Gate Research Institute Daily Report: On September 16, the price of BTC experienced a brief surge before retreating, currently fluctuating around $115,000; ETH performed relatively weakly today, quickly falling back after attempting to reach $4,660. The U token rose approximately 40.10% in the last 24 hours; Shibarium was hacked, leading to a significant drop in the Memecoin sector; PayPal will support cryptocurrency peer-to-peer payments, allowing direct transfers of BTC, ETH, and others; Gate launched Boundless (ZKC) spot trading and opened Launchpool.
BTC (-0.26% | Current price 115,067 USDT): After a brief surge, the price of BTC has retreated, currently fluctuating around $115,000. It briefly reached a high of $116,740 during the day but then faced pressure and fell back, showing a high-level consolidation trend in the short term. Overall, bullish momentum has weakened; if it cannot effectively break through the $116,000 level, the price may oscillate repeatedly in the $114,000 - $116,000 range. The market is watching for stabilization below to build momentum for another upward attack. On September 15, the net inflow of BTC ETF reached $259 million in a single day, with BlackRock's IBIT inflow at $261 million and Fidelity's FBTC inflow at $7.5 million, indicating that institutional funds are continuously increasing their positions in Bitcoin, enhancing the asset's allocation weight.
ETH (-2.13% | Current price 4,517 USDT): ETH performed relatively weakly today, quickly falling back after attempting to reach $4,660, currently trading around $4,500. In the short term, it has received support multiple times in the $4,480 - $4,500 range, but overall downward pressure remains significant. If it can regain a foothold above $4,550, it may alleviate the downward trend; conversely, if it falls below the $4,480 support, it may test lower levels. On September 15, the net inflow of ETH ETF reached $359 million in a single day, with BlackRock's ETHA inflow at $363 million and Fidelity's FETH outflow at $1.35 million.
Altcoins: Most mainstream altcoins maintained slight increases, with market sentiment primarily "neutral" or "buy." The Fear and Greed Index reported 52 today, still within the normal range, indicating that market sentiment has eased compared to previous overheating.
Macro: On September 15, the S&P 500 index rose 0.78%, closing at 6,615.28 points; the Dow Jones index rose 0.11%, closing at 45,883.45 points; the Nasdaq index rose 0.94%, closing at 22,348.75 points. As of September 16, 10:50 AM (UTC+8), the spot price of gold was reported at $3,676 per ounce, with a 24-hour decline of 0.03%.
According to Gate market data, the current price of the U token is $10.0212, rising approximately 40.10% in the last 24 hours. Union is a leading zero-knowledge (ZK) interoperability layer 1 blockchain, serving as the settlement and liquidity layer for protocols and asset issuers. Unlike other interoperability protocols, Union does not rely on trusted third parties, oracles, multi-signatures, or secure multi-party computation (MPC). Union's efficient ZK interoperability layer supports seamless asset issuance and scaling across thousands of chains while fully considering security, efficiency, decentralization, and speed. This makes Union a pioneering solution in the field, aiming to achieve sub-second cross-chain settlement—creating the ultimate vision for a cross-chain future.
The recent price strength of the U token is primarily driven by the official launch of the Boundless mainnet. This milestone signifies the project's transition from the testing phase to practical application, providing users and developers with a more stable and efficient blockchain environment. With the mainnet open, ecological applications and collaborative projects are expected to accelerate, driving up demand for the U token. The market generally interprets this as a key step towards the "blockchain internetization" of the project, enhancing long-term value expectations and thus attracting capital inflows, boosting the token price.
According to Gate market data, the current price of the MERL token is $0.1997, rising 32.44% in the last 24 hours. Merlin Chain is a native Bitcoin Layer 2, dedicated to empowering Bitcoin native assets, protocols, and products on Layer 1 through its Layer 2 network, making Bitcoin fun again. Merlin Chain integrates ZK-Rollup networks, decentralized oracle networks, and on-chain BTC fraud proof modules. Within 30 days of its mainnet launch, Merlin Chain locked over $3.5 billion in TVL.
In the past 24 hours, Merlin Chain (MERL) has seen a strong increase, primarily due to large-scale accumulation by whales. Data shows that two whale investors withdrew approximately 98.24 million MERL from exchanges within six days, valued at nearly $14.9 million, indicating their long-term holding intentions. Such a massive buy not only reduces the circulating supply in the market but also conveys strong confidence in the future of the Merlin Chain ecosystem. As an important project in Bitcoin Layer 2, MERL's governance, staking, and payment functions provide it with fundamental value. With the cumulative effect of whale accumulation and ecosystem development, the market outlook for MERL's subsequent trends is increasingly bullish.
According to Gate market data, the current price of the UB token is $0.0459, rising approximately 19.26% in the last 24 hours. Unibase is a high-performance decentralized AI memory layer that provides long-term memory and cross-platform interoperability for AI agents, enabling them to remember, collaborate, and self-evolve. Unibase aims to build an open agent internet, supporting intelligent agents to collaborate seamlessly across ecosystems, empowering developers to build the next generation of AI applications.
In the past 24 hours, the price of Unibase (UB) has risen significantly. First, trading volume has increased dramatically, indicating enhanced market buying power. Furthermore, UB's positioning as a decentralized AI memory layer aligns perfectly with the current AI trend. Multiple positive factors combined have driven the rapid strengthening of the UB token price.
The Shiba Inu Layer 2 network Shibarium encountered a flash loan attack on Sunday, where hackers borrowed 4.6 million BONE and manipulated validator keys to steal approximately $2.4 million worth of ETH and SHIB from the cross-chain bridge. Although the team promptly prevented larger-scale fund outflows, the incident severely undermined investor confidence, highlighting security risks in blockchain. As a result, SHIB fell over 5% in the past 24 hours, the CoinDesk Memecoin Index dropped 6.6%, and BONE quickly fell back to around $0.20 after a brief surge.
Meanwhile, Dogecoin also faced downward pressure, with a price drop of over 5%, currently reported at $0.2736. Market sentiment was further affected by large capital flows; according to Whale Alert, over 119 million DOGE (valued at over $34 million) were transferred to the OKX exchange, raising concerns about selling pressure in the market. This event not only impacted the short-term performance of major meme coins but also prompted investors to reassess the long-term risks of these popular tokens in terms of security and market stability.
PayPal announced it will expand its peer-to-peer payment services by adding cryptocurrency transfer features. Users will soon be able to directly send Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and the company's own dollar stablecoin PYUSD, among other digital assets, between PayPal and Venmo platforms, gradually achieving interoperability with more crypto wallets. Meanwhile, PayPal also launched a new "PayPal Links" feature, allowing users to generate personalized transfer links to share via SMS, chat, or email, significantly simplifying the payment process.
This upgrade not only strengthens PayPal's positioning in the cryptocurrency payment sector but also brings convenience to users in terms of taxation. The company confirmed that personal cryptocurrency transfers (such as gifts or reimbursements) will not trigger IRS 1099-K reporting requirements, thus maintaining a tax-exempt status. As PayPal promotes the "PayPal World" interoperability initiative and expands its cryptocurrency payment network globally, this move is expected to further enhance its user payment volume and solidify its leading position in the digital currency payment space.
On September 16, the Ethereum Foundation announced on the X platform that the security audit competition for the Fusaka upgrade officially launched on September 15 and will continue for four weeks on the Sherlock platform. The competition is co-sponsored by Gnosis and Lido, aiming to comprehensively examine the potential risks of the Fusaka upgrade and detect vulnerabilities before they impact the network. To enhance audit efficiency, valid vulnerability reports in the first week will count for double points, while the second week will have a 1.5x points reward.
The total prize pool for this competition is $125,000, with Gnosis contributing $100,000 and Lido providing $25,000. Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation's Bug Bounty program is also ongoing, offering up to $250,000 for vulnerabilities threatening the core protocol's security, reflecting the foundation's long-term commitment to ensuring the security of the Ethereum ecosystem.
Related: Gate GUSD on-chain supply exceeds 100 million | Polkadot DAO confirms DOT total supply cap of 2.1 billion
Original article: “Memecoin Sector Plummets | PayPal to Support Direct Cryptocurrency Transfers”
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
