Crypto Rollercoaster: $162B Wiped Out, EU Banks’ Euro Coin & $400K NFT Heist (Sept 29

Key Facts:

Market Crash: Bitcoin briefly dipped to about $111K and Ethereum to ~$4,000 as crypto markets sold off late Sept (over $162B of value erased) ^[1]. Many altcoins fell double-digits (e.g. Worldcoin, FLOKI, Doge >9%↓, while XRP and Solana were down ~4–7% ^[2] ^[3]). Over $1.7B in leveraged positions were liquidated in this sell-off ^[4].
Regulatory Moves: In the U.S., regulators moved to formalize crypto: the CFTC proposed allowing stablecoins (USDC/USDT) as margins in derivatives (treating them like cash) ^[5], and a Senate Finance crypto-tax hearing (Oct. 1) was slated, with Sen. Lummis pushing to end “double taxation” on miners and stakers ^[6]. EU banks (nine members) announced formation of a company to issue a euro-backed stablecoin by 2026 to rival U.S. dollar tokens ^[7]. Australia’s draft law would require crypto exchanges/custodians to be licensed (or face fines up to 10% of turnover) ^[8]. Vietnam plans full crypto regulation by 2026 (domestic exchange licenses, new NDAChain for crypto on-ramps) ^[9]. South Korea reported a surge of suspicious crypto flows (~$6.4B in “hwanchigi” remittances flagged through 2025) ^[10].
Blockchain Upgrades: Ethereum’s next major “Fusaka” upgrade is scheduled for Dec 3, 2025, which will double data availability (blob) capacity and cut roll-up costs ^[11]. Avalanche was highlighted when Chainlink led a pilot with 24 big banks (SWIFT, DTCC, Euroclear, etc.) to validate corporate actions on blockchains – the data was delivered to networks including Avalanche ^[12]. Solana continued gains via ecosystem expansion: a new protocol “Keel” on Solana aims to deploy up to $2.5 billion (USDS stablecoin reserves) into Solana DeFi and real-world-asset markets ^[13]. PayPal Ventures also invested in the “Stable” blockchain to bring its PYUSD stablecoin to it, aiming to speed up global payments ^[14].
NFT/DeFi Highlights: Hyperliquid’s recent Hypurr NFT launch saw dramatic swings: the floor price surged near $75K and one rare Hypurr NFT sold for $467K ^[15]. But an exploit followed: an attacker compromised airdrop wallets and stole 8 Hypurr NFTs (~$400K) shortly after distribution ^[16] ^[17]. This came amid other Hyperliquid platform incidents (the same week saw a $773K HyperDrive exploit and a $3.6M HyperVault rug pull) ^[18]. Other DeFi projects were hacked too: in 48 hours GriffinAI lost ~$3M via a minting exploit, Ideal Protocol ~$1M via a contract bug, and Seedify ~$1.2M (attributed to North Korean hackers) ^[19] ^[20].
Legal & Crime: In London, a Chinese national pleaded guilty to laundering bitcoins tied to a £5.1 billion fraud – authorities had seized ~61,000 BTC ^[21] ^[22]. (This is one of the largest-ever crypto seizures.) In the U.S., Bloomberg reported that Tron founder Justin Sun, previously under SEC fraud investigation, became a major buyer of Trump-family crypto ($90M) and the SEC subsequently dropped its case ^[23]. Overall, law enforcement and regulators globally are increasingly active in crypto, from UK trials to FBI seizures.
Expert Insight: Bitcoin bulls point to continued buying pressure. Michael Saylor (MicroStrategy) noted that corporate treasuries and ETFs are “taking in more [bitcoin] than miners are releasing,” which leaves “fewer coins in circulation and gradually tightening the market” ^[24]. In contrast, institutions caution that crypto growth may be slower: JPMorgan now projects the total stablecoin market at only ~$500B by 2028 (far below earlier $2–4 trillion bets) ^[25]. Analysts say investors should watch regulatory outcomes and Fed rate moves, but many firms remain bullish long-term on crypto’s returns despite near-term volatility.

Major Crypto Price Movements (Sept 29–30, 2025)

Bitcoin and Ethereum extended their late-September sell-off into a sharp dip. Reuters tallied that Bitcoin briefly fell to about $111,000 (before rebounding to ~$115K) and Ethereum to ~$4,000 ^[26]. Many altcoins were hit even harder: meme and speculative tokens like Worldcoin, FLOKI and Dogecoin plunged over 9% on the week, while XRP and Solana fell 4–7% ^[27]. In total, roughly $162 billion of crypto value was wiped out in late September as traders liquidated positions ^[28]. Analysts reported over $1.7B in leveraged long positions liquidated in those days ^[29]. This volatility is partly seen as a “technical shakeout” after recent rallies, though it coincided with profit-taking before month-end and broader risk-off mood.

Despite the pullback, year-to-date gains remain enormous (BTC is still up ~300% YTD). Notably, Michael Saylor argues the sell-off was a healthy rebalancing: as MicroStrategy’s chair put it, corporate and ETF demand is so strong that coins “exiting the market” faster than new issuance will soon tighten supply ^[30]. Saylor expects Bitcoin’s price to “push higher” once these liquidations are absorbed. Many traders are eyeing the next catalysts (like U.S. bank earnings and ETF news) for the coming days.

Global Regulatory Developments

United States: U.S. regulators continued to roll out crypto frameworks. The CFTC proposed (Sept. 29) allowing USD-pegged stablecoins (USDC, USDT, etc.) to be posted as collateral in CFTC-regulated futures and swaps – giving them parity with cash and Treasuries ^[31]. This clears the way for more derivatives trading using crypto-collateral. The SEC is meanwhile fast-tracking review of crypto ETF and depositary product filings; multiple analysts expect approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF by year’s end. In Congress, the Senate Finance Committee scheduled an Oct. 1 hearing on digital asset taxation (witnesses include Coinbase and Coin Center), and Senator Lummis signaled she will again push to eliminate “double taxation” of proof-of-work and proof-of-stake mining rewards ^[32].

Europe: On Sept. 25, Reuters reported that a consortium of nine European banks (including ING, UniCredit, and others) is forming a new Amsterdam-based company to issue a euro-denominated stablecoin ^[33]. The goal is to offer a pan-European digital payment token and counter the dominance of U.S. dollar-based stablecoins. The banks said the euro stablecoin will support fast, low-cost cross-border payments and settlements (expected launch H2 2026) ^[34]. (The ECB has warned that privately-issued stablecoins pose monetary risks, but the banks argue this will bolster Europe’s payment autonomy.) The UK’s FCA regulator also announced it has drastically cut crypto-asset firm registration times (from ~17 to ~5 months) and raised approval rates, while planning “banking-style” oversight for crypto by 2026.

Asia-Pacific: Regulators across Asia took action as crypto usage soared. In Vietnam, authorities unveiled plans to fully regulate the ~$100B domestic crypto market by 2026 ^[35]. New rules will require licensing of exchanges, creation of a Vietnam-developed blockchain (“NDAChain”) for transparent crypto activity, and mandatory pairing of digital asset trades with the dong. South Korea reported 36,684 suspicious crypto transactions in the first 8 months of 2025 (over $6.4B in illicit remittances flagged), leading them to call for stricter compliance ^[36]. In Australia, the Treasury released draft legislation to force crypto exchanges and custodians to obtain Australian licenses or face fines up to 10% of turnover ^[37]. This aligns with G20 guidelines to boost consumer protection. Singapore and UAE continued to welcome crypto businesses with clearer regulations, while China’s state agencies reiterated a ban on domestic crypto trading (though pilot CBDC expansion continues).

Blockchain Platforms & Protocol Updates

Ethereum: Ethereum developers confirmed the Fusaka hard fork is on track for Dec 3, 2025 ^[38]. Fusaka will implement Peer-DAS (a data availability sampling layer), double the “blob” data capacity, and cut roll-up data costs by roughly 40–60%. This is a major scaling step ahead of 2026, meant to make layer‑2 solutions cheaper and boost transaction throughput. (Ethereum remains the largest smart-contract platform, trading around $4k per ETH even after this week’s dip.)
Avalanche: The Avalanche chain got a visibility boost through a TradFi pilot. Chainlink announced a project with 24 institutions (SWIFT, DTCC, Euroclear, etc.) to digitize corporate actions using blockchain and AI ^[39]. The validated data from this test was written to multiple blockchains including Avalanche and DTCC’s private network ^[40]. (Coindesk notes that the pilot achieved “near 100% consensus” on corporate action data via Avalanche/Chainlink.) Separately, Grayscale’s Q3 report again cited AVAX as a top-performing altcoin. However, regulators are also eyeing Avalanche’s ecosystem: media reports say the SEC and FINRA are investigating unusual DeFi investment products tied to AVAX strategies.
Solana: Solana’s ecosystem momentum continued. Solana’s market cap recently crossed $120 billion (ranking it among the top L1s) as projects poured in. Notably, “Keel” debuted on Solana: this new protocol plans to deploy up to $2.5B of Sky’s USDS stablecoin reserves into Solana-based DeFi and real-world-asset markets ^[41]. Keel will allocate liquidity to lending and RWA platforms on Solana (e.g. Kamino, Jupiter, Raydium). The injection of institutional stablecoin liquidity is seen as a bullish sign for Solana’s growth.
Other Chains: Several platforms saw network and ecosystem news. Binance Smart Chain and Tron remain popular for DeFi yield; finance giants BNY Mellon and BNP Paribas have opened crypto custody services. Layer‑2 and multichain protocols (Arbitrum, Polygon, Cosmos, etc.) continued to onboard new projects. On the stablecoin front, PayPal Ventures invested in the Stable blockchain to bring its PYUSD stablecoin onchain ^[42], aiming to facilitate faster cross-border dollar payments. Bitcoin’s Lightning Network saw new custodial wallet integrations from major providers.

NFT, DeFi & Web3 News

NFT and decentralized finance (DeFi) sectors saw both hype and security drama. The Hyperliquid team’s Hypurr NFT airdrop (free cat-themed collectibles to early backers) created a frenzy: floor prices rocketed to ~$75K and one rare Hypurr #21 sold for $467K ^[43]. Over $62M of trading volume poured into the 4,600-piece collection within 24 hours. However, the launch was marred by a hack: an attacker compromised some airdrop wallets and stole eight Hypurr NFTs (~$400K) immediately after the drop ^[44] ^[45]. On-chain sleuths quickly identified the theft (by analyzing transactions on HyperEVMScan). Hyperliquid’s own token HYPE jumped ~7% on the news, but the incident added to security concerns: earlier that same week the protocol suffered a $773K exploit on HyperDrive and a $3.6M “rug pull” on its HyperVault pocket ^[46].

Other NFT and Web3 highlights: a prominent an NFT (possibly on X platform) auction hit a new all-time high for generative art, and a “phygital” museum opened in Hong Kong featuring token-gated exhibits. On the DeFi side, noteworthy developments included Uniswap V4 launching in a new marketplace mode (combining DEX and vault features) and the new DeFi options protocol “Ithaca” (mentioned above with Chainlink) expanding rapidly. DeFi “social” platform LoBridge announced $10M in new funding for gaming and DAO tools.

Hacks, Exploits & Legal Cases

Crypto crime and enforcement remained in focus. Besides the Hyperliquid incidents and the DeFi hacks noted above (GriffinAI, Ideal, Seedify ^[47] ^[48]), authorities made major busts. In London, Qian Zhimin (aka Zhang Yadi) pleaded guilty on Sept. 29 to conspiring to launder £5.1 billion of bitcoin ^[49] ^[50]. Police had seized ~61,000 BTC (from wallets linked to a large China-origin fraud) – one of the largest crypto seizures ever ^[51]. She faces life in prison under UK asset-stripping laws. This case highlights how traditional fraud (a £5B investment scheme in China) spilled over into crypto laundering on a huge scale.

In the U.S., federal prosecutors continued to pursue crypto insiders. A Bloomberg exposé (Sept. 26) detailed how Tron founder Justin Sun – once viewed as persona non grata by U.S. regulators – flipped the narrative. After buying $90M of crypto tokens tied to the Trump family’s ventures, Sun was welcomed into Trump’s circle and the SEC surprisingly abandoned its fraud case against him ^[52]. (The article noted “$90M of Trump coins later, he’s doing business with the president’s family” ^[53].) Meanwhile, several crypto exchange executives (e.g. from Genesis, Bittrex, Thiel Ventures-backed projects) were indicted or settled with the SEC/CFTC for unregistered offerings; the SEC also publicly pressed Terraform Labs’ founders for contempt in the 2022 UST/Terra collapse case. On Sept. 29, Binance’s US head Richard Teng testified that Binance’s global AML (anti-money-laundering) program had been “state of the art” since 2021 and acknowledged past lapses by overseas affiliates.

On-chain finance (DeFi) also drew regulators’ attention: a Washington Post report (Sept.) cited U.S. banking groups urging the SEC to clarify custody rules for digital assets. BakerHostetler’s Weekly Blog noted that UK courts have begun treating bitcoin as “property” in crypto-theft cases, making it easier to freeze and recover. Overall, the trend is clear: regulators and law enforcement on several continents are aggressively treating cryptocurrency fraud, money-laundering and tax evasion as high priorities.

Analyst Quotes & Forecasts

Market commentators remain polarized. Bitcoin bulls emphasize continuing institutional demand. Michael Saylor said “corporate treasuries and exchange-traded funds are taking in more [Bitcoin] than miners release,” which leaves “fewer coins in circulation and gradually tightening the market” ^[54]. He predicts this imbalance will push BTC prices higher over the next few quarters. Others caution that regulatory and macro headwinds loom. For example, JPMorgan’s research team recently cut its stablecoin growth forecast in half – from $1–2T to only ~$500B by 2028 ^[55] – noting that outside crypto trading and DeFi, true payment/commerce use of crypto remains minimal.

Firms like Citi, Fidelity and Coinbase Intelligence expect crypto to follow late-2025 easing cycles: if U.S. interest rates fall, risk assets including Bitcoin may rally into early 2026. On the NFT/Web3 side, analysts at DappRadar note that wallet growth is plateauing, so renewed user adoption (e.g. via gaming or real-world ties) may be needed. Finally, many strategists highlight the upcoming Fed timeline: with the Fed forecasting two more rate cuts by Dec. ^[56], liquidity is expected to flow back into risk assets (including crypto) if confirmed. Overall, despite the recent shakeouts and regulatory battles, most forward-looking models show crypto prices still higher 6–12 months out, barring any systemic shocks.

Sources: Coverage from Reuters, CoinDesk, Bloomberg, CryptoSlate and industry reporting ^[57] ^[58] ^[59] ^[60] ^[61] ^[62], among others. All facts above are sourced from these outlets.