Bitcoin's Record Month & Google's Crypto Expansion

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Bitcoin’s September To Remember

Bitcoin (BTC) defied the odds in September by posting a gain of 7.3%. Since 2013, September has been BTC’s worst-performing month in terms of average monthly returns. Prior to this year, BTC had averaged -4.8% in September. While that average has now improved slightly to -3.8%, it has not been enough for September to shed its reputation as ‘Bitcoin’s least favourite month’, as per CoinGlass.

Speaking of seasonal data, with Q4 having just started, BTC is now in what has historically been its best-performing quarter on average (+81.2%). Will history repeat?

Bitcoin quarterly returns (%) since 2013 (Source: Glassnode)

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Bitcoin ETFs: Strongest Week Since Mid-July

Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. recorded their eighth consecutive day of inflows earlier this week. This follows $1.6B ($1.1B USD) of net inflows last week, a 10-week high.

In related news from the past fortnight, ETF adoption may be set to climb further after the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) approved options tied to BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF. According to Jeff Park, head of alpha strategies and portfolio manager at Bitwise Asset Management, the approval “marks the most monumental advancement possible for the crypto market.”

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Primed For Further Growth In Global Liquidity

As per a recent report commissioned by macro analyst Lyn Alden, Bitcoin’s price has historically been strongly correlated with movements in global liquidity. This metric—which measures the flow of cash savings and credit through the global financial system—looks set to continue growing due to two events in September:

1. The U.S. Federal Reserve cut rates for the first time in over four years and also shared forecasts of plenty more cuts between now and the end of 2025.
2. China announced a raft of fiscal and monetary measures aimed at stimulating its economy, which has continued to struggle compared to expectations.

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High-Profile Names Continue Crypto Push

The second half of September was filled with crypto announcements from well-known companies and financial institutions:

• Visa announced a tokenised asset platform to help banks issue fiat-backed tokens on Ethereum. A live pilot of this platform is expected in 2025.
• PayPal announced it is enabling U.S. merchants to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency from their business accounts.
• Google launched an infrastructure service for Ethereum developers. It plans to extend support to additional blockchains.
• BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, published a report on Bitcoin’s role as a unique diversifier against various risks.
• BNY Mellon, the world’s largest custody bank, was granted an exemption that effectively allows it to start offering crypto custody services.
• Franklin Templeton, a leading asset manager, shared plans to launch a money market fund on Solana.

Conference Season For Altcoins

Several well-known cryptocurrencies will host their annual conferences in the coming weeks. Monitoring these events via social media can be worthwhile, as they are often a useful source of information regarding the fundamental progress of a given project.

Project	Event (Date)
XRP (XRP)	Ripple Swell (Oct. 15–16)
Stellar (XLM)	Meridian 2024 (Oct. 15–17)
Avalanche (AVAX)	Avalanche Summit LATAM (Oct. 16–18)
Cosmos Hub (ATOM)	Cosmoverse (Oct. 21–23)
Cardano (ADA)	Cardano Summit (Oct. 23–24)
Chainlink (LINK)	SmartCon (Oct. 30–31)
Ethereum (ETH)	Devcon (Nov. 12–15)