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More →AI agents make 138 million crypto payments as U.S. dominates spending on AI models
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents are no longer just talking to each other. They are paying for services, buying data and even purchasing access to tokens the AI models, with more than 138 million transactions recorded through the x402 protocol on Coinbase’s Base blockchain, according to a Chainalysis’ <a href="https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/north-america-crypto-adoption-2026/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">><em>Inside North America's $3 trillion crypto economy: Agentic commerce accelerates</em> report</a>. The United States dominates this emerging market. U.S.linked wallets accounted for 88.1% of the geographically identified payments for AI model inference, compared with just 0.1% for Chinese-linked wallets, the blockchain analytics firm found. "One possible explanation is that Chinese developers are more inclined to use open-weight models such as DeepSeek and Qwen, reducing their need to purchase metered inference services," Eric Jardine, Chainalysis' head of research, told CoinDesk. The findings, released Wednesday, come as Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and other payments giants <a href="/tech/2026/07/15/visa-mastercard-and-ripple-join-the-standard-letting-ai-agents-pay-in-stablecoins" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">have backed the x402 protocol,</a> while Coinbase <a href="/business/2026/07/23/coinbase-closes-the-gaps-in-ai-agent-economy-for-businesses-users-and-developers" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">has begun allowing business customers</a> to accept payments from AI agents. Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, <a href="/business/2026/08/29/the-next-trillion-dollar-currency-may-not-be-a-stablecoin-it-might-not-even-have-a-name-yet" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">recently told CoinDesk</a> that over the next few years he estimates up to 100 billion AI agents will be transacting on the internet and they will be using crypto. And crypto’s <a href="/business/2026/08/23/crypto-s-next-billion-users-might-be-ai-agents-and-they-re-paying-with-stablecoins" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">next billion users might be AI agents</a> paying with stablecoins. “Stablecoins are particularly well suited to the kinds of transactions we expect AI agents to make at first,” Stephanie Cohen, Cloudflare’s chief strategy officer, <a href="/business/2026/08/23/crypto-s-next-billion-users-might-be-ai-agents-and-they-re-paying-with-stablecoins" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">told CoinDesk.</a> Unlike traditional card payments, stablecoins can handle transactions worth fractions of a cent, allowing AI agents to buy data, computing power and other services without human intervention. The new Chainalysis figures offer evidence of growing use of those payment systems, although transaction counts alone do not establish how much represents genuine commercial demand. Much of the activity runs through x402, a payments protocol incubated by Coinbase that allows AI agents to pay automatically for digital services using crypto. More than 87% o
S&P 500 options are the hottest bet on this Hyperliquid exchange
Talk about options<strong> </strong>on the S&P 500 index, and you are discussing a beast of a market that trades trillions of dollars in notional volume every day. Crypto traders now appear to want to access it over a blockchain. Hypercall illustrates the demand. The options platform built on Hyperliquid, the <a href="https://defillama.com/chains" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">>eighth-largest blockchain</a> by total value locked (TVL), went live in June, and more than 80% of the $640 million in notional volume since then has come from S&P 500 options, the exchange told CoinDesk. Open interest, the value of contracts still outstanding, is about $49 million, of which $47 million is in S&P 500 options. While the numbers are small next to traditional markets and Deribit's crypto options business, which started shortly after the platform’s 2016 debut and now routinely sees billions of dollars in daily volume and open interest, they illustrate a growing trend: the desire to access financial instruments when conventional markets are closed. Hypercall lists daily, weekly and monthly expiries, including over weekends. "The volume is concentrated in options expiring the following day," Jake Sylvestre, founder of Hypercall, said in an email interview. "Traders can take a view on the next day's move or hold a position further out." Traders are gravitating to blockchains for exposure to traditional markets, including derivatives. Hyperliquid’s decentralized exchange (DEX), also known as Hyperliquid, <a href="/coindesk-indices/2026/09/10/crypto-for-advisors" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">has become a</a> go-to venue for placing trades and managing risk through perpetual futures, especially on weekends when conventional markets are closed and geopolitical tensions have repeatedly escalated. Hypercall takes Hyperliquid’s perpetual futures into the options arena. An option is a contract that pays out if an asset ends up above or below — depending on the details — a set price by a specified date. A call option pays off when the asset finishes above that price at expiry. A put option works the other way round. Traders use both to hedge against price swings and bet on direction, volatility and time. Each Hypercall contract has a $1 multiplier, which means each index point is worth $1 at settlement. A call with a 7,000 strike pays $100 if the index settles at 7,100. Contracts settle in USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, against the average price over the final 30 minutes for Hyperliquid's S&P 500 perps. Trading around the clock is the draw. "Hyperliquid has become the best venue for trading these markets outside exchange hours," Sylvestre said. Hypercall’s exchange's market makers, the firms that quote prices, "hedge on Hyperliquid's perpetual futures, including on weekends when the cash equity market is closed," Sylvestre said. Earnings, economic data and company news can move an underlying asset while its home exchange is closed, and makers "hav
Bitwise pushes more than 20 wealth management platforms to approve crypto ETPs
Bitwise analyst Ishmael Asad said that Bitwise is working with more than 20 wealth management platforms with a combined AUM of about $24 trillion to push for their approval of crypto ETPs. Currently, cumulative net inflows into crypto ETPs are about $77 billion, and there are already more than 50 spot crypto ETPs in the U.S. market, covering BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX, LINK, XRP, ZEC, HYPE, and crypto asset portfolios.
Rising expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike have sent chip stocks tumbling for consecutive sessions.
Crypto World News, Thursday — the global sell-off in technology hardware stocks continued. Affected by expectations of Federal Reserve rate hikes and AI financing risks, chipmaker stocks in Asia followed U.S. equities lower. South Korea's Samsung Electronics fell more than 7%, and SK Hynix dropped more than 8%, dragging the KOSPI index down by as much as 6% at one point. The Nikkei 225 fell more than 3% during intraday trading, with Tokyo Electron and Screen Holdings each declining 3%. Growing concerns over higher interest rates, excessive valuations, and the massive capital required to build AI infrastructure continued to weigh on investor confidence. Despite strong earnings reports from Samsung and ASML, they failed to reassure investors. Meanwhile, shares of AI cloud infrastructure company CoreWeave plunged, while its bond prices fell to levels that typically reflect a company in financial distress, prompting investors to once again question the sustainability of large-scale AI infrastructure spending. Data released on Wednesday showed that U.S. CPI rose in September at the fastest pace in five months, heightening market expectations for Federal Reserve rate hikes.
The Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index is at 53, in the neutral range.
Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index latest reading is 53 (Neutral), previous value 62, down 9 points from the previous value.
Today's Crypto Fear and Greed Index dropped to 53, with market sentiment turning neutral.
CoinWorld data: Today the cryptocurrency Fear and Greed Index dropped to 53, down from 62 yesterday, as market sentiment shifted from greed to neutral.
The most recent funding rate for BTC perpetual contracts is -0.002956%.
Bjie.com data: The most recent funding rate for the BTCUSDT perpetual contract is -0.002956%, with shorts paying longs. Compared with the same-caliber snapshot 24 hours ago, it decreased by 0.0017 percentage points; compared with the same-caliber snapshot 7 days ago, it decreased by 0.0025 percentage points.
CITIC Securities: Expects the Fed to raise interest rates by 25 basis points in December.
According to CoinWorld news, a CITIC Securities research report stated that U.S. September CPI came in above expectations, with core inflation on a month-over-month basis running hot again, a broad range of items showing price increases, and the inflation rate failing to "fall back to target quickly enough." CITIC Securities still expects the Federal Reserve to raise rates once more this year, that is, holding steady in October and then raising rates by another 25 basis points in December. In an environment of persistently high oil prices and lingering inflation stickiness, U.S. financial conditions are unlikely to ease meaningfully, dollar liquidity is expected to remain tight, U.S. Treasury yields do not yet have clear room to move lower, gold sentiment remains fragile, and the resilience of fundamentals is more important than the odds offered by liquidity.
BTC saw a net capital outflow of 1,288.6529 BTC over the past 24 hours.
CoinWorld data: BTC saw a net capital outflow of 1,288.6529 BTC over the past 24 hours. This figure is aggregated from continuous 1-hour resolution data and represents the rolling 24-hour net capital flow denominated in BTC assets. It does not represent exchange net inflows, on-chain exchange flows, or institutional capital flows, and should not be conflated with deposit/withdrawal data from any single exchange. Compared with the same-caliber snapshot 24 hours ago, it is down 5,545.87%; compared with the same-caliber snapshot 7 days ago, it is down 290.35%.
The United States is considering easing sanctions on the shadow fleet to lower shipping rates.
According to news from Bijie, the United States is considering easing sanctions on the shadow fleet to lower shipping rates. A U.S. official said on Wednesday local time that the Trump administration is considering easing sanctions on vessels belonging to the so-called "shadow fleet." These vessels have transported oil and petroleum products from countries such as Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. The move is aimed at lowering global shipping rates, which are currently at historic highs. This comes shortly after U.S. President Trump temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian diesel. That decision drew strong criticism from Ukrainian President Zelensky, several European governments, and some Republican senators belonging to Trump's own party. The U.S. official revealed that the current discussion is focused on whether the United States will allow previously sanctioned vessels to transport "legitimate oil." "Legitimate oil" here refers to crude oil or petroleum products not subject to U.S. sanctions, rather than Russian and Iranian oil restricted by sanctions measures. The official said the move is intended to facilitate the shipment of more refined products and crude oil out of the Gulf region.