The past two weeks have been a real rollercoaster for the cryptocurrency market. A crash after the failure of the CLARITY Act, an emergency Fed rate hike, and then a rapid rebound of Bitcoin above $80,000 and record growth in altcoins. We break down the main points in simple terms.
Bitcoin's Fall and Triumphant Return
In mid-September, Bitcoin experienced one of the most dramatic reversals of the year. First, the price plummeted to $75,000. The U.S. Senate failed a procedural vote on the CLARITY Act, which was supposed to create clear rules for the crypto industry, and the Federal Reserve unexpectedly raised the key rate by 25 basis points - the first time since 2023.
However, by September 18, the situation changed dramatically. Bitcoin surged almost 6% in a day, breaking through the psychological barrier of $80,000 for the first time in 11 days, and by September 19 it reached $81,043.
Regulators Change Course
Against the backdrop of the CLARITY Act's failure, American regulators unexpectedly accelerated their own initiatives. On September 17, both key agencies simultaneously announced a relaxation of rules.
The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) issued a so-called "innovation exemption" - a temporary five-year permit allowing licensed venues to trade tokenized stocks, that is, digital versions of real securities, without full compliance with the traditional definition of an exchange.
The CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) went even further, exempting developers of cryptocurrency software from the need to register as brokers. The condition is that they only create an interface for submitting orders but do not participate in the trades themselves.
Even without a new law, regulators are ready to create clear rules.
Ethereum's Technical Breakthrough and Lower Fees
The second-largest cryptocurrency also had important developments. On September 17, Ethereum successfully passed a key test as part of preparations for the year's largest upgrade. Although the details of the upgrade have not yet been disclosed, the market reacted positively - the price of ETH rose above $2,600, showing growth of about 5.4% in a day.
The average fee for a transfer on the Ethereum network fell from $0.72 to less than $0.10 - almost 8 times. The reason is the expansion of network throughput and the growth in the number of so-called "blob transactions," which allow more data to be packed into a single block.
Possible Start of an "Altseason"
While Bitcoin was recovering, altcoins showed even more impressive dynamics. The combined market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies except the top 10 grew by 11.5% in a week and exceeded $1.07 trillion - for the first time since the beginning of 2025, many tokens returned above their 200-day moving averages.
Zcash (ZEC) stood out in particular - a cryptocurrency focused on transaction privacy. Its price grew by almost 200% in a month and reached $1,488. The growth is fueled by several factors - a recent hard fork reduced block creation time from 75 to 25 seconds, and the venture company Paradigm confirmed a direct investment in the project.
Hyperliquid (HYPE) rose by 11%, Solana (SOL) - by 6%, while BNB and Dogecoin added about 4%. Analysts are already talking about the possible start of a full-fledged "altseason" - a period when altcoins grow faster than Bitcoin.
Old Security Threats and New Schemes
Unfortunately, the crypto world remains an attractive target for scammers. TRM Labs uncovered a major campaign using fake educational videos on YouTube. The attackers published nine videos promising to teach viewers how to create arbitrage bots using the AI tool Claude. In reality, victims were lured to websites that slipped them malicious smart contracts. In total, 224 people lost 274.6 ETH (about $517,000). By September, these videos had gathered more than 310,000 views.
Several incidents also occurred in the DeFi sector. The Likwid protocol was attacked through a vulnerability in its lending logic and lost 74 BNB, while the Osmosis project lost 36% of the collateral for its allBTC token due to an exploit on the Nomic blockchain.
Exchange Closures and Transformations
The CoinEx crypto exchange announced its closure after nine years of operation - regulatory risks were named as one of the main reasons. This is a reminder that uncertainty can eliminate even major market participants.
Coinbase, by contrast, is consolidating infrastructure. On September 9, it moved its international perpetual futures to the Deribit platform, where 96.6% of open positions are already concentrated.
Mining's Reorientation Toward AI
Bitcoin miners continue to adapt to declining profitability. According to U.Today, in the first half of 2026, the active hashrate of public mining companies fell by 15% (approximately 56 EH/s). Many are reorienting toward servicing AI tasks - the so-called HPC (high-performance computing). An interesting side effect. Miners stopped selling mined bitcoins, and the Miner Position Index (MPI) went into negative territory.
Further Prospects
For now, the market is demonstrating surprising resilience, and despite the Fed's hawkish stance, the failure of CLARITY, and external economic factors, Bitcoin is heading toward its first quarterly gain in a year. The Fear and Greed Index has risen to 71 - the "greed" level, which indicates a return of optimism.