose to move from Base to Ethereum because it offered higher integration potential and product upside, while on Base, integrations are limited to the immediate ecosystem.

“Ethereum is the best chain for the most credibly neutral and truthful oracle system and prediction markets,” Trueo co-founder known as “Lumberg” said on X.

Source: Vitalik Buterin

“As a new app and experiment, an L2 like Base was the right choice for many reasons. At the time, Mainnet gas costs were still elevated and some features of our app were experimental,” Trueo said on X.

“The final form of Trueo is to be a platform that is widely adopted, broadly integrated, fully permissionless, mostly immutable, and highly credible. Ethereum is the best fit for this combination of properties.”

Trueo is ranked as the 14th-largest onchain prediction market with a total value locked of $795,687, according to DefiLlama.

Related: World Cup generated $20B in blockchain prediciton market volume: Chainalysis

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Bitcoin Rally Triggers Market-Wide Altcoin Gains

Several high-cap altcoins surged Monday amid a market-wide cryptocurrency rally that saw bitcoin price breach $87,000 for the first time since Jan. 30. Ether (ETH) led the charge as the second-largest digital asset briefly touched $2,800 before selling pressure pulled it back to $2,770. The asset’s 6% surge lifted its market capitalization to $338 billion and narrowed its year-to-date losses to less than 7%.

While ETH remains 44% below its Aug. 24, 2025, all-time high of $4,946.05, its nearly 15% jump since the beginning of the month revived hopes that it could approach Standard Chartered’s price target of $7,500 by year-end. Meanwhile, several technical analysts expect ETH to test resistance at $3,000, though some warned that a bull trap may be forming.

BNB, which has solidified its position as the fourth-ranked cryptocurrency in recent months, surpassed $800 for the first time since late January. Market data shows BNB reached $806 before volatile trading saw it fluctuate between $796 and $806.XRP was among a handful of digital assets to log double-digit gains over 24 hours, jumping from $1.40 to $1.54. However, XRP’s year-to-date losses remain above 10%, indicating its price recovery has lagged behind bitcoin and other high-cap altcoins.

DOGE posted the largest gain among top-tier altcoins, rising 14%. Other notable gainers included XLM, up 11%; SUI, up 15%; and TAO, up 19%.

Despite widespread bullish momentum, a handful of altcoins trended lower. Zcash (ZEC), which rallied sharply in recent weeks, dipped 1.4% on the day but maintained a 24-week-to-date gain of more than 24%. NEAR fell 1.6%, RAIN dropped 0.9%, and ENA slipped 4.7%. With most altcoins gaining between 3% and 10%, total altcoin market capitalization rose from approximately $1.25 trillion to nearly $1.3 trillion.

Volume Expansion and Squeeze Dynamics

According to market intelligence platform Santiment, trading activity has snapped higher alongside prices, with bitcoin and major altcoins posting their highest combined weekly volume since early March. “Sudden volume expansion usually means the crowd has flipped from hesitation to conviction. More traders are chasing breakouts, rotating into altcoins, and reopening leveraged positions as confidence returns,” Santiment said in a post on X.

Santiment also noted that a short squeeze helped accelerate the rally, with roughly $648 million in bearish positions liquidated as bitcoin approached $85,000. Still, the firm urged caution:

“Rising volume can validate a breakout, but extremes deserve caution. Strong participation supports momentum while buyers keep showing up, yet another vertical volume surge could eventually signal FOMO becoming crowded rather than fresh demand.”

After months of speculation, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has officially begun probing whether Binance knowingly violated Iran sanctions. 

According to a Bloomberg report, federal prosecutors in Manhattan, New York, are reviewing whether the exchange was aware of the Iranian capital flows. The report added that the DOJ’s criminal division is also involved in the investigation.

Iran reignites regulatory headwinds for Binance

The update comes amid a heightened crackdown against what the U.S. calls “illicit funds” to the government of Iran via digital assets. Over $1 billion in crypto funds tied to the Iranian regime has been frozen by the U.S. Treasury since the Israel-Iran war began earlier this year. 

Last week, the U.S. government sought a forfeiture of $61 million from the Binance exchange. According to the DOJ, the funds were tied to Iranian black market oil sales. According to the U.S. government, the funds were being laundered by two Chinese companies on behalf of the Iranian regime. 

Part of the statement read, 

By cutting off funds raised by the black-market sale of crude oil, the Iranian military and terrorists are weakened. The FBI will not relent in its resolve to drain the funds from dangerous foreign actors.

In response to the DOJ’s push to recover the $61M, Binance CEO Richard Teng clarified that the exchange had no wrongdoing and the DOJ had not filed any case against it. 

Teng maintained that they do not tolerate sanctioned individuals and would swiftly hand any culprit to the authorities. 

A case has not been filed against the exchange yet. However, the official investigation into the sanctions violations may be bad news if the platform is indeed found culpable of wrongdoing. 

For perspective, in February, reports suggested the dismissals were linked to findings of capital flows from sanctioned Iranian entities to the platform.

What’s more?

Interestingly, the two Chinese accounts, Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale, flagged by the DOJ for $61 million forfeiture, were at the center of those February reports. 

That said, this further complicates Binance’s regulatory woes in the EU. Notably, ECB President Christine Lagarde reportedly intervened to block the exchange from getting MiCA license approval. If found guilty, it could cement the ECB’s stance against the world’s largest exchange. 

Even so, the exchange has been actively ramping up its compliance efforts and team. But whether that’s enough to clear its regulatory headwinds is unclear. 

Meanwhile, Binance still leads in net capital inflows despite ongoing regulatory hiccups across the U.S. and EU. 

Final Summary

Binance is reportedly under DOJ review to determine whether it knowingly facilitated Iran sanctions violations. 
The probe comes amid a $61 million forfeiture claim by the DOJ, but it didn’t scare users away, as Binance led users’ capital inflows at $1 billion.