Overview: Crypto Market on the Morning of September 25 — Bitget, Lightning, and Fed Rules

The crypto market greeted the morning of September 25 with a decline in Bitcoin and Ethereum, significant liquidations, and several important news items: the head of Bitget linked the $351.6 million exchange hack to North Korea, Block added Bitcoin Lightning support for AI agents, and the U.S. Fed proposed new requirements for stablecoin issuers.

• Bitget suggests that North Korean hackers may have been behind the $351.6 million attack.
• Block connected Bitcoin Lightning to the x402 protocol for AI agent payments.
• The Fed proposed capital surcharges for stablecoin issuers, redemption within two business days, and monthly reserve reporting.

Bitcoin and Ethereum Started the Day in the Red

According to TradingView, Bitcoin was down in the morning. At 07:35 MSK, the first cryptocurrency was trading at $84,095, which corresponded to ₽7,140,145 for one token. Over the past 24 hours, the minimum BTC was at $82,907, and the maximum was $84,876.

Ethereum also started the day with a decline. At the time of preparing the overview, the second-largest cryptocurrency was priced at $2,675, or ₽227,123 for one token.

Among the top ten cryptocurrencies, Zcash had the best daily performance, gaining 3.55%. Over the week, XRP was the leader with a growth of 15.84%. The worst performer in the last 24 hours was TRON, which lost 1.59%. In the weekly perspective, almost all assets in the top 10 remained in the green.

In the top 100 by market capitalization, Quant saw the strongest growth over the day and week: up 34.54% and 52.81%, respectively. The most notable daily decline was shown by Lighter, which decreased by 4.32%. Over the week, the largest losses were incurred by Pons, which fell by 18.27%.

Liquidations Exceeded $338 Million

According to CoinGlass, in one day, positions of 84,217 traders were liquidated in the market for a total of $338.26 million. The majority was on longs: $217.82 million against $120.44 million for shorts. The largest single liquidation occurred on Binance in the ETH-USDT pair and amounted to $11.48 million.

Shares of public companies related to the crypto industry mostly declined. BitMine Immersion lost 4.52%, Hut 8 — 3.89%, SoFi Technologies — 3.55%. IREN shares decreased by 3.09%, Strategy — by 3.07%, Circle — by 3.03%. The only asset in the green among those listed was GameStop: its shares rose by 0.71%.

The Fear and Greed Index remains at 71 points, indicating a zone of greed. The previous day, the indicator was the same. A week ago, the index was at 56 points, and a month ago it was at 65 points, which also corresponded to the greed zone.

Bitget Links Hack to North Korea

Gracy Chen, the CEO of Bitget, suggested that the hack of the exchange, which resulted in a loss of $351.6 million, may have been carried out by hackers from North Korea. During a Q&A session on X, she referred to preliminary findings of the investigation: some IP addresses were linked to VPN services used by the North Korean group.

According to Chen, security experts noted similarities to earlier attacks attributed to North Korea. However, the exchange denies the involvement of internal employees.

Chen clarified that the attackers did not imitate user withdrawal requests but gained access to Bitget's systems and transferred assets directly. She stated that the private keys for cold and hot wallets were not compromised. The investigation is still determining what exactly allowed the hackers to carry out the attack.

Some of the stolen funds have already been recovered, but Chen did not disclose the exact amount. Withdrawals on the exchange remain suspended. Previously, North Korean hackers were linked to cryptocurrency thefts totaling approximately $2.02 billion in 2025, including an attack on Bybit of about $1.5 billion.

Block Connects Lightning to x402 for AI Agent Payments

Block has joined the x402 Foundation and added support for the Bitcoin Lightning network in its payment protocol. This strengthens the payment infrastructure direction for AI agents.

Lightning is designed for low-cost mass transactions that could form the basis of agent commerce. x402 represents an open payment standard: it allows AI agents and web services to autonomously pay for access to APIs, data, and digital services.

Steve Lee, head of Block's Bitcoin division Spiral, called the integration of Lightning into x402 a step towards making Bitcoin everyday money for people.

Block joined the x402 Foundation following Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Coinbase, and the Solana Foundation.

Fed Proposes New Rules for Stablecoin Issuers

The U.S. Federal Reserve has presented proposals regarding capital, redemption, and other requirements for stablecoin issuers under its supervision. The initiative is related to the implementation of the GENIUS Act.

The law already requires issuers to back stablecoins with reserves in a one-to-one ratio. Allowed assets are limited to cash, bank deposits, and short-term U.S. government bonds.

The Fed's proposal includes a capital surcharge for operational risks. For the first $20 billion of issued stablecoins, it will be 2%, for the next $30 billion — 1.5%, and for amounts over $50 billion — 1%.

Issuers will be required to process redemptions within two business days. If reserves fall below the full backing level, the company must notify the Fed and either restore coverage or liquidate and redeem the stablecoins.

The regulator also proposes to require issuers to publish monthly reports on reserves. The documents must be certified by an auditor and signed by the CEO and CFO. A separate initiative introduces an approval procedure for banks wishing to issue stablecoins through subsidiaries.