Builders ship; blocks settle—whether or not the Fed blinks.

Prices (USD, inline):
BTC $116,319.00 🟢↑ | ETH $4,488.28 🔴↓ | SOL $234.48 🔴↓ | BNB $953.16 🟢↑ | XRP $3.01 🟢↑ | ADA $0.8719 🟢↑ | AVAX $29.91 🔴↓ | DOGE $0.2653 🔴↓ | DOT $4.18 🟢↑

Quick Index ⚡️

🧭 Fed day drift: BTC firms while ETH lags; flows point risk-on.
🇪🇺 MiCA tussle widens: Malta pushes back on centralizing EU crypto supervision.
🏦 BitGo wins BaFin nod to add regulated crypto trading in Europe.
🇮🇳 India keeps crypto at the fringes as SEBI, RBI diverge.
🛡️ U.S. sanctions hit Iran’s oil-for-crypto network.
🔧 Polygon hard fork wraps to fix finality issues; exchanges resume ops.

Markets

Macro: rates on deck, crypto steady.
Bitcoin hovered in the mid-$116Ks while ether eased toward $4.5K as traders braced for today’s U.S. Fed decision. Market commentary ties the chop to a likely 25 bps cut and guidance risk; BTC’s resilience contrasts with softer ETH on the session. (According to Barron’s and Economic Times updates.)

Flows turn decisively positive.
Fresh coin-inflow data show sentiment improving across majors: CoinShares tallied $3.3B into digital-asset products last week, with $2.4B to Bitcoin, $646M to Ethereum and a record daily intake for Solana. That backdrop supports dip-buying into policy headlines, with ETF wrappers remaining the dominant access route for institutions. (CoinShares weekly.)

Desk note: ETH target gets trimmed.
Citi set a $4,300 year-end target for ether, citing positioning and macro; not far from spot, it implies more range-trade than runaway. For portfolio construction, that keeps BTC as beta driver while alt leadership rotates around catalysts. (Reuters.)

Regulation

EU rift over who polices crypto.
Malta’s MFSA publicly opposed the France/Italy/Austria push to hand supervision of big crypto firms to ESMA, arguing centralization would add bureaucracy just as the bloc tries to boost competitiveness. For exchanges eyeing MiCA passporting, the political path may get bumpier before it smooths. (Reuters.)

Washington targets oil-for-crypto channels.
The U.S. Treasury designated Iranian facilitators and a web of front companies that routed proceeds—including via cryptocurrency—from sanctioned oil sales to military entities. Compliance takeaway: heightened screening around HK/UAE counterparties and crypto rails tied to Iranian trade. (U.S. Treasury press release; Reuters recap.)

UK–US inch closer on crypto rules.
The Financial Times reports London and Washington are preparing tighter coordination—especially on stablecoins and digital securities sandboxes—which, if realized, could streamline cross-border listings and product approvals. Watch for harmonized standards that reduce venue-shopping. (Financial Times.)

Adoption

BitGo gains BaFin approval to trade.
CoinDesk reports BaFin cleared BitGo to expand beyond custody and staking, adding regulated crypto trading in Europe. Expect more full-stack offerings from incumbents as MiCA licensing matures—and potential fee compression as brokers, custodians and venues converge. (CoinDesk.)

Swiss banks run a real payment on a public chain.
PostFinance, Sygnum and UBS completed what the Swiss Bankers Association called the first “binding” interbank payment using tokenized bank deposits on a public blockchain. It’s a quiet milestone for on-chain settlement between regulated institutions—and a signal for future automated treasury workflows. (Reuters.)

Japan’s ‘MicroStrategy’ scales up.
Metaplanet formed new Bitcoin-focused subsidiaries in Japan and the U.S. and acquired bitcoin.jp as it builds media and event assets around its treasury strategy. Branding + infra suggests a longer-horizon BTC ecosystem play beyond balance-sheet exposure. (CoinDesk.)

Tech & Innovation

Polygon hard fork eases finality woes.
Following recent finality delays on the Polygon (POL) network, exchanges paused deposits/withdrawals for the scheduled hard fork—and have now resumed post-upgrade. The patch restores stability and should reduce validator sync issues; devs will watch for downstream effects on L2 apps. (ProBit status; Coinfomania same-day update.)

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