Topics of Crypto World

In the September 15 edition of Gate Ventures Weekly Crypto Recap, we examine macro and crypto trends side by side. The U.S. inflation data has stirred market expectations, while persistent capital inflows into BTC and ETH reflect continued institutional interest. Despite broader market pressure, a handful of assets like BNB, AVAX, and WLFI defied the downtrend, and Aster’s post-launch momentum grabbed attention with explosive growth. Across the ecosystem, Google rolled out an Agent Payments Protocol to bridge AI agents and stablecoin payments, the Ethereum Foundation launched its dAI division with ERC-8004 ambitions, and Helius Medical secured over $500M to build treasury tools on Solana. Dive in for a full breakdown.

The latest Gate Ventures Weekly Crypto Recap (September 22, 2025) covers both macro and crypto market highlights, noting the Fed’s 25 bps rate cut alongside key economic indicators, as well as continued ETF inflows into BTC and ETH despite price pressure on ETH. Market performance was mostly negative, with only a few tokens like BNB, AVAX, and WLFI closing higher, while Aster’s launch and unique features fueled a sharp post-listing surge. The recap also highlights broader ecosystem updates, including Google’s new Agent Payments Protocol for AI agents, the Ethereum Foundation’s push for ERC-8004 through its new dAI division, and Helius Medical’s $500M+ raise to build a Solana-based treasury solution.

Gate Research Daily Report: On Sep 26, BTC fell below $109K and ETH slipped under $3,900 as markets came under pressure; XPL surged 178% on Plasma mainnet launch; SQD and SKX gained 65% and 25% on tech integration and ecosystem growth; new tariffs and regulatory probes fueled risk-off sentiment, wiping over 4.5% from crypto market cap.

Gate Research Daily Report: On Sep 26, BTC fell below $109K and ETH slipped under $3,900 as markets came under pressure; XPL surged 178% on Plasma mainnet launch; SQD and SKX gained 65% and 25% on tech integration and ecosystem growth; new tariffs and regulatory probes fueled risk-off sentiment, wiping over 4.5% from crypto market cap.

From September 9 to September 22, 2025, both BTC and ETH remained in a high-level consolidation phase, with divergences emerging between price structure and volatility performance, indicating overall weak short-term momentum. On the derivatives side, BTC open interest retreated significantly from recent highs, while ETH held relatively steady, suggesting that leveraged positions have not yet fully exited the market. On September 22, long liquidation volume surged to over $1.6 billion, highlighting mounting pressure at market highs and intensifying bearish sentiment due to cascading stop-losses by long positions. In terms of quantitative strategies, a mean-reversion strategy based on Bollinger Bands delivered strong performance on ADA, achieving an annualized return of over 60%, showcasing solid potential for short-term trading.

In an era where digital assets and traditional finance are rapidly converging, asset types are increasingly diverse, trading channels are complex, and ecosystem participants are widely dispersed. Breaking down the barriers to value and information flow has become critical for the industry. Gate SuperLink emerges as a solution, providing users and ecosystem partners with a complete, efficient, and trustworthy link system that allows value across different assets, platforms, and ecosystem roles to flow freely.

This report provides a systematic review and analysis of the development of liquid staking (LSD) protocols. Since 2020, liquid staking protocols have risen rapidly, with total value locked (TVL) surpassing USD 85 billion, becoming an important bridge between PoS and DeFi. By comparing mainstream protocols such as Lido, Jito, and Rocket Pool, the report highlights the characteristics and competitive dynamics of different models: Lido, leveraging its first-mover advantage and economies of scale, remains the leader in Ethereum liquid staking; Jito has rapidly expanded within the Solana ecosystem by distributing MEV revenue; Rocket Pool, through decentralization and low entry thresholds, has encouraged participation from smaller node operators. With relatively low risk and stable yield characteristics, liquid staking has attracted massive user and capital inflows, and has further given rise to innovative products represented by Pendle, enhancing both capital efficiency and financial diversity.

Gate Ventures’ article “Exploring Liquidity Fragmentation Challenges in the Layer 2 Era” analyzes liquidity fragmentation in L2 ecosystems like Base, Ink, and XLayer. Solutions such as Chain Abstraction, Intent-Based Protocols, Clearing Execution, Native Cross-Chain, and ZK Sharding aim to unify cross-chain liquidity and improve efficiency. Challenges remain in latency, data availability, and standardization, making fragmentation a key issue for building cohesive multi-chain networks...

Gate Ventures’ article “The Road Ahead” examines the Fed’s quantitative tightening (QT) and its potential impact on crypto. As Fed assets approach $6.8T and liquidity tightens, QT’s end could boost market liquidity and risk asset demand. Investors should watch Fed policies closely to gauge effects on crypto markets...

Gate Ventures’ article “The Rise of Long-Tail Assets: How On-Chain Liquidity Is Disrupting CEX” offers a comprehensive look at how advancements in on-chain liquidity are reshaping the competitive dynamics between decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and centralized exchanges (CEXs). The article traces the evolution from AMM to vAMM, Peer-to-Pool, and Order Book mechanisms, showing how these innovations solve critical issues like slippage, impermanent loss, and price discovery, and ultimately enhance the overall trading experience for users.

Gate Ventures’ article, “ALtDA Ecosystem Reconstruction: Mining Wars and Breakthrough Strategies,” offers a comprehensive examination of the innovations and challenges surrounding ALtDA (Algorithmic Layered Tokenized Derivatives Architecture) in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. According to the article, ALtDA leverages an algorithmic, layered structure for tokenized derivatives to address bottlenecks in traditional DeFi protocols, particularly those related to liquidity and risk management. By stratifying assets, the architecture enables users with varying risk tolerances to choose investment products tailored to their preferences. This approach ultimately boosts capital efficiency. Significant hurdles confront ALtDA’s deployment, including sophisticated algorithmic design, market adoption barriers, regulatory compliance requirements, and the need for seamless integration with existing DeFi protocols.

Gate Ventures’ article “Oracle Extractable Value (OEV)” explores OEV, a subset of MEV from oracle updates in DeFi. It appears in liquidations and arbitrage, where searchers compete to capture value. OEV capture mechanisms can create new revenue, reduce fees, improve oracle efficiency, and enhance DeFi sustainability, though challenges like latency and value leakage remain...

Gate Ventures' research report, "The Bittensor Revolution: The Rise of AI-Based Bitcoin and the New Economic Landscape," offers a comprehensive analysis of Bittensor, an innovative decentralized AI network. Bittensor’s platform adopts Bitcoin’s incentive model and applies subnet architecture alongside game theory, encouraging miners to provide AI inference, GPU computing power, data storage, and other resources. Each subnet features its own Alpha Token, with its value governed by market dynamics, which in turn affects the TAO issuance rate. As of now, the Bittensor ecosystem includes about 80 subnets and is experiencing rapid growth. Nevertheless, the project encounters significant challenges, including limited infrastructure and high redundancy across the ecosystem. Still, Bittensor’s distinct architecture and incentive mechanism present new directions for the development of decentralized AI ecosystems...

Gate Ventures' article, "Strategy-Based Synthetic Stablecoins," explores emerging trends in strategy-driven stablecoins. According to the article, these stablecoins generate yield through mechanisms such as on-chain lending, real-world assets (RWA), and derivatives. Ethena USDe, for instance, generates returns through a delta-neutral strategy. The key competitive factors revolve around the sustainability and transparency of yield structures. Pendle Protocol advances the on-chain interest rate market by separating principal and yield. In the future, strategy-driven stablecoins will evolve toward greater modularity, regulatory compliance, and clear yield disclosure. They aim to balance liquidity with regulatory obligations. Compliance risks remain a concern.

Gate Ventures’ article, “The Third Browser War: Battling for Dominance in the Age of AI Agents,” analyzes how browsers are evolving as AI agents reshape the landscape. Browsers are no longer just tools for displaying information; they are becoming platforms for AI agent engagement. For example, Comet uses AI to replace conventional search results. Brave combines privacy protection with on-device inference. Competition is shifting from information display to user input, creating new opportunities for startups to offer structured, accessible, and trusted modules. Ultimately, success will depend on who secures the gateway for agent activation, rather than merely competing for user attention.