SEC Pushes Back Approval for Altcoin and Staking ETFs
When we reflect on 2025, one major motif will likely stand out – spot crypto ETFs. As more progressive digital asset regulation slowly rolls out across the globe, the prominence of exchange-traded crypto funds has accelerated across institutions and individuals. This has been a – possibly even the – catalyst for several of Bitcoin and Ethereum’s 12-month highs.
Given that, it’s natural the community is eagerly anticipating the next crypto project to hit the traditional stock markets.
However, it appears the landmark moment of a spot altcoin ETF may have to wait just a little while longer, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission delaying a potential approval until October.
Included in the delay are a Dogecoin and Litecoin fund, alongside several different submissions for a spot XRP ETF. Last week, the SEC also delayed a raft of proposed Solana ETFs.
For some time, experts have predicted that it’ll be one of LTC, XRP or SOL to be the first cab off the altcoin rank – but the correct answer won’t be known for at least another couple months.
🚨 Will the SEC approve an XRP ETF in October?
📄 What happened: On Aug 18, the SEC officially delayed its decision on XRP ETFs, pushing the deadline by 60 days into October. This was expected — the SEC almost always uses the maximum review period.
While the pushback may seem like cause for alarm, it was an expected move that gives the SEC plenty of time to review the filings and associated regulations. Bloomberg expert James Seyffart called the likelihood of this happening back in May.
Lotta questions. Replying here:
The SEC *typically* takes the full time to respond to a 19b-4 filing. Almost all of these filings have final due dates in October. Early decisions would the action that's out of the norm. No matter how "Crypto-friendly" this SEC is
So, the market will have to sit on its hands and wait patiently for the next wave of ETFs to hit the United States.
Whether they will have the same impact as the original spot Bitcoin and ETH funds will make for very interesting viewing over the coming twelve months.
Trump considers Powell replacement as September meeting looms
It’s shaping up to be perhaps the biggest date in September for the crypto market.
It’s a showdown – bulls vs bears, hawks vs doves, growth vs inflation.
At the time of writing, most major crypto assets have endured a red week with consolidation being the name of the game.
The macroeconomic environment has played a major hand in the price action of digital currencies for 2025, and this trend is set to continue with the upcoming rate decision in September.
The market’s expectation is, currently, that the Feds, headed by Jerome Powell, will drop rates by 25 basis points – improving liquidity and potentially appetite for risk-on assets like BTC and co.
However, the conviction that Powell will enact quantitative easing in Septmber is starting to falter, which aligns with the recent drop in market confidence. According to Polymarket (now banned in Australia), participants suggest there’s a 70% of a 25bps rate drop. This is down from 81% just a week ago, with the ‘no change’ odds improving from 13% to 30% within the same timeframe.
Polymarket odds for a potential Fed rate decision in September.
Despite uncertainty around monetary policy growing, US President Donald Trump has continued his push for lower rates.
BREAKING: President Trump asks for somebody to “inform Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell that he is hurting the housing industry.” pic.twitter.com/jJY4lMg22J
Trump has already began the process of handpicking Powell’s successor, with 11 candidates currently under consideration.
Many expect Trump’s selection, considering his strong stance on quantitative easing, to mirror his dovish outlook.
In the meantime, investors will closely observe the US economic situation for potential insights on the crypto market’s next move.
Stablecoins are coming to the Japanese Yen
Forget Winter – it’s stablecoin season.
The recently passed GENIUS Act in the United States set a precedent for pegged digital asset legislation, creating a safety net for both innovators, issuers and investors.
This framework has the potential to kickstart similar policy changes in other nations, and Japan has become one of the first to follow suit.
According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, one of the world’s largest financial newspapers, Japan’s financial agency is gearing up to approve a yen-pegged stablecoin in Q4 2025.
While US-denominated assets are prominent within Japan’s crypto landscape, the Yen is yet to be domestically represented – until now, assuming it is greenlit.
The issuer, Tokyo-based JPYC, will lead the stablecoin charge. The digital asset will maintain its peg to the yen through liquid assets such as bonds, cash and bank deposits.
A representative, Noritaka Okabe, took to X to discuss the firm’s involvement in the upcoming project. (Translation below)
The X post argues that stablecoins will become more and more important in protecting everyday salarymen from rising mortgage and loan interest rates – and that JPYC’s yen-based digital asset will play an important role in managing bond rates.
Japan has slowly begun transitioning to a hub for cryptocurrency and blockchain tech, with national firm Metaplanet one of the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holders. Adding a Yen-based stablecoin to the mix will only further the nation’s involvement in the industry.
Monero suffers a targeted ‘51% attack’ from competing project Qubic
In a blog post released by Qubic, the Layer 1 chain reportedly performed a successful 51% attack on the well-known privacy chain Monero.
Monero, which utilises a Proof-of-work mechanism – like Bitcoin and Dogecoin – to ensure decentralisation and privacy. However, on the 11th of August, Qubic managed to exploit this system following a ‘month-long, high-stakes technical confrontation.’
This resulted in the reorganisation of 60 pre-existing blocks on the Monero network.
In theory, a 51% attack means that the controlling party has majority power over the blockchain’s consensus, allowing malicious activities such as block censorship and double-spending.
The takeover, which Qubic described as an ‘experiment’, was accomplished through CPU mining incentives. Essentially, Qubic miners would use their newly minted XMR to purchase additional Qubic tokens, which would then be burned to ‘reduce the circulating supply’. Ultimately, the team claims that this redirection of Qubic’s mining power gave participants enough hash power and control over block rewards to dominate Monero’s consensus.
A lot of people were asking how #Qubic was planning to do sustained 51% domination over #Monero if 50% of Qubic mining time must be spent on #Aigarth tasks. First I was answering "Let's make a surprise to $XMR miners", but then I realized that the #cryptocurrency community would…
However, not everyone in the community is convinced Qubic’s attack was as successful as they claimed.
While there’s verifiable evidence that the miners were able to make changes to the Monero network, some believe they never had the majority 51% control – just enough to get lucky.
A 6 re-org does not mean a '51% attack' was successful. In that case, we'd see unbounded-depth re-orgs/no blocks mined by any other mining pool (assuming the adversary censors other mining pools, as this one does).
It does mean an adversary with a high amount of hash got lucky.
Qubic maintains that this plan was never malicious. Rather, it was almost a viral marketing effort to demonstrate the power and security of Qubic’s Layer 1 protocol compared to other, older Proof-of-work models such as Monero’s. Reportedly, Qubic did not compromise the Monero network’s speed or privacy during the attack.
The Qubic community has now set its sights elsewhere, looking to exploit vulnerabilities in other blockchains to prove the efficacy of their own while also raising important security concerns. And according to a Discord poll, Dogecoin will be the next target.
Their methods have been extremely polarising, but if there is one good thing to come out of Qubic’s recent attacks, it’s that developers are re-thinking potential holes in their network’s security to create a safer Web3 world for all.
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