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The broader crypto market is under pressure.
Oil has surged above $108–$109 per barrel, U.S. Treasury yields are approaching 5%, and markets are now pricing a roughly 70% probability of a Fed rate hike next week.
→ What I’d watch next: $BTC ( ▼ 1.19% ) holding the $76K–$77K area, whether it can reclaim $78.5K, and today’s U.S. inflation data. If inflation comes in hot and strengthens the rate-hike case, crypto could see another risk-off move.
Here’s what we got for you today:
👀 4 ways to use AI with crypto
⭐ CLARITY Act rewrite drops
⭐ Pump.fun copies Stonk’s work?
🔥 Burning hot takes for the road
Holiday Creator Calendars Are Filling Up. Q4 Panic Is Optional.
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Structure commissions by lifetime value, not just first-order margin
Lead with the right products so creators promote with confidence
Recruit and onboard creators with a day-by-day plan for the first 30 days
Read performance early and pull program levers by Day 60
Brief creators with a holiday checklist before calendars fill up
Your 90-day countdown starts now.
AI is already trading real money. And DeepSeek just beat some of the biggest models. But the bigger opportunity isn’t building a fully autonomous trading bot.
You can already use AI to spot market signals, review trade ideas, control emotional decisions, and even build custom indicators with no coding. I broke down 4 practical ways beginners can start using AI for trading today 👇
🏛️ MAKE-OR-BREAK? CLARITY ACT REWRITE FACES A DANGEROUS SENATE VOTE
U.S. crypto rules just reached peak drama. Republican senators just dropped an updated, 630-page version of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act). So, what happened?
1/ What’s Inside the 630-Page Rewrite?
The main goal of the CLARITY Act is still to divide power between the SEC and the CFTC. However, this updated text zeroes in on DeFi and traditional finance integration:
These DeFi rules strictly cover spot and cash trades for assets classified as commodities. Prediction markets are left out completely.
The bill adds rules explaining exactly how credit unions can enter the digital asset market.
Senator Cynthia Lummis noted that Republicans added over 114 suggestions from Democrats. An earlier version already passed the Senate Banking Committee 15-9.
2/ About The September 15 Cloture Vote
Before the bill can even be debated, it faces a procedural "cloture" vote on September 15. Republicans hold 53 Senate seats, meaning they need at least 7 Democrats to vote "yes" just to open debate.
Democrats are demanding strong rules to block the President and top officials from launching tokens or making money from crypto businesses while in office.
Senator Thom Tillis (GOP) and Senator Ruben Gallego (Dem) sent a compromise plan to the White House back in July, but no deal was made. Both warned the bill will fail if the White House doesn't help bridge the gap.
The House shortened its September work calendar ahead of the November midterm elections. Even if the Senate passes it, the House must approve it before it can be signed into law.
White House crypto advisor and Treasury Secretary are urging politicians to advance the bill, warning that if Congress fails, the SEC & CFTC will just write their own rules anyway.
3/ The Banks vs. Crypto Yield War
As if political fights weren't enough, traditional banks are trying to block the bill over stablecoin rewards:
American Bankers Association, the ICBA, and nearly 80 state banking groups sent a joint letter demanding Congress close a legal loophole on stablecoins.
Banks complain that crypto exchanges and middleman platforms still give users interest-like "rewards."
Banks fear customers will move cash out of bank accounts into yield-bearing stablecoins, shrinking the money local banks use for home mortgages, small business loans, and farm credit → Senator Josh Hawley stated he won't support the CLARITY Act until this deposit issue is fixed.
Crypto groups like Stand With Crypto and the Blockchain Association are fighting back hard, spending over $190 million this election cycle to lobby senators directly in their home states.
The device Elon built in secret
You'll also get a bonus 4th pick... the most undervalued name in the entire supply chain, according to our analyst.
Sept 21 is only weeks away.
After the reveal, this briefing comes down.
Read it now, before the launch.
🥊 PUMP.FUN LAUNCHES CUSTOM PAIRS BUT GETS SLAMMED FOR COPYING STONK?
pump.fun just dropped a huge upgrade called Custom Pairs, but the crypto community is calling them out for chasing trends and copying their rival, Stonk. Why?
1/ What is Custom Pairs? (Feature Breakdown)
Yesterday, pump.fun officially launched Custom Pairs. Instead of forcing users to pair memecoins strictly with SOL or USDC, creators can now pair tokens with stock shares, crypto, precious metals, and stock indices.
pump.fun teamed up with Sunrise to add 20 new assets, including tokenized stocks like Boeing (BA), Alibaba (BABA), Costco (COST), Dell (DELL), Trump Media (DJT), Reddit (RDDT), Shopify (SHOP), Snap (SNAP),...
Combined with xStocks assets, creators can now choose from 93 quote assets with more coming soon. 50% of all revenue generated from Custom Pairs automatically goes to a smart contract to buy back and burn $PUMP ( ▼ 8.94% ) tokens.
Developers can choose between 2 fee modes:
Creator Fee: Takes 0.05% to 1% from every trade to pay the dev team.
Cashback: Gives that fee back as a refund to traders buying and selling the coin.
Fees and cashbacks are paid directly in the paired asset. For example, if a memecoin is paired with tokenized NVDA stock, the dev or trader gets paid directly in NVDA stock tokens instead of SOL or USDC.
2/ Trend Origin: How Stonk & ZCAT Blew Up First
This stock-paired memecoin trend started on Solana with Stonk, a launchpad allowing users to create memecoins paired with stocks, commodities, currencies, and other tokens.
The biggest token on Stonk has been ZCAT, a privacy cat meme paired with Zcash ($ZEC).
ZCAT charges a 3% tax on trades, buys $ZEC, and automatically sends it to holders without needing to stake or manually claim. Famous trader Ansem revealed he bought ZCAT and received around 1,000 $ZEC just from holding!
Thanks to ZCAT, Stonk grew rapidly, even beating competitor Pons in 24-hour revenue at one point. The $STONK token surged over 1,000% in early September 2026 to hit a $178 million market cap.
3/ Community Backlash: "Trend Chasers" & Unsolved Issues?
Instead of celebration, pump.fun met heavy backlash for copying Stonk’s homework.
Critics pointed out a big flaw in pump.fun's design. Stonk uses trade fees to buy paired assets and pay long-term holders. pump.fun’s Cashback mostly refunds active traders, encouraging fast day-trading instead of holding.
Popular community figures like @pwoge called out pump.fun for focusing purely on making platform revenue while ignoring deeper issues, like brutal PVP trading where money constantly rotates between short-lived tokens.
Users slammed pump.fun for making hundreds of millions of dollars off Solana fees without giving a community airdrop, all while spending big money paying KOLs for promotions.
4/ Price Reaction: $PUMP Dumps 12.5%
Traders voted with their wallets immediately after the announcement.
The $PUMP token took a swift hit, dropping over 12.5% down to ~$0.0039. This slide came right after $PUMP had rallied from a low of $0.0015 to a peak of $0.0052 earlier in the week.
→ Until pump.fun addresses real community demands, even feature-packed updates like Custom Pairs will face uphill skepticism.
🔥 BURNING HOT TAKES FOR THE ROAD
Coinbase's CEO called the Bitcoin bottom while BTC struggles at $78K! He’s predicting a 2-year mega rally. Buy the dip? Read more
Nasdaq invested $100M into Payward (Kraken's parent) & tokenized stocks, bringing traditional markets directly on-chain. Read more
Coinbase is ending its Base App. They’re rebranding back to Coinbase Wallet and scaling back their everything-app dream. Read more
Canary Capital launched the first U.S. TRON Staking ETF (TRXS) on Cboe, committing at least 90% of held TRX. Read more
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⚠ This newsletter is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Traders should conduct thorough research, understand the risks, and carefully evaluate their decisions before investing in cryptocurrency.
