Total crypto market capitalization rose 1.14% to $2.66 trillion in the week through 6:45 AM UTC on September 18, 2026, from $2.63 trillion the previous week. Bitcoin gained 0.30% while consolidating in the high $70,000s, and Ethereum rose 0.73%. Liquidations were mostly limited, although nearly half a billion dollars in long positions were liquidated on Tuesday before activity eased. Funding rates increased broadly but mostly remained at healthy levels. Strategy, led by Michael Saylor, bought back another $139 million in STRC without purchasing Bitcoin, while the United Arab Emirates moved its UAEPASS Digital Vault identity system to Avalanche. The CLARITY Act failed to secure the 60 U.S. Senate votes needed to advance. Tokenized stocks remained the leading market narrative as Payward, Kraken’s parent company, announced permissioned HIP-3 markets with Hyperliquid for U.S. clients, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev discussed in-kind redemptions and voting rights for tokenized stocks, and the SEC announced a five-year exemption for platforms facilitating tokenized-stock trading while exempting liquidity providers from dealer-registration requirements. The S&P 500 rose 0.01% and the Nasdaq gained 0.39% as both markets recovered from an earlier pre-FOMC derisking dip; the FOMC meeting had minimal impact because the hike had been telegraphed in advance. Lisk, Arbitrum, GEODNET, Near Protocol and Uniswap were notable altcoin outperformers. Major project developments included the launch of Circle’s Arc Mainnet, Coinbase’s Base App wallet reverting to the Coinbase Wallet name, Pump.fun’s Holder Rewards launch and removal of Cashback mode as a future launch option, Virtuals’ Occupy launchpad on Base, and CoinEx’s plan to cease operations. In DeFi, Balancer proposed winding down and distributing its BAL-token treasury to holders, Uniswap launched StablePair Hook, Trade[XYZ] introduced Events using Hyperliquid’s HIP-4 Outcome Markets, and Cascade, formerly Perennial, shut down after five years. Fundraising included $110 million for Kaiko, $20 million for Fin.com, $10 million for Velocity and $13.25 million for Tare. The week’s featured post, from @boldleonidas, questioned whether the CLARITY Act was intended to show that government action was unnecessary for crypto prices to rise.