CoinW Research Institute Weekly Report (Issue from September 21, 2026, to September 27, 2026)

CoinW Research Institute

Key Points

The global cryptocurrency market capitalization is $2.98 trillion, up about 4.20% from last week's $2.86 trillion. As of the time of writing, the accumulated net inflow of the US Bitcoin Spot ETF is approximately $57.55 billion, with a net inflow of $2.39 billion this week, and total net assets of $108.42 billion, an increase of about 5.74% from last week's $102.53 billion. The accumulated net inflow of the US Ethereum Spot ETF is approximately $13.94 billion, with a net inflow of $689 million this week, and total net assets of $17.78 billion, an increase of about 6.34% from last week's $16.72 billion.

The market capitalization of stablecoins is $308.6 billion, up about 0.52% from last week's $307.0 billion. Among them, USDT has a market capitalization of $183.78 billion, accounting for about 59.55% of the total market capitalization of stablecoins, an increase of about 0.23% from last week's $183.35 billion; USDC has a market capitalization of $74.27 billion, accounting for about 24.07% of the total market capitalization of stablecoins, a decrease of about 0.38% from last week's $74.55 billion; DAI has a market capitalization of $4.59 billion, accounting for about 1.49% of the total market capitalization of stablecoins, a decrease of about 0.22% from last week's $4.60 billion.

According to DeFiLlama, this week the total TVL of DeFi is $95.511 billion, an increase of about 8.32% from last week's $88.172 billion. Divided by public chains, the top three chains with the highest TVL are Ethereum, accounting for 55.87%; Solana, accounting for 7.00%; and Base, accounting for 6.57%.

The performance of major public chains this week (Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, Ton, Sui, Aptos): The on-chain data of mainstream public chains continues to diverge this week. In terms of daily trading volume of DEX, Solana remains in first place with $1.894 billion, a slight decrease of 1.35% from last week; Ethereum is at $0.823 billion (down 0.84%), remaining stable overall; BNB Chain has dropped to $0.643 billion (down 58.78%), showing the most obvious decline; while TON has grown 450% from a low base to $0.011 billion. Gas fees remain low overall. In terms of daily active addresses, Solana has increased by 34.48% to 2.73 million, continuing to rank first, while Ethereum has decreased by 20.44% to 396,000. The overall performance of TVL is relatively strong, with Ethereum increasing by 7.91% to $53.449 billion, remaining in first place; Solana increased by 12.46% to $6.669 billion, surpassing BNB Chain to become second; Sui's TVL increased by 20.64% to $0.567 billion, the highest growth among the public chains in the statistics.

New project focus: functionSPACE is a prediction market protocol aimed at continuous numerical results. Unlike traditional yes/no binary prediction markets, its core mechanism allows users to build markets around a complete numerical range of quantifiable outcomes such as prices, income, weather, and sports data, designing Binary, Range, Linear, and custom yield structures. InfiniFi is a DeFi protocol focused on stablecoin yields, with the core idea of transferring the traditional bank funding allocation model of "maturity matching and fractional reserves" on-chain, configuring user deposits into various liquidity and maturity DeFi strategies, improving capital efficiency and yield while keeping reserves transparent. Crest is a self-custody wallet focused on Bitcoin privacy, with the core goal of reducing the threshold for using Bitcoin private transactions while the user maintains self-custody of assets, addressing the issue of public ledger visibility of balances, transaction history, and counterparty information.

Key Points

I. Market Overview

1. Total cryptocurrency market capitalization/Bitcoin market capitalization ratio

2. Fear Index

3. ETF inflow and outflow data

4. ETH/BTC and ETH/USD exchange ratio

5. Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

6. On-chain data

7. Stablecoin market capitalization and issuance

II. This Week's Hot Money Trends

1. Top five VC coins and Meme coins by growth this week

2. New project insights

III. New Developments in the Industry

1. Major industry events this week

2. Major upcoming events next week

3. Important financing last week

IV. Reference Links

I. Market Overview

1. Total cryptocurrency market capitalization/Bitcoin market capitalization ratio

The global Total Cryptocurrency Market Capitalization is $2.98 trillion, up about 4.20% from last week's $2.86 trillion.

Data source: Bitcoin dominance from cryptorank, https://cryptorank.io/charts/btc-dominance

Data as of September 27, 2026

As of the time of writing, the market capitalization of Bitcoin is $1.70 trillion, accounting for about 57.05% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization. Meanwhile, the market capitalization of stablecoins is $308.6 billion, accounting for about 10.36% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization.

Data source: coingecko, https://www.coingecko.com/en/charts

Data as of September 27, 2026

2. Fear Index

The cryptocurrency fear index is 75, indicating greed; it has risen 3 points from last week’s 72.

Data source: coinglass, https://www.coinglass.com/pro/i/FearGreedIndex

Data as of September 27, 2026

3. ETF inflow and outflow data

As of the time of writing, the accumulated net inflow of the US Bitcoin spot ETF is approximately $57.55 billion, with a net inflow of $2.39 billion this week, and total net assets of $108.42 billion, an increase of about 5.74% from last week's $102.53 billion. The accumulated net inflow of the US Ethereum spot ETF is approximately $13.94 billion, with a net inflow of $689 million this week, and total net assets of $17.78 billion, an increase of about 6.34% from last week's $16.72 billion.

Data source: sosovalue, https://sosovalue.com/zh/assets/etf

Data as of September 27, 2026

4. ETH/BTC and ETH/USD exchange ratio

ETHUSD: Current price is $2,665.00, historical highest price is $4,946.05, down approximately 46.12% from the historical highest price.

ETH/BTC: Currently at 0.031804, historical highest was 0.1238.

Data source: ratiogang, https://ratiogang.com/

Data as of September 27, 2026

5. Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

According to DeFiLlama, this week the total TVL of DeFi is $95.511 billion, an increase of about 8.32% from last week's $88.172 billion.

Data source: defillama, https://defillama.com

Data as of September 27, 2026

Divided by public chains, the top three chains with the highest TVL are Ethereum, accounting for 55.87%; Solana, accounting for 7.00%; and Base, accounting for 6.57%.

Data source: defillama, https://defillama.com/chains

Data as of September 27, 2026

6. On-chain data (Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, Ton, Sui, Aptos)

Layer 1 related data

This section mostly analyzes daily trading volume, daily active addresses, and transaction fees for the main Layer 1 chains including ETH, SOL, BNB, Ton, SUI, and APTOS.

Data source: CoinW Research Institute, defillama, https://defillama.com

Data as of September 27, 2026

On-chain DEX daily trading volume and transaction fees: On-chain DEX daily trading volume and transaction fees are important indicators of the activity and user experience of public chains' ecosystems. From this week's data, the trading activity of mainstream public chain DEX continues to diverge. Solana still maintains the highest trading volume, but has slightly declined from last week; BNB Chain’s trading volume has dropped by nearly sixty percent, while TON has significantly increased from a low base. In terms of on-chain DEX daily trading volume, Solana ($1.894 billion, -1.35%) continues to rank first with overall stability; Ethereum ($0.823 billion, -0.84%) has slightly decreased, remaining second; BNB Chain ($0.643 billion, -58.78%) has clearly declined compared to last week's performance. Among other public chains, Sui ($0.062 billion, +3.33%) has increased slightly, while TON ($0.011 billion, +450.00%) shows the largest increase, but its absolute trading volume remains small; Aptos ($0.006 billion, -40.00%) has decreased. Regarding transaction fees, Ethereum ($0.01), BNB Chain ($0.00001), and Aptos ($0.000001) all remain flat from last week; Solana's gas fees have risen from $0.0008 to $0.0022 (+175.00%), while TON has risen from $0.0007 to $0.0009 (+28.57%), and Sui has increased from $0.0006 to $0.0010 (+66.67%). Despite some public chains experiencing significant increases in gas fees, the absolute trading costs remain at a low level.

Daily active addresses and TVL: Daily active addresses reflect the ecological engagement and user stickiness of public chains, while TVL reflects the volume of funds held on-chain. According to this week's data, user activity shows significant divergence, with Solana, TON, and Sui all experiencing growth, the most noticeable increase being in Solana; Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Aptos have all declined. At the same time, most public chains see an increase in TVL, with noticeable enhancements in the funds held by Solana, Sui, and TON. In terms of daily active addresses, Solana (2.73 million, +34.48%) continues to hold first place, increasing by about 700,000 from last week; BNB Chain (1.86 million, -5.10%) ranks second; Ethereum (396,000, -20.44%) has significantly decreased. Among other public chains, TON (148,400, +8.13%) and Sui (135,100, +13.39%) have both recorded growth, while Aptos (27,700, -48.71%) has the largest decline. Regarding TVL, Ethereum ($53.449 billion, +7.91%) continues to hold absolute first place; Solana ($6.669 billion, +12.46%) has seen significant growth, surpassing BNB Chain to become second; BNB Chain ($5.873 billion, -1.62%) has slightly declined. Among other public chains, Sui ($0.567 billion, +20.64%) shows the largest increase, and TON ($0.058 billion, +16.00%) has also seen growth, while Aptos ($0.055 billion, -8.33%) continues to decline.

Layer 2 related data

According to L2Beat data, this week the total TVL of Ethereum Layer 2 is $35.20 billion, an increase of about 3.47% from last week's $34.02 billion.

Data source: L2Beat, https://l2beat.com/scaling/tvs

Data as of September 27, 2026

This week, the market shares of Base and Arbitrum One are 58.14% and 13.51%, ranking first and second, respectively.

Data source: CoinGecko, https://www.coingecko.com/en/chains/layer-2

Data as of September 27, 2026

7. Stablecoin market capitalization and issuance

According to Coinglass data, the total market capitalization of stablecoins is $308.6 billion, up about 0.52% from last week's $307.0 billion. Among them, USDT has a market capitalization of $183.78 billion, accounting for about 59.55% of the total market capitalization of stablecoins, an increase of about 0.23% from last week's $183.35 billion; USDC has a market capitalization of $74.27 billion, accounting for about 24.07%, a decrease of about 0.38% from last week's $74.55 billion; DAI has a market capitalization of $4.59 billion, accounting for about 1.49%, a decrease of about 0.22% from last week's $4.60 billion.

Data source: CoinW Research Institute, Coinglass, https://www.coinglass.com/pro/stablecoin

Data as of September 27, 2026

According to Whale Alert data, this week the USDC Treasury issued a total of 4.00 billion USDC, while Tether Treasury issued a total of 0 USDT this week. The total issuance of stablecoins this week is 4.00 billion, an increase of about 48.15% from last week's 2.70 billion.

Data source: Whale Alert, https://x.com/whale_alert

Data as of September 27, 2026

II. This Week's Hot Money Trends

1. Top five VC coins and Meme coins by growth this week

Top five VC coins by growth in the past week

Data source: CoinW Research Institute, coinmarketcap, https://coinmarketcap.com/

Data as of September 27, 2026

Top five Meme coins by growth in the past week

Data source: CoinW Research Institute, coinmarketcap, https://coinmarketcap.com/

Data as of September 27, 2026

2. New project insights

functionSPACE is a prediction market protocol aimed at continuous numerical results. Unlike traditional yes/no binary prediction markets, its core mechanism allows users to build markets around a complete numerical range of quantifiable outcomes such as prices, income, weather, and sports data, designing Binary, Range, Linear, and custom yield structures. The project is still in its early stages, with the official website disclosing that the existing market mainly operates in an off-chain simulation environment, and on-chain contracts are still in the proof-of-concept phase. In September 2026, functionSPACE completed $1.7 million in Pre-Seed financing, led by Maven 11 and Blockwall, with SMAPE Capital participating. The overall positioning is to provide new pricing infrastructure for prediction markets and on-chain structured derivatives, currently focusing on the formal launch of on-chain products, liquidity formation, and whether continuous prediction markets can establish real trading demand.

InfiniFi is a DeFi protocol focused on stablecoin yields, with the core idea of transferring the traditional banking model of "maturity matching and fractional reserves" on-chain, configuring user deposits into various liquidity and duration DeFi strategies, improving capital efficiency and yield while maintaining reserve transparency. The project was launched in June 2025, and has expanded to ecosystems such as Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, and Katana, forming partnerships with institutions and protocols including Ethena, Pendle, Morpho, Aave, Fasanara, and FalconX. The official disclosure indicates that its historical TVL peak reached $180 million, generating over $9 million in income for users. In September 2026, InfiniFi completed over $3 million in Seed financing, led by Electric Capital, with participation from New Form Capital, Generative Ventures, Fasanara Capital, 2Square, 4th Revolution Capital, DCFGod, and The Rollup, with total financing exceeding $6 million, and plans to conduct TGE in the fourth quarter of 2026. The overall positioning is to connect the yield from on-chain and off-chain funds stablecoin yield infrastructure, with the next stage focusing on TGE, the rollout of InfiniFi Prime, and whether TVL can continue to grow.

Crest is a self-custody wallet focused on Bitcoin privacy, with the core goal of reducing the threshold for using Bitcoin private transactions while the user maintains self-custody of assets, addressing the issue of public ledger visibility of balances, transaction history, and counterparty information. In September 2026, the Bitcoin application layer Citrea announced the acquisition of Crest, with undisclosed transaction amounts, and both parties plan to integrate Crest's privacy wallet technology with Citrea's Bitcoin application infrastructure, promoting privacy capabilities akin to Zcash in Bitcoin usage scenarios. Citrea itself has received support from institutions such as Founders Fund and Galaxy Ventures. Overall, Crest's positioning has shifted from an independent privacy wallet to a privacy entry point within the Citrea Bitcoin ecosystem, with future focus on product integration, actual user adoption, and the regulatory and compliance requirements that privacy features may face.

III. New Developments in the Industry

1. Major industry events this week

Doppler Finance will conduct its XDP TGE on September 28, simultaneously launching the Genesis Airdrop. The total supply of XDP is 10 billion, of which 43% is for ecosystem and incentives, 18% is allocated to the team, 16% to investors, 14% to Treasury, 4% for liquidity, 4% to partners, and 1% for the Genesis Airdrop. The Genesis Airdrop is primarily aimed at users who participated in Doppler Points Season 1, Season 2, and other qualifying activities, with airdropped items being 100% unlocked at TGE. Doppler Finance is a yield and asset management protocol built around XRP/XRPL, while also expanding into RWA and institution-level XRP yield products. With the launch of XDP, the project officially transitions from points incentive phase to token economic phase, with subsequent key focus on actual distribution of Genesis Airdrop, XDP Staking, Safety Module, and the release method of 43% ecological incentives.

Axis Robotics launched its AXIS Community Sale on September 21, with the subscription window running until September 28. The fixed sale price of AXIS is $0.10, corresponding to a $1 billion FDV, and plans to raise $1 million USDC in this round, selling 10 million AXIS, which constitutes 1% of the total supply of 1 billion; individual participant subscription ranges from $100 to $100,000. The sale reached an over-subscription status on September 24, and will be proportionally allocated according to qualifying subscription amounts, with any unallocated USDC being automatically refunded. Tokens allocated from the Community Sale will unlock 10% at TGE, followed by a 6-month cliff, with the remaining 90% released linearly over the next 6 months. Axis Robotics is a decentralized data infrastructure focused on Physical AI, coordinating community participation in robot simulation tasks to generate and validate training data, with the data sources recorded on-chain. The specific TGE date for AXIS has not yet been disclosed, and the official statement clearly indicates that TGE will not occur immediately after the Community Sale ends, with future key focus on final subscription scale, actual allocation ratio, and TGE timing.

Plasma experienced a large-scale token unlock of XPL on September 25, marking an important supply release point exactly one year after its mainnet launch and XPL TGE. Approximately 1.76 billion XPL tokens are being unlocked, constituting about 63.2% of the circulating supply before the unlock. This is one of the largest token unlock events of the week. Plasma is a Layer 1 public chain centered around stablecoin payments and USDT applications, with XPL as its native token used for network gas, validator incentives, and economic activities. Due to the large scale of unlock compared to the original circulating supply, market attention is focused on the actual circulation of newly unlocked XPL, the transfer and selling behavior of related holders, and whether the market liquidity can effectively absorb the large-scale supply release.

2. Major upcoming events next week

Apyx announced on September 23 the postponement of the APYX TGE originally scheduled for October 13, with no new specific date yet disclosed. The additional time will be used to strengthen the core protocol and advance a more complete RWA platform before TGE. This adjustment will also affect the Apyx Pips Campaign: Season 2 will no longer end on the originally planned October 11, and users' existing positions in Curve, Pendle, and lending that qualify will continue to accumulate Pips without any further operation required; due to the extended activity period, the Season 2 airdrop ratio will increase from 6% of the total supply to 9%, while Season 1 previously allocated 5% of the total supply. Both Season 1 and Season 2 APYX are planned to be 100% unlocked at TGE. For participants, the most noteworthy future focus will be on the new TGE and Season 2 snapshot dates, as well as whether the airdrop amount will continue to be adjusted after the activity is extended.

Variational announced its VAR Tokenomics on September 24 and confirmed that it will be conducting TGE in Q4 of 2026. Of the total supply of VAR, 32% will be used for Genesis Distribution, with airdrops conducted according to users' holdings of Variational Points, with a 100% unlock at TGE; 18% will be allocated to Ecosystem Reserve for ecological development by the Variational Foundation; the remaining 50% will be distributed among the team and investors, with a 12-month lock-up after TGE, then unlocked gradually over at least 3 years. The point activities originally set to end in Q3 will also continue until TGE, continuing the weekly allocation of 150,000 points; accounts must hold at least 1 Variational Point and sign related service terms to qualify for the Genesis airdrop, with unclaimed Genesis Distribution Tokens being destroyed. Variational also plans to use 100% of the revenue entering Treasury for repurchases and destruction of VAR. The most noteworthy metrics for participants at this stage will be the specific TGE date in Q4, the total amount of points, the VAR allocation ratio corresponding to points, and the initial circulating supply at TGE.

Aturn Foundation confirmed on September 25 that the on-chain digital credit protocol Saturn plans to conduct STRN TGE in Q4 of 2026, reserving up to 5% of the total supply of STRN for distribution in the Season 2 event. Currently, Season 2 users can continue to accumulate points without any further operation; if TGE occurs before December 8, Season 2 will end shortly before TGE and complete its snapshot, with the actual airdrop amount being proportionally reduced according to the activity's actual duration, for example, if Season 2 runs at 75% of its planned period, only 75% of the originally reserved amount will be allocated, with the remainder returning to Saturn Ecosystem Allocation for future activities. After the completion of the Season 2 snapshot, Season 3 will immediately begin, meaning that TGE does not signify the end of Saturn user incentives. At present, the complete Tokenomics for STRN, specific TGE date, final allocation ratio for Season 2, and claiming rules have not yet been disclosed, with future attention focused on the official snapshot time and final token distribution plan.

3. Important financing last week

Circle announced receiving a strategic investment of $100 million from Binance, which acquired equity in Circle through this transaction, further expanding their cooperation around USDC. According to publicly available information, Binance will further integrate USDC into its savings and investment products and promote its use in global markets through USDC trading pairs. Circle is the issuer of USDC and one of the major stablecoin infrastructure companies globally, covering stablecoin issuance, payment settlement, and on-chain financial infrastructure. This investment signifies that the relationship between Binance and Circle extends from business cooperation to equity level. (September 22, 2026)

Atum announced the completion of a $13.5 million financing, with investors including Variant, PayPal Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Road Capital, Mirana Ventures, First Commit, Credibly Neutral, and strategic advisor Charlie Songhurst. Atum is an open payment network aimed at global capital flows, connecting payment companies, developers, and enterprises through a unified coordination layer, responsible for payment authorization, routing, and confirmation, while not issuing currency, operating blockchains, or holding customer funds. Its network can coordinate settlements across different blockchains, stablecoins, and payment channels, supporting payment protocols such as x402 and MPP; founder and CEO Pete Cooling previously managed Visa's cryptocurrency product division. (September 22, 2026)

Forward Industries announced the completion of a $25 million registered direct offering, issuing 3.125 million shares of common stock to an institutional investor at a price of $8 per share, raising an approximate total of $25 million. The company stated that the funds, after related fees, will primarily be used for further purchasing SOL, along with working capital and general corporate purposes. Forward Industries is a Nasdaq-listed company that has positioned Solana Treasury as its core strategy, and as of September 21, it has increased its SOL holdings to approximately 8.16 million pieces; thus, this round of financing essentially further augments the company's SOL reserve capabilities. (September 24, 2026)