Web3 Newsletter: Industry Highlights and Must-See Trends This Week

Foresight News brings you a quick overview of this week's hot topics and recommended content:

01 In-Depth from Foresight News

"While Others Retreat, They Enter: Newcomers in Web3 During the Bear Market"

"Digital RMB Has Changed"

02 Policy Trends

"Warren Tears Off the Veil, CLARITY Act Falls Short by 11 Votes"

"Tokenized Stocks Get Key Approval, Understanding the SEC's Five-Year Innovation Exemption"

"U.S. Crypto Tax Reform Accelerates! Who Benefits and Who is Restricted?"

"Another Rate Hike This Year, Are Crypto Retail Investors Becoming Cannon Fodder in Macro Games?"

"Hong Kong's New Blueprint for Digital Assets: From Five-Year Plan to Policy Report"

03 Project Observations

"Behind the 30% Surge, NEAR is Repriced by AI+ Privacy"

"What Secrets Lie Behind Neutrl's Half-Price Redemption After Five Weeks of Stopping Redemptions?"

"After Five Years of Waiting, Cosmos Co-founder's New Project Finally Issues Tokens"

"What is BEM, Which CZ Liked Twice and Bonk Guy Bought?"

"CoinEx Announces Shutdown, Will 2026 Be the Year of Crypto Exchange Closures?"

01 In-Depth from Foresight News

In the bear market, while the industry faces layoffs and project shutdowns, four young individuals choose to enter Web3. They are tired of the predictable life of traditional careers, commuting, overtime, and seniority systems, seeking work autonomy and diverse possibilities. Interviewees include international students and career changers, whose motivations are not solely about trading cryptocurrencies; they also value remote work and growth opportunities, but they face industry instability and survival pressures, leading to a gradual cooling of enthusiasm for the sector.

"While Others Retreat, They Enter: Newcomers in Web3 During the Bear Market"

Kassy interned at a state-owned enterprise during her undergraduate studies in China, and her evaluation was:

"If I continue doing this kind of work after graduation, I can already imagine what it will be like ten, twenty, or thirty years from now," she said.

"I just feel that this kind of life is quite meaningless."

In May of this year, while studying in Sydney, she took over her school's cryptocurrency club with a friend and organized the first Web3-related event. She considers that day as her entry into the industry. She is now in her second year of graduate studies, majoring in electrical engineering—chosen by her family.

I reached out to her to ask one question: Why now? Why Web3?

Many people think that the digital RMB is just a niche tool for receiving red envelopes and scanning QR codes for payments, but it has quietly undergone a transformative evolution. It has moved beyond simple daily payment attributes to upgrade to a 2.0 deposit currency system, with trillion-level transactions hiding significant scenarios such as government and enterprise finance, intelligent regulation, and cross-border settlement, which are reconstructing domestic financial infrastructure and accelerating the internationalization of the RMB. A monetary revolution that ordinary people have yet to notice is already underway.

"Digital RMB Has Changed"

The part of the iceberg that shows above the water is often only 10%.

For a considerable period, the presence of digital RMB in most people's lives has been quite limited—an occasionally heard concept or a new payment method encountered when receiving red envelopes or enjoying discounts.

However, the massive body hidden beneath the water, which constitutes 90%, is no longer limited to C-end consumption. From civil servant salaries and corporate loans to prepaid fund supervision and cross-border settlements, an evolution of infrastructure surrounding currency and payment systems is unfolding.

02 Policy Trends

The U.S. crypto regulatory bill CLARITY Act faced a setback in the Senate procedural vote, falling short of the 60-vote threshold with a result of 49-50. Democrat Warren criticized the bill for favoring the Trump family's crypto interests, while Republican Lummis stated that many Democratic amendments had been incorporated. Although there remains a possibility of restarting the process, with midterm elections approaching, hopes for progress this year are slim; if the window is missed, the entire legislative process will need to start over.

"Warren Tears Off the Veil, CLARITY Act Falls Short by 11 Votes"

On September 16, around 14:15 local time in the U.S., the Senate held a roll call vote on the motion to end debate on the "Digital Asset Market Structure Clear Act" (CLARITY Act, H.R. 3633), which ultimately failed with 49 votes in favor and 50 against. It fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill by a full 11 votes.

This is the first time the CLARITY Act has faced a direct setback in the Senate after passing the House with a vote of 294 to 134 in July 2025 and the Senate Banking Committee with a vote of 15 to 9 in May 2026. This procedural vote failure officially places its legislative process in the "emergency room" for the year.

Among them, North Carolina Republican Senator Tillis temporarily changed his vote from in favor to against during the vote to preserve the right to request a re-motion. Delaware Democrat Senator Coons was absent that day.

The U.S. SEC has introduced a five-year conditional innovation exemption, allowing on-chain venues to conduct tokenized NMS stock trading while exempting certain exchange and dealer qualification requirements. It requires the safeguarding of dividend voting rights, and synthetic derivatives are not included. Listed companies have veto power over third-party tokenization. Platforms must retain trading data for regulatory observation; this policy is a transitional arrangement, and long-term formal regulatory rules still need to be established.

"Tokenized Stocks Get Key Approval, Understanding the SEC's Five-Year Innovation Exemption"

On September 17, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued a statement regarding innovation exemptions, approving a temporary conditional exemption ("innovation exemption") that allows limited tokenized NMS stock trading on specific on-chain trading venues (tokenized securities trading venues, abbreviated as "TSV").

NMS stocks mainly cover listed stocks included in the U.S. national market trading reporting system and some exchange-traded products. This arrangement allows eligible securities to enter the on-chain capital pool, and platforms need to set trading access conditions, limit the number of tradable securities and transaction sizes, and comply with ongoing information disclosure requirements.

Officials stated that these exemption measures will expire five years after publication. The order solicits public opinion to determine whether to modify the exemption measures and any subsequent actions that may be taken.

While CLARITY faces obstacles, the U.S. "Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act" has passed the House Ways and Means Committee. The bill simplifies tax calculations for small fees, provides simplified accounting for assets, and offers special tax rules for compliant stablecoins; it also expands wash sale and presumed sale anti-avoidance rules to crypto, clarifying the income attributes of mining and staking, and establishes a voluntary disclosure plan for taxpayers. The bill still requires further review by both houses of Congress.

"U.S. Crypto Tax Reform Accelerates! Who Benefits and Who is Restricted?"

On September 16, just a day after the CLARITY Act failed to pass the Senate procedural vote, another digital asset tax-related bill in the U.S. made progress.

Unlike the CLARITY Act, which primarily deals with SEC, CFTC jurisdiction and digital asset market structure, this bill, named the "Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act" (H.R. 10357), focuses on a more specific issue: How should the U.S. tax digital assets?

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points in September, and the dot plot shows that most officials support further rate hikes within 2026, indicating that high rates will persist longer. Coupled with the setback of the CLARITY Act, Bitcoin has seen a decline. The market believes that Bitcoin's price is driven by two main lines: U.S. dollar liquidity and U.S. crypto regulation; BTC faces resistance around $83,000 to $86,000, with various institutions providing different price forecasts, while macro liquidity remains a core constraint.

"Another Rate Hike This Year, Are Crypto Retail Investors Becoming Cannon Fodder in Macro Games?"

In the early hours of September 17, at 2 AM, the Federal Reserve announced the September FOMC decision, raising the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4.00%. All 12 voting members voted in favor. This is the first rate hike since July 2023 and the first time Kevin Warsh has utilized the rate hike tool since taking office as chairman.

The landing itself was not surprising. Ahead of the meeting, the CME FedWatch tool indicated that the implied probability of a 25 basis point rate hike had risen to over 90%. What was truly repriced by the market were the economic forecast summary (SEP) and the dot plot released alongside the decision: among the 18 officials who submitted forecasts, 16 believe there should be at least one more rate hike within 2026. The latest data from Polymarket shows that the probability of the Federal Reserve not lowering rates this year has risen to 95%.

The median corresponds to an end-of-year rate of about 4.1%, and it is still expected to be 4.1% by the end of 2027. The policy rate path has been clearly shifted upward, and the trading narrative in the crypto market has also changed from "Will there be a hike this time?" to "How long will high rates last?"

Hong Kong's five-year plan and the 2026 policy report clarify the digital asset roadmap: focusing on tokenization as the core line, promoting regulated stablecoins for tokenized fund settlements; regular issuance of digital bonds, piloting foreign exchange notes and commodity warehouse receipt tokenization. Improving the licensing, custody, and anti-money laundering supervision systems for virtual assets, and advancing the digital Hong Kong dollar testing. The overall direction serves the traditional financial real economy rather than allowing speculative crypto tokens.

"Hong Kong's New Blueprint for Digital Assets: From Five-Year Plan to Policy Report"

On September 16, Hong Kong released the "First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2026-2030)" and the "Chief Executive's 2026 Policy Report," outlining the development direction for Hong Kong in the coming years.

The former focuses on medium- to long-term strategies, clarifying Hong Kong's development goals by 2030; the latter emphasizes policy execution, further transforming the direction from the five-year plan into regulatory systems, infrastructure, pilot projects, and timelines.

From stablecoins, tokenization, Web3, blockchain, and virtual assets, the two documents form a relatively clear connection: the five-year plan proposes building a regulated digital asset market, while the policy report further answers how Hong Kong plans to issue licenses, how to trade, how to settle, how to custody, and how to control risks.

03 Project Observations

NEAR's price surged over 30% in a single day, reaching a new high for this phase. The catalyst was the Confidential Intents' total value locked (TVL) surpassing $70 million, triggering an airdrop snapshot. The airdrop tokens require the price to remain stable at $3.33 to unlock circulation. NEAR focuses on confidential cross-chain execution combined with AI narratives, differentiating itself from privacy coin ZEC, while the protocol's transaction fees continue to repurchase tokens, and the market sentiment in the AI sector also boosts this round of momentum.

"Behind the 30% Surge, NEAR is Repriced by AI + Privacy"

On September 18, Bitget market data showed that NEAR peaked above $3.5, with a 24-hour increase of over 30%, marking a new high since March 2025, and its market cap reapproached $4.5 billion.

The direct catalyst was not just a slogan, but rather the product data that was finalized by the official three days ago: the Confidential Intents TVL crossed $70 million, and the first snapshot at [email protected] was completed.

On September 15, NEAR's official announcement stated that its Confidential TVL reached $70 million, and the milestone incentive snapshot had been completed.

The DeFi project Neutrl reopened NUSD redemptions at half price after a five-week suspension. The project only has $27 million in cash to handle a circulating supply of $53.5 million, allowing for only about 50% redemption. There is market debate over whether this plan is a stop-loss strategy under limited funds or a coercive clause forcing investors to accept losses passively. The transparency of the project’s reserve details is insufficient, lacking a complete external audit, leaving user rights with significant uncertainty.

"What’s Hidden in Neutrl’s Half-Price Redemption After Five Weeks of Stopping Redemptions?"

On September 17, the decentralized yield protocol Neutrl announced the opening of the redemption portal for NUSD and sNUSD. Holders can redeem at a fixed exchange rate for USDC, with tokens being burned after redemption. The redemption window is expected to remain open until November 14. According to on-chain contract information, the redemptionRate parameter of Neutrl's redemption contract returns a value of 510000000000000000, which translates to 0.51 when calculated with 18 decimal places, meaning each NUSD can be redeemed at a fixed ratio of 0.51 USDC.

The only named founder and CEO of Neutrl is South African entrepreneur Behrin Naidoo. He graduated from the University of Cape Town and London Business School, and has worked at PwC, Morgan Stanley's South African financial stock research department, and RMB/RMI, later participating in the establishment of the liquidity management protocol Fyde Treasury.

The operating entity behind the protocol is Caverna Auctus Inc., registered in Panama. In April 2025, Neutrl completed a seed round financing of approximately $5 million, led by the UK asset-locking OTC platform STIX and the Boston-based venture capital fund Accomplice, with participation from Amber Group, Nascent, Figment Capital, and SCB Limited under Susquehanna, among others, and received support from angel investors such as Ethena founder Guy Young and Arbelos co-founder Joshua Lim.

Cosmos co-founder Jae Kwon has spent five years developing Gno.land, and the token GNOT has officially launched on exchanges. The Gno language is compatible with Go, and the contract source code is fully readable on-chain. Most tokens were airdropped to early Cosmos community members, with a high proportion allocated to the team and investors, and most tokens will unlock linearly over 24 months. The early public auction was lukewarm, but subscription interest from exchanges was very high. The project’s ideals are idealistic, but the ecosystem is still weak and needs to undergo real market testing.

"After Five Years of Waiting, the New Project from Cosmos Co-Founder Finally Launched Its Token"

On the evening of September 16, KuCoin and Kraken simultaneously launched a new token: GNOT.

For most people, this is just another new token waiting to be listed. But for veteran Cosmos players, this day has been a long five years in the making: Jae Kwon's Gno.land has finally made its token truly liquid.

The name Jae Kwon carries significant weight in the crypto space: he founded Tendermint in 2014 and later co-founded Cosmos. It can be said that much of the foundation for today’s cross-chain ecosystem was laid by him.

A 16-year-old high school student developed the BNB Chain project TapeOut Protocol, and the token BEM surged over 400% in three days. It features a unique Proof of Design (PoD) mining mechanism, where users build digital circuits on-chain to consume components and earn tokens, with a monetary policy mimicking Bitcoin's total supply of 21 million and halving every four years. The costs are sunk in a one-time deployment, with no subsequent electricity costs, but there is a significant risk of continuous selling pressure from miners; the contract has relinquished management rights, and parameters are permanently fixed.

"What is BEM, which CZ Praised Twice and Bonk Guy Bought?"

From September 12 to 14, the mining reward token BEM for the TapeOut Protocol on the BNB Chain rose from $20 to a peak of $101.9, an increase of over 400%.

According to GMGN market data, as of the time of writing, BEM's price is around $58, with a market cap of about $10 million, a trading fee of 1%, and a cumulative fee of 60.48 BNB, valued at approximately $43,100. The total supply is 21 million tokens, with a current supply of about 170,000, and it has been listed on exchanges such as MEXC, Gate, and LBank.

This round of price increase has brought TapeOut into the spotlight for more people. The founder of TapeOut, Blonskr, claims to be a 16-year-old high school student. According to his post on August 15, he created the first real on-chain 4-bit processor Behemoth on the BNB Chain, consisting of 2,251 NAND gates and flip-flops, with specifications comparable to Intel's 4004 from 1971, and the clock follows the BNB Chain's block time, approximately 2.22Hz. Subsequently, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao commented on the post, "pretty interesting. What's the use case?"

Due to a sluggish market and rising compliance costs, the cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx announced an orderly shutdown. The platform provided a clear shutdown timeline, with December 22 as the deadline for withdrawals, and the platform token CET will be repurchased at 0.005 USDT; it claims a reserve rate of over 100%. The platform has previously faced a $70 million hack and is under regulatory scrutiny in multiple countries. In 2026, many exchanges are expected to exit the market, and the industry reshuffle continues to intensify.

"CoinEx Announces Shutdown, Is 2026 the Year of Cryptocurrency Exchange Closures?"

On September 14, cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx announced that it had decided to cease exchange operations after assessment and enter an orderly shutdown. The platform cited three reasons: the prolonged downturn in the crypto market, significant contraction in industry trading volume and liquidity, and regulatory requirements and compliance costs in major jurisdictions exceeding what it considers a "reasonable boundary." The announcement clearly states that withdrawal services will be available until December 22, 2026, at 02:00 (UTC), and claims a reserve rate of over 100% and sufficient backing for user assets.

The announcement characterizes itself as an orderly exit, while also stating that "the last official announcement" is included in the text—any subsequent "supplementary rules" or "policy adjustments" appearing under the CoinEx name will be regarded as fraud. Whether users can withdraw their assets on time and in full will depend on whether the withdrawal channels are smooth in the next three months, rather than just relying on the statement.

This content is provided for general informational purposes only and doesn't constitute financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. Any events, rewards, online promotions, or related information mentioned herein should not be considered a recommendation, solicitation, or invitation to purchase, sell, trade, or otherwise deal in any crypto assets. Crypto assets are highly volatile and may result in loss. The availability of WEEX services, products, and related events may vary by region. You are responsible for ensuring that your participation is in accordance with applicable local laws and regulations.