Your Weekly Deep Dive into The World of Crypto

September 16, 2026 · 5 Min Read

GM, Readers!

The Fed decides today. The Senate voted yesterday. And whales have been quietly repositioning for weeks. Strategy bought back $139M of $STRC preferred stock. Bitmine surpasses the 5.96M ETH threshold. Lazarus sold 911 ETH over a two-hour window.

Let’s get into it...

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) repurchased $139M of its $STRC preferred shares between Sept 8-13, funded entirely from USD cash. Bitcoin holdings remained unchanged at 845,050 BTC. The company now sits on $6.4B in USD assets alongside its massive BTC stack.

This is the second consecutive week with zero Bitcoin purchases or sales. Strategy has shifted capital allocation toward retiring preferred equity while keeping the core BTC treasury intact.

Whale Intel: When the largest corporate Bitcoin holder chooses buybacks over accumulation for multiple weeks, it is a signal of balance-sheet priority, not a change in the long-term thesis.

BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) announced Monday that it bought another 27,180 ETH last week, taking total holdings to 5,956,378 ETH. Combined crypto plus cash plus moonshot investments now stand at $15.8B, per the company's press release.

BitMine holds 5.96M ETH (roughly 4.9% of supply) and has staked 5.07M ETH (85% of holdings, $12.7B) via its MAVAN platform (Source: PR Newswire). Chairman Tom Lee continues to reiterate the company’s “Alchemy of 5%” target.

Whale Intel: Public treasury companies buying at these ETH prices signal conviction, not capitulation. Watch whether other ETFs and treasury vehicles follow the model.

The infamous North Korean Lazarus Group sold 911 ETH ($2.28M) at an average price of $2,499 over a two-hour window, per Lookonchain's on-chain data.

The transaction may be a fraction of Ethereum's daily trading volume, but it also highlights compliance failures and market vulnerability. The event continues to raise concerns among market participants about how easy it is for a notorious and blacklisted hacker group to offload funds, posing greater security risks and structural overhang.

Whale Intel: Sanctioned entities keep dripping stolen ETH into the market. Size is modest, but the persistent selling pressure from Lazarus remains a structural overhang.

Two wallets dormant for over a year (likely the same entity) deposited 14,700 ETH ($36.9M) into OKX over the past 9 hours.

The addresses had accumulated the position quietly and stayed inactive through the mid-2025 ETH cycle. Their re-emergence at these price levels signals a decision point: hold, sell, or restructure.

Whale Intel: Long-dormant wallets moving size into an exchange is rarely neutral. This is either preparation for a sale or structured OTC. Either way, it adds near-term supply risk for ETH.

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Spot BTC ETFs bled $462.73M for the week ending September 11, per SoSoValue. Four straight outflow sessions (Sept 8-11) undid the prior week's $986.85M inflow (Sep 4). Wed Sept 10 alone lost $282.6M, with ARKB shedding $164.3M. ETH ETFs, in contrast, extended their inflow streak, with a +$197.11M weekly net inflow for the week ending Sept 11.

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This week we cover a very recent and classic case. On September 9, Hunter Biden's $LAPTOP memecoin launched on Base and crashed within minutes. The token briefly spiked to $190 before collapsing over 90% amid thin liquidity.

Biden framed the launch as an ironic reclamation of the laptop narrative, with 20% of the supply earmarked for airdrops (including $TRUMP-loss wallets and Substack subscribers). A large founder allocation was locked for months before gradual vesting. But sniper bots and early wallets hit the token in the opening minute, leaving most retail holders with heavy losses.

Whale Intel: Celebrity memecoins with founder allocations that "vest slowly" almost always find a way to sell fast. If the founder holds 30% and the pump is engineered by connected wallets, the airdrop is the exit narrative, not the utility.

Malone Lam, a 22-year-old Singaporean national, pleaded guilty this week to leading a $245M cryptocurrency racketeering conspiracy, per the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. He was arrested in Miami in September 2025 at his rental home.

The scheme targeted victims via social engineering and phishing to drain crypto wallets. Proceeds funded a highly public lifestyle: private jets, luxury watches and handbags, and thousands in nightclub tabs. Lam faces a maximum sentence of 20 years.

Whale Intel: When a 22-year-old ringleader burns through $245M of stolen crypto on Lambos and Vegas tables, the trail is exactly as loud as it sounds. The DOJ traced funds within months.

Polymarket projected on September 11 that Bitcoin has a 62% chance of falling below $70,000 by the end of 2026.

Polymarket bettors on September 12 gave the CLARITY Act just an 18% chance of being signed into law this year.

Polymarket projected on September 14 a 54% chance that Solana reclaims the $120 level by December 31.

FOMC decision hits today at 2:00 PM ET and the Warsh press conference at 2:30. Watch the dot plot and forward guidance language, which will matter more than the rate itself. Watch how ETF flows react and whether the ETH ETF inflow streak survives a Fed hike.