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Crypto likes to pretend it’s its own universe. Decentralized! Independent! Immune to the suits! And then Jerome Powell clears his throat at Jackson Hole and half the market panic-sells into USDT.

The reality: crypto still lives and dies by macro. Inflation, interest rates, and the Fed’s mood swings are the invisible hands shoving your bags up or down.

Here’s the cheat sheet:

Why does this matter? Because if you only stare at token charts, you’re missing half the story. The reason ETH pumped to new highs last month wasn’t because of some magical L2 upgrade. It was because markets decided the Fed was done raising rates. Liquidity matters more than your favorite whitepaper.

So yes, keep hunting gems and memecoins. But if you’re not paying attention to CPI prints, FOMC meetings, and bond yields, you’re basically trading with one eye closed. Below is a quick cheat sheet to key macro events for you to keep an eye one.

Our Report

A whale quietly turned Hyperliquid’s XPL futures into their personal money-printing machine—pushing the price 200% skyward and pocketing $15 million, while other traders were left scrambling amidst massive losses. Critics now question how such a brazen squeeze was even possible—and why standard safety nets, like those on CEXs, weren’t in place. With prior incidents still fresh, this may prove to be the tipping point for rethinking how Hyperliquid, and DeFi at large, handles pre-launch token volatility.

Key Points

Relevance

Look, it’s not the first time DeFi has shot itself in the foot, but this one stings: four wallets colluded to rake in nearly $47.5 million, while Hyperliquid’s governance winks at the line between decentralization and chaos—rousingly rewarding predators while leaving others hanging. Protective measures like open interest caps, cross-exchange price referencing, or EMA-based price limits are standard on centralized platforms, but evidently missing in action here.

For savvy investors, the takeaway is to recalibrate your risk radar: new token markets with thin liquidity are a playground—often for whales. Arbitrage opportunities may shimmer, but they're built atop a more volatile and exploit-prone foundation. Platforms now need to juggle innovation and liability: can the DeFi ethos survive without institutional-grade guardrails? As the market grows, regulators and protocols alike will be pressed to stop putting “trustless” on a pedestal and instead work on trust-worthy systems.

Crypto markets are flirting with both optimism and caution. Bitcoin and Ethereum are treading water—$110K and $4.4K are the current battlegrounds. Solana whispers “move along,” while social mood swings remain the real wild card. Institutional interest provides ballast, but whales and chatter can still drag you under.

They’re a private company, but Pacaso just reserved the Nasdaq ticker “$PCSO.” No surprise the same firms that backed Uber and Venmo also backed Pacaso. What is unique is that 10,000+ regular people joined them. Founded by a former Zillow exec, Pacaso has earned $110M+ in gross profits to date. Until 9/18, you can join, too.

Invest While You Still Can

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