In a tweet, Santiment, an on-chain analytics firm, points to a historical tendency that could benefit patient crypto traders. The crypto market is currently engaged in lackluster trading action due to a drop in cryptocurrency trading activity. The total monthly volume of spot and derivatives trading fell 11.5% to $2.09 trillion in August, the second-lowest since October 2020, indicating dwindling investor appetite. ???? With #crypto markets continuing its unpredictability, we have seen a big uptick in #bearish takes by the crowd here in September. Historically, this is a good thing for patient traders. Probability of price bounces rise after #FUD becomes the majority.

Ripple Expands Licensing Arsenal Through Fortress Trust Purchase San Francisco-based blockchain payments firm Ripple has broadened its portfolio of regulatory licenses in the United States with the acquisition of Fortress Trust. Fortress Trust — a subsidiary of Fortress Blockchain Technologies with a Nevada Trust License — provides regulatory and technology infrastructure for blockchain companies. The acquisition adds to the over 30 licenses Ripple holds across the US as a money transmitter and a New York BitLicense.

A US District Court in New York has thrown out a class action lawsuit instituted against decentralized virtual currency exchange Uniswap on the grounds that the plaintiffs failed to submit evidence that it had broken securities rules. In April 2022, a group of disgruntled investors alleged that Uniswap operated as an unregistered broker, listing unregistered securities that led to losses for the platform’s users. The plaintiffs pointed to the listing of failed projects, including EthereumMAX (EMAX), Alphawolf Finance (AWF), and Bezoge (BEZOGE), as proof of Uniswap’s wrongdoing.

International remittance service provider SBI Remit, part of the SBI Group, has made an exciting announcement regarding its South East Asia operations. According to a blog post, SBI Remit is increasing its reach in the region with the help of Ripple. Both companies, who have been in a long-term partnership, continue their work in building global rails for the future financial system.

It’s easy for the dollar to press higher when the Japanese yen is under pressure by the Bank of Japan’s loose monetary policy. The USDJPY pair rallied early on Wednesday as forex traders found little resistance in the Japanese yen. The greenback soared to a ten-month high of ¥147.90, marking a spectacular rebound from its mid-July lows of ¥137.30, and realizing a monster gain of nearly 8%. To all that caught the upside swing - congrats you market mavens. To the rational minds that still believe in fundamentals - when is the drop coming? That would be when the Bank of Japan finally breaks out of its ultra-loose monetary policy, on the one hand. On the other hand, the US dollar would need to start showing some cracks. For that to happen, the state of the US economy needs to be a little less attractive to the crowds. Presently, a cooling labor market and the prospects of a rate-hike slowdown are not enough to drive the buck lower.

The greenback is on the offensive again as markets are weighing prospects of another rate hike at the Fed’s September meeting. The GBPUSD pair is down for a third day in a row Thursday as forex bros are anticipating another interest rate bump out of the Federal Reserve later this month. The British pound dropped to a three-month low near $1.2450 while the dollar was busy stripping valuations across the board. The EURUSD is barely holding above the $1.07 mark as the mighty buck is approaching a double bottom near $1.0650. The USDJPY is also in line with the dollar’s strength as the pair is rocketing to levels near ¥148.00, posing increased challenges for the Bank of Japan and its rock-solid loose-monetary policy. The Fed is gathering on 19-20 September for its regular monetary policy meeting. And given that last month’s jobs report indicated a cooling economy, but not exactly, some market participants are expecting an interest rate increase. In such a scenario, the dollar is likely to pull ahead.

An eighth straight week of losses is staring at the European currency as traders flee to the dollar for continued gains. The EURUSD pair was moving sideways early Friday but recent performance has positioned the euro as one of the biggest decliners on the forex board for the past couple of months. The European currency has erased about 5% of its valuation against the buck since mid-July, sliding from $1.1270 to $1.0680. The exchange rate briefly dipped below $1.07 yesterday and floated above that handle in the European session on Friday. Mounting losses have been the norm for euro bagholders as the European Central Bank is flashing mixed signals over its ability to control inflation and avoid recession by raising interest rates. And while economies in the old continent battle with a grinding downturn, the US jobless claims report on Thursday surprised with a drop, indicating a robust labor market. The ECB meets next Thursday for the fate of interest rates, and the Federal Reserve gathers Sept. 19-20 for its rate decision.

Tesla took the number one spot in the S&P 500’s best performers on Tuesday. The EV maker said its Shanghai base did great in August. Tesla stock TSLA added 4.7% to its valuation Tuesday after bright news arrived from the Far East. The EV maker’s manufacturing plant in Shanghai rebounded in August with an impressive 84,159 cars shipped to clients. The figure was up from just over 64,000 in the month prior, and higher than the 76,695 delivered in the year-ago August. The Elon Musk-led carmaker is doing numbers this year. Thanks to an increased production capacity, more than 625,000 units have rolled off assembly lines in China, compared with about 400,000 over the same timeframe in 2022. The bump in the numbers is likely to help the company meet Wall Street’s 2023 target of 1.8 million cars manufactured.

Tech stocks got battered the most as higher rates for longer dent the prospects for forward-looking profits. S&P 500 and Dow also fell. The Nasdaq Composite IXIC declined on Wednesday, logging its third consecutive day in the red. The tech-heavy index dropped 1.1%, leading the pack, followed by a 0.7% drop in the S&P 500 and a 0.6% slide in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. In other words, September is so far living up to expectations. Fresh remarks from Fed official Susan Collins weighed on markets after the central banker hinted that the Fed may need to hold rates higher for longer if they want to stamp out stubborn inflation. Oddly, the latest jobs report of 187,000 new hires in August neither confirms, nor denies that rationale. Rates that stay higher for longer are generally bad for tech stocks. Tech companies usually run relatively high borrowing balances to fuel growth. When rates rise, they need to pay a higher amount to service debt. And that’s when top line, revenue, and bottom line, profit, get hurt.

The precious metal got hit by a dominant dollar, boosted by signs that the US economy remains resilient, despite multiple interest rate hikes. Gold prices are looking to close the week lower by roughly 1% as the stronger US dollar has once again enforced its dominance on the commodity. Prices for XAUUSD moved from a weekly open of about $1,940 to current levels near $1,920 to $1,925 per troy ounce. The gloomy performance in the shining metal comes on the heels of the latest news from the US. The American economy saw less people filing for unemployment benefits last week, the jobless claims report showed Thursday. In other words, the labor market is still tight. On the other end of the spectrum, the US dollar is flexing on its way to close an eighth winning week, its longest streak in nine years. Since mid-July, the dollar index DXY , which measures the relative strength of the greenback against six major currencies, has added roughly 5.5% to trade near 105.00 from a low of 99.60.