Trading time: Bitcoin failed to hit the $118,000 mark again, Solana has successfully reached $250

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points as expected, with a dovish outlook supporting market gains.
Bitcoin approaches a critical resistance level at $118,000, with analysts divided on whether a breakout or correction is imminent.
Solana breaks through $250, testing key monthly resistance turned support, driven by corporate adoption and ETF speculation.
MetaMask confirms its token launch is imminent, adding momentum to the Ethereum ecosystem.
Notable altcoin movements include BNB surpassing $1,000, Trust Wallet Token (TWT) surging 52% after a model update, and FTT volatility linked to SBF's account activity.
Crypto ETFs show strong inflows, with Bitcoin ETFs adding $163 million and Ethereum ETFs $213 million.
Key upcoming events include token unlocks for LayerZero, Velo, and Optimism, along with new exchange listings.

Daily market key data review and trend analysis, produced by PANews.

1. Market Observation

The Federal Reserve announced a 25 basis point interest rate cut as expected. Chairman Powell noted that despite slightly higher inflation, downside risks to the job market have increased. This shift in the balance of risks prompted this "risk-management" rate cut, and projected two more rate cuts this year. This dovish stance propelled all three major US stock indices and small-cap indices to record highs for the first time in nearly four years. JPMorgan Chase 's trading team, led by Andrew Taylor, believes the rate cut provides support for bulls and recommends investors "buy the dip." They pinpoint future upward momentum to October's non-farm payroll and inflation data, believing that if positive, US stocks could experience a "breakthrough."

At the same time, a grand industrial policy orchestrated by the Trump administration has emerged, planning to leverage a $550 billion US-Japan trade fund to make government-led investments in key sectors like semiconductors, energy, and quantum computing, aiming to reshape American manufacturing. Against this backdrop, alliances between industry giants have become increasingly prominent. For example, AI leader Nvidia announced a $5 billion investment in rival Intel , establishing a historic partnership to jointly develop customized CPUs. This move was seen as a significant boon for the struggling Intel and received support from the US government, which has become a major shareholder.

Driven by improving overall market sentiment, Bitcoin prices have steadily climbed, approaching the critical $118,000 mark. Several analysts believe Bitcoin is at a decisive breakout point. Analysts Michaël van de Poppe and Daan Crypto Trades both view $118,000 as the most crucial bulwark for bulls, believing that if this high-volume area is successfully converted into support, prices will "soon" reach all-time highs. Analyst Murphy has established three conditions for a new high: a close above $117,000, a short-term holder-adjusted price deviation (STH-RPDZ) exceeding +1 standard deviation, and a simultaneous increase in ETF net inflows and spot exposure. These conditions are currently being met, and analyst Axel Adler Jr., based on market sentiment indicators and strong ETF inflows (net inflows of $2.8 billion since September 9th), has given Bitcoin a 70% probability of reaching a new all-time high within the next two weeks. However, there are also cautious voices in the market. AlphaBTC warned that if the price falls below the $114,000 support, it may trigger a longer adjustment, while Material Indicators suggest that the current liquidity structure is more like a short-term "exit pull-up" rather than a stable accumulation.

While Bitcoin has garnered most of the market attention, significant changes are brewing within the Ethereum ecosystem. ConsenSys' CEO confirmed that a token for its popular wallet app, MetaMask , is imminent, potentially "faster than expected." This follows the official launch of MetaMask USD (mUSD), its stablecoin, on September 15th.

Solana has been performing particularly well recently. According to analyst Rekt Capital, Solana's price has successfully broken through a macro downward trend line and surpassed $250, reaching a nearly eight-month high. Currently, Solana is testing the key monthly resistance level of $238 on a weekly chart, which has turned into support. This test is crucial for Solana to reach new all-time highs in the future. Its strong growth is primarily driven by corporate strategies to use Solana as a reserve asset. Currently, corporate holdings exceed 17 million Solana, with a total value of $4.3 billion. Despite relatively weak on-chain leverage demand, the options market is optimistic, and the SEC's approval of a multi-asset crypto ETF that includes Solana has further heightened market expectations for a future standalone Solana ETF.

Other projects have also seen significant activity. After CZ changed his social media handle, sparking community suspicions of a return to Binance, BNB continued its upward trajectory, surpassing the $1,000 mark. Its market capitalization surpassed that of well-known companies like BYD and Pfizer, rising to 155th place globally in terms of asset market capitalization. After Trust Wallet (TWT) unveiled a new economic model that includes lock-up rewards and fee discounts, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao retweeted the announcement, stating that the TWT token was initially an experiment, but its use cases are now expanding. Currently, the TWT token is trading at $1.18, a 52% increase over the past 24 hours, reaching a high of $1.33. At 10:30 PM last night, SBF's account X displayed suspected unusual activity, suddenly following a large number of users, drawing market attention. As a result, the price of FTT briefly surpassed $1.2 USDT, but has since fallen back to $0.98, paring its gains to 21%.

2. Key Data (as of 12:00 HKT, September 19)

(Data sources: Coinglass, Upbit, Coingecko, SoSoValue, Tomars)

Bitcoin: $117,043 (+24.8% YTD), daily spot trading volume $37.588 billion
Ethereum: $4,551.45 (+35.85% YTD), with a daily spot trading volume of $27.601 billion
Fear of corruption index: 52 (neutral)
Average gas: BTC: 1.11 sat/vB, ETH: 0.19 Gwei
Market share: BTC 57.7%, ETH 13.74%
Upbit 24-hour trading volume rankings: XRP, DOGE, BTC, ETH, SOL
24-hour BTC long-short ratio: 49.56%/50.44%
Sector gains and losses: GameFi rose 2.94%, L2 rose 2.21%
24-hour liquidation data: A total of 100,627 people were liquidated worldwide, with a total liquidation amount of US$208 million, including BTC liquidation of US$16.44 million, ETH liquidation of US$49.35 million, and SOL liquidation of US$16.55 million.
BTC medium- and long-term trend channel: upper channel line ($116,170.70), lower channel line ($113,870.29)
ETH medium- and long-term trend channel: upper line of the channel ($4558.94), lower line ($4468.66)

*Note: When the price is higher than the upper and lower edges, it is a medium- to long-term bullish trend; otherwise, it is a bearish trend. When the price is within the range or repeatedly passes through the cost range in the short term, it is in a bottoming or topping state.

3. ETF flows (as of September 18)

Bitcoin ETF: +$163 million, with no net outflows across all twelve ETFs
Ethereum ETF: +$213 million, with no net outflows across all nine ETFs

4. Today's Outlook

Binance Alpha will list Ark of Panda (AOP) and Dill (DL) on September 19th.
Binance Aspecta's BuildKey TGE will launch the River (RIVER) project on September 19th.
Resolv: The second quarter airdrop will be available on September 19th, and 3% of the total token supply will be distributed in the third quarter.
LayerZero (ZRO) will unlock approximately 25.71 million tokens at 7:00 PM on September 20th, representing 8.53% of the current circulating supply and valued at approximately $52.5 million.
Velo (VELO) will unlock approximately 3 billion tokens at 8:00 AM on September 20th, representing 13.63% of the current circulating supply and valued at approximately $47.8 million.
KAITO (KAITO) will unlock approximately 8.35 million tokens at 8:00 PM on September 20th, accounting for 3.15% of the current circulating supply and worth approximately US$10.1 million.
Optimism (OP) will unlock approximately 116 million tokens at 8:00 am on September 21st, accounting for 6.89% of the current circulating supply and worth approximately US$93.4 million.

The biggest increases in the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization today: Immutable up 16.4%, HTX DAO up 11.9%, NEAR Protocol up 10.9%, Avalanche up 5.2%, and Bitget Token up 4.1%.