Market Overview
General Market Conditions
This week, the cryptocurrency market showed a volatile upward trend. BTC experienced a volatile upward trajectory, while ETH remained relatively flat. The market sentiment index inched up from 74% last week to 75%, essentially unchanged, and still remains in the bullish zone.
Stablecoin Market Dynamics
The total market capitalization of stablecoins continued to grow, with the overall growth rate slightly higher than last week, showing synchronous growth in USDT and USDC:
- USDT: Market cap reached $171.2 billion, up 1.06% WoW. Growth momentum was consistent with last week, with an increase of $1.8 billion this week, maintaining a gain of over $1 billion. This indicates that non-U.S. Investors continued to enter the market steadily.
- USDC: Market cap stood at $73.3 billion, up 1.52% WoW, reversing last week’s decline with growth exceeding $1 billion. This suggests that U.S. Investors have started re-entering the market.
Market Drivers Analysis
- Fed policy expectations dominated sentiment: This week’s market volatility was mainly driven by anticipation of Thursday’s FOMC meeting. The 25bp rate cut met expectations, but the dot plot showed fewer cuts than expected for 2026–2027.
- Institutional buying power steadily recovering: Spot ETFs for BTC and ETH, as well as public treasury companies, continued to show steady growth in buying power. Although the pace was slow, the consistent recovery provided key support for the market.
Policy Expectations & Regulatory Developments
- Partial realization of rate-cut expectations: The Fed’s 25bp rate cut was fully in line with market forecasts. The positive effect was already priced in, limiting its short-term impact.
- Divergence over future rate path: While the dot plot indicated two more rate cuts in 2025, boosting sentiment, the projected cuts in 2026–2027 were below expectations, leaving uncertainty about the long-term policy path.
- Shift in policy focus: Powell noted that the Fed’s focus has shifted from CPI inflation to labor market data. Weekly jobless claims, nonfarm payrolls, and unemployment rates will carry greater weight moving forward.
Key Events Next Week
- Macro data to shape short-term moves: The U.S. August Core PCE YoY print will influence sentiment. A decline or in-line reading will strengthen the odds of an October rate cut.
- Rising importance of employment data: With the Fed shifting its focus to labor conditions, weekly jobless claims and other employment indicators will directly impact markets.
- Sustainability of institutional demand uncertain: Although institutional inflows improved this week, their durability remains uncertain and will be critical for medium-term direction.
- Data-driven volatility risks: If macro data disappoints, risk-off sentiment could rise quickly, institutional flows could retreat, and prices could correct sharply.
Investment Strategy Recommendations
- Maintain a cautious defensive stance: Given next week’s macro uncertainty and variable institutional demand, investors should stay defensive.
- Focus on employment data: Closely monitor jobless claims and other labor indicators to adjust positions in a timely manner.
- Track institutional flows: Keep a close eye on ETF inflows and treasury purchases, as they directly impact market absorption and trend continuation.
- Hedge against data risks: Consider reducing exposure ahead of major data releases to avoid sharp downside risk.
Market Outlook
The market is at a turning point driven by partial realization of policy expectations and upcoming macro data. While the Fed’s decision met forecasts, the dot plot revealed uncertainty in the policy path. Institutional demand is recovering, but its durability hinges on macro performance and price trends.
As the Fed shifts focus to employment, labor market indicators will become the key variable shaping expectations. Weekly job data could significantly sway sentiment. Institutional flows, being highly correlated with market direction, may shrink quickly if macro conditions turn unfavorable, potentially triggering chain reactions.
The market faces two-sided risks:
- If macro data improves, easing expectations could strengthen further, supporting an uptrend.
- If data deteriorates, risk-off sentiment could dominate, driving sharp corrections.
Investors should stay highly vigilant, seizing opportunities from policy tailwinds while preparing for potential shocks from data.
Next Week’s Bearish Picks
EDU
Open Campus (EDU) faces multiple challenges and unlocks pressure.
Project Fundamentals & Positioning
Open Campus is a decentralized education project aiming to reshape the creation, distribution, and access of educational content via blockchain. It provides a platform for educators, creators, parents, and students to foster a more open and equitable ecosystem. Teachers can monetize content, and creators can leverage Publisher NFTs for promotional rights and revenue sharing.
Structural Disadvantages in the Sector
- Niche sector with little attention: Decentralized education is an extremely niche track compared to DeFi, GameFi, or AI. The lack of mainstream attention and capital inflow severely limits its growth potential and market consensus.
Loss of Project Vitality
- User growth has stalled completely: EDU token gained only 9 new holders recently, reflecting a total loss of user acquisition ability. Zero growth indicates a death spiral with no signs of revival.
- Core functionality abandoned: OC Genesis NFT transactions dropped to zero, showing that no users are sharing educational content. The platform’s value proposition has collapsed, exposing fundamental flaws in the business model.
- Extremely low user engagement: EDU has only 114 weekly active wallets, many being market-maker accounts. Real engagement is negligible compared to healthy projects with thousands of active wallets.
- No new NFT holders: For six months, no new users acquired OC Genesis NFTs. This highlights a total collapse in adoption and confidence.
Severe Liquidity Shortage
- Thin daily trading volume: EDU averages just $1.3M/day, extremely low by current market standards, making entry/exit inefficient and risky.
Weak absorption capacity: Against an upcoming unlock of 21.01M tokens, the $1.3M daily volume is insufficient to absorb supply, creating significant downside risk.
Unlock Risks
- Large unlock scale: On Sept 27, 21.01M EDU (2.1% of locked supply) will unlock. In the context of worsening fundamentals, this will likely add heavy selling pressure.
- Strong sell motives: The unlock mainly involves institutions and the team. Given the project’s decline, these early participants have strong incentives to cash out, intensifying sell pressure.
Conclusion
EDU faces systemic and multi-layered bearish factors:
- Macro: Niche sector lacking attention and funding.
- Project: Zero growth, failed core functions.
- Market: Critically low liquidity and poor absorption capacity.
- Capital: Large unlocks with strong sell motives.
These compounded negatives reinforce each other, creating sustained and systemic downward pressure on EDU’s price. Investment risk is extremely high.
REZ: Shrinking Restaking Market Share and Liquidity Challenges from Token Unlocks
Project Fundamentals & Positioning
Renzo is a liquidity restaking platform built on EigenLayer, designed to simplify the staking process and allow users to earn rewards from staked crypto without locking liquidity. It issues the derivative token ezETH to enable liquidity of restaked ETH and leverages smart contracts and node operators to manage risk and yield strategies.
Deteriorating Market Environment
- Poor ETH price performance hampers ecosystem growth: Since November 2024, ETH has lagged behind BTC in market rallies, failing to generate a significant wealth effect on-chain. As a result, the restaking sector has remained sluggish.
- Insufficient capital inflows to Ethereum ecosystem: Although ETH prices have recently strengthened, Ethereum-based projects — including Renzo — have not seen corresponding growth. They remain stagnant, failing to attract sufficient market attention or new capital.
- Intensified competition in restaking: Renzo’s market share in the restaking sector has steadily declined, now at just 12.28% of the total, signaling weakened competitiveness.
Severely Deteriorating Fundamentals
- TVL continues to decline: Measured in ETH, Renzo’s TVL has fallen to a recent low of only 341,444 ETH, reflecting declining user confidence.
- Ongoing capital outflows: On-chain fund flow data shows net outflows from Renzo, indicating investors are withdrawing capital.
- Persistently low project revenue: Fee data indicates Renzo’s revenue remains at depressed levels, with daily fees averaging only about 21 ETH, suggesting limited user activity.
- Minimal new user participation: Recent deposit activity shows only single-digit numbers of new deposits on-chain, highlighting a stall in user growth and fresh inflows.
- Significant increase in withdrawals: On-chain data shows daily withdrawals surged to as high as 24,263 ETH, underscoring weak investor confidence and accelerating capital flight.
Token Unlock Risk Assessment
- Unfavorable scale and timing: On September 28, 423.7 million REZ tokens — representing 4.24% of locked supply — will be unlocked at a critical time of worsening fundamentals.
- Insufficient market absorption capacity: With daily trading volume averaging only $4 million, liquidity is clearly inadequate to absorb such a large unlock, creating immense selling pressure.
- Strong sell-off motivation among unlock recipients: Under the linear vesting schedule, this unlock primarily involves institutional investors and the project team. Given the project’s downward trajectory, these holders have strong incentives to cash out and are highly likely to sell.
- Thin liquidity depth: Limited daily trading volumes reflect shallow market depth, making it difficult to cushion the price impact from such a large unlock.
Conclusion
Renzo faces multiple systemic risks:
- Market level: Weak ETH ecosystem performance and declining appeal of the restaking sector.
- Business level: Falling TVL, stagnant user growth, and persistent outflows.
- Capital level: The September 28 unlock of 423.7 million REZ tokens will hit a market with just $4M in daily trading volume, creating heavy sales pressure. With institutions and the team as the main beneficiaries, cash-out incentives are strong.
These compounded bearish factors exert continuous negative pressure on REZ’s price, making it unlikely to reverse its downtrend in the short term.
Next Week’s Token Unlock Schedule (Unlock Value Over $1 Million)
Market Sentiment Analysis
Market Sentiment Index edged up from 74% to 75%, essentially unchanged from last week. BTC rose 1.74% this week; ETH ticked up 0.18%; TOTAL3 gained 3.57% this week. Altcoins overall remain in a bullish zone.
This Week’s Hot Event
Google Releases Agent Payments Protocol (AP2): The Era of Autonomous Payments for AI Agents Arrives, Reshaping the Payment & Settlement Industry Ecosystem
Event Background
Following Google’s launch of the A2A (Agent2Agent) protocol in April this year to enable multi-agent collaboration, and Anthropic’s release of MCP (Model Context Protocol) last November to give agents the ability to connect to external tools, the AI Agent ecosystem has still had a key gap in its tech stack — payments. Although current AI Agents can already help users with the preparatory work for complex tasks such as booking tickets, shopping, and making reservations, they repeatedly stumble at the final “autonomous payment” step. Traditional payment systems are premised on the assumption of a human directly clicking “buy,” which fundamentally conflicts with autonomous execution by AI Agents.
Against this backdrop, on September 16, Google officially released the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), partnering with more than 60 payment and technology firms including Coinbase, the Ethereum Foundation, Mastercard, and PayPal. Through an open-source protocol, AP2 aims to standardize authorization, authenticity verification, and accountability for AI Agent cross-platform payments, filling the “last mile” of autonomous task execution for agents and pushing the Agent-to-Agent economic paradigm from concept to reality.
What Is Agent Payments Protocol (AP2)?
Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) is an open-source agent payment protocol designed for AI Agents to securely initiate and process cross-platform payment transactions. It can be viewed as a key component of Google’s AI Agent tech stack and, together with the previously released MCP (Model Context Protocol) and A2A (Agent-to-Agent protocol), forms a complete autonomous execution framework for AI Agents. If MCP gives agents the ability to connect to external tools and A2A enables collaboration between multiple agents, then AP2 completes the most critical “last mile” — the payment capability — truly injecting the “soul” of economic transactions into AI Agents.
AP2’s core technical innovation is its Mandates mechanism, which builds a tamper-resistant trust framework via Verifiable Credentials (VCs). The mechanism supports two operating modes: in real-time authorization, once an AI Agent finds a product, the user confirms and signs in real time; in delegated authorization, users can pre-configure complex trigger conditions (such as price ranges, time limits, etc.), and the AI Agent automatically executes payment when conditions are met. The entire process uses cryptographic signatures and digital contracts to ensure each step is auditable and secure, effectively solving the three core problems in agent payments: authorization, authenticity verification, and accountability.
In terms of payment methods, AP2 demonstrates strong inclusiveness and forward-looking design. The protocol supports traditional credit cards, debit cards, and real-time bank transfers,and — crucially — natively supports stablecoins, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies via the A2A x402 extension. Google has established deep partnerships with more than 60 payment and tech companies including Coinbase, the Ethereum Foundation, and MetaMask, creating a comprehensive payment network that spans both traditional finance and the Web3 ecosystem. This design allows AI Agents to seamlessly handle various payment scenarios amid the broader convergence of “equities and tokens.”
The launch of AP2 will significantly expand the application space for AI Agents and accelerate the development of an Agent-to-Agent economy. From automated monitoring and condition-triggered purchases in smart shopping, to autonomous restocking and renewals in enterprise procurement, to 24/7 market monitoring and autonomous trading in investment scenarios, AP2 provides robust infrastructure support for deep agent applications across verticals. More importantly, it marks the shift of AI Agents from simple “tool assistants” to truly “autonomous economic participants,” laying the technical foundation for complex multi-agent commercial ecosystems.
Practical Problems Solved by Agent Payments Protocol (AP2)
Authorization Verification Traditional payment systems are designed under the assumption of “human-initiated actions.” When AI Agents execute payments on behalf of users, merchants and payment platforms cannot confirm whether the transaction has genuine user authorization. AP2 establishes a standardized digital authorization framework through Mandates and VCs, enabling AI Agents to cryptographically prove that their payment actions have explicit user authorization.
Authenticity of Intent Verification There may be deviations when AI Agents interpret and execute user instructions, leading to payments that do not match the user’s true intent. AP2 sets up a rigorous intent verification mechanism through structured authorization conditions (price ranges, time limits, product specifications, etc.) and real-time confirmation workflows, ensuring that every agent-executed payment accurately reflects the user’s genuine purchase intent.
Accountability & Dispute Resolution When an agent-executed payment goes wrong, it is difficult in traditional systems to assign responsibility — does it lie with the user, the agent developer, or the payment platform? AP2 uses a complete chain of digital signatures and auditable transaction records to establish clear accountability and provide a technical basis for dispute resolution and legal recourse.
Cross-Platform Compatibility Different AI Agents, payment platforms, and merchant systems lack a unified payment protocol standard, resulting in high integration complexity and poor compatibility. As an open-source protocol, AP2 provides standardized interface specifications, enabling AI Agents to seamlessly connect with various payment systems — from traditional bank cards to crypto wallets — achieving truly cross-platform payment capabilities.
Bottleneck in Agent Autonomous Execution While today’s AI Agents can complete complex tasks such as information gathering, price comparison, and booking, they still require human intervention at the final payment step, preventing fully autonomous task execution. Through delegated authorization, AP2 allows users to pre-set complex triggers so that an AI Agent can automatically complete payments when conditions are met, enabling truly 24/7 autonomous service.
How Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) Works: A Detailed Look
AP2 adopts a layered architecture with four key components: the Mandates layer for permission management, the Verifiable Credentials (VCs) layer for cryptographic verification, the Payment Gateway layer for transaction processing, and the Audit & Traceability layer for recording the complete operational chain. Built on open-source standards, the protocol supports multiple programming languages and platform integrations and uses standardized APIs to achieve seamless interoperability with existing AI Agent frameworks.
Mandates Authorization Mechanism A Mandate is AP2’s core innovation — essentially a digital “delegated payment contract.” Through Mandates, users grant specific payment permissions to AI Agents, including maximum payment amounts, validity windows, applicable merchant categories, trigger conditions, and other detailed parameters. Each Mandate is cryptographically protected by the user’s digital signature, forming a tamper-resistant authorization credential. Before executing a payment, the AI Agent must verify that the current action meets all conditions set in the Mandate; only if fully matched may it proceed.
Verifiable Credentials (VCs) Technology VCs provide cryptography-level security for the entire payment flow. Every payment request generates a verifiable credential containing transaction details, authorization proof, timestamps, and more, signed using ECDSA. Payment platforms and merchants can independently verify the authenticity and integrity of these credentials without relying on third-party trust. VCs also support zero-knowledge proofs, proving authorization validity while protecting user privacy.
Dual-Mode Operation Real-Time Authorization Mode: After the AI Agent finds an item matching user needs, it pushes a payment confirmation request to the user for real-time confirmation via biometrics, PIN, or digital signature, then executes the payment immediately. The entire process typically completes within 30 seconds, suitable for scenarios requiring direct user participation. Delegated Authorization Mode: Users pre-set complex automation rules, such as “automatically buy 1 BTC when the price falls below $100,000,” or “auto-renew Amazon Prime upon expiry.” The AI Agent continuously monitors markets or system states and executes payments automatically when conditions are met, without requiring the user’s real-time involvement.
Diverse Payment Support Traditional Payments: Through deep integration with traditional giants such as Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal, AP2 supports credit cards, debit cards, and real-time bank transfers. The protocol uses standardized Payment Tokens to ensure sensitive financial data is never exposed to the AI Agent. Cryptocurrency Payments: Via the A2A x402 extension, AP2 natively supports payments in stablecoins (USDC, USDT), Ethereum, Bitcoin, and more. Collaborations with Coinbase, MetaMask, and the Ethereum Foundation ensure compatibility with mainstream Web3 wallets and DeFi protocols. Smart contracts automatically handle on-chain confirmations and escrow.
Security Verification Mechanisms Multi-Factor Identity Verification: Combining device fingerprinting, IP analysis, and behavioral pattern recognition, AP2 establishes a unique digital identity for AI Agents. Each payment must pass multi-factor checks, including agent identity proof, user authorization verification, and transaction compliance screening. Real-Time Risk Control: Machine learning models monitor anomalous patterns in real time, such as frequent small payments, logins from unusual locations, or operations at abnormal times. Upon detecting suspicious activity, the system automatically pauses payment and requests additional verification.
Audit & Traceability System Complete Operational Logs: Every step in the payment flow generates tamper-resistant logs — authorization creation, condition matching, payment execution, result confirmation, and more. These logs are stored using blockchain or distributed ledger technologies to ensure integrity and immutability. Dispute Resolution Mechanism: In the event of disputes, all parties can access the full audit trail — including the original Mandate, execution records, and user confirmation proofs — providing reliable technical support for legal claims, insurance, and compliance reviews.
Application Scenarios
Smart Shopping Assistant In smart shopping, AP2 enables truly automated consumption management. AI Agents can monitor price changes across multiple e-commerce platforms 24/7 and automatically complete purchases when user-preset prices are reached. They can also manage inventory replenishment and limited-time sales, helping users secure optimal prices, avoid missed opportunities, reduce impulse buying, and save significant time.
Automated Investment & Trading In finance, AP2 provides a secure, reliable execution framework for quantitative strategies, DCA plans, and risk management. Strict caps, time windows, and multi-factor verification ensure AI Agents can automatically execute trades based on technical indicators and market signals, while the full audit trail meets financial compliance requirements for precise strategy execution.
Enterprise Procurement Automation AP2 revolutionizes enterprise supply chain management. AI Agents can monitor raw material price fluctuations in real time to purchase at optimal moments and forecast usage to restock office supplies and maintenance parts. This significantly lowers procurement costs and labor inputs, increases efficiency and responsiveness, and optimizes inventory and cash-flow control.
Subscription Service Management With AP2, users can intelligently manage digital service subscriptions. AI Agents automatically decide on renewals, upgrades, or downgrades based on usage and budget, avoiding service interruptions and manual renewals while providing unified payment management for transparent cost control and personalized subscription optimization.
DeFi & Web3 Use Cases In decentralized finance, AP2 leverages Web3’s strengths, supporting AI Agents in automatically reallocating liquidity across DeFi protocols, executing cross-platform arbitrage, and managing NFT investments. Seamless integration with MetaMask, Coinbase, and other mainstream wallets uses blockchain to ensure transaction transparency and immutability.
Everyday Services Automation AP2 extends automated payments into daily life. AI Agents can automatically book transportation based on schedules and preferences, manage food delivery according to dietary habits and budgets, and handle utility payments — reducing repetitive operations and decision fatigue while ensuring continuity and personalization of essential services.
Content & Media Consumption In digital content consumption, AP2 enables intelligent subscription management. AI Agents optimize subscription bundles based on viewing and reading habits, set reasonable in-app purchase limits for games, and automatically purchase learning courses and professional tools — controlling overall spending while ensuring the best-fit content and services.
Integration of Touchpoints with Payment & Settlement Companies
Upgrading Verifiable Payment Infrastructure for Payment Gateways Traditional gateways like Stripe and Adyen face opaque payment intent and high post-facto dispute-handling costs. AP2’s Verifiable Credentials system provides an efficient solution. With cryptographic proofs for every transaction — intent, authorization, and execution — AP2 forms an immutable evidence chain. Gateways can build “zero-dispute payment” services: for merchant-defined conditional payments (e.g., “charge only if shipped within 72 hours of order confirmation”), AP2’s smart contracts automatically verify satisfaction of conditions and generate cryptographic proofs. This enables high-value services based on “payment certainty guarantees,” while significantly reducing customer support and dispute costs.
Intelligent Liquidity Management & FX Optimization for Cross-Border Payments The biggest challenges in cross-border payments are global liquidity allocation and FX risk. AP2’s multi-chain interoperability and intelligent routing provide innovative solutions. Through AP2’s oracle network, platforms can obtain real-time interbank FX rates, central bank policy signals, and geopolitical risk data. AI Agents use this to forecast FX trends and optimize global liquidity pools. For example, if the system predicts the USD will depreciate against the EUR within 24 hours, it automatically converts USD to EUR and pre-position liquidity in Europe. Furthermore, AP2’s conditional payments allow “FX-protection” orders that auto-execute large conversions when target rates are reached.
End-to-End Automation & Predictive Analytics for Enterprise Finance SaaS Financial software like QuickBooks and NetSuite lacks proactive financial decision execution. With AP2’s smart contracts and ML, these platforms can evolve from passive record-keepers to proactive financial assistants. Based on historical financials, industry benchmarks, and macro indicators, AI Agents can forecast cash-flow needs and automatically execute optimizations: apply for credit lines before seasonal crunches, optimize procurement timing/quantity per supplier performance and market prices, and dynamically adjust credit policies by customer payment behavior and creditworthiness. AP2’s auditability ensures a complete evidence trail for all automated decisions, satisfying internal controls and external audits.
Personalized AI Wealth & Spending Optimization for Digital Wallets Mobile payment platforms hold comprehensive spending data but mostly use it for basic convenience. With AP2’s privacy-preserving compute and personalization, these platforms can deliver deep financial services while protecting privacy. Using FHE and zero-knowledge proofs, sensitive data can train and run AI without direct platform access. AI Agents then execute personalized wealth strategies: auto-invest spare change into portfolios aligned with risk preferences; execute preset save-and-invest plans upon payroll; monitor prices of frequently purchased items and auto-order at optimal times.
Zero-Trust Security & Behavioral Biometrics for Payment Safety Traditional risk systems rely on static rules and historical pattern matching, which struggle against evolving fraud. AP2’s zero-trust architecture and continuous authentication provide a new approach. By combining behavioral biometrics (typing rhythm, mouse movement, touch pressure) with transaction context, the system produces a dynamic trust score per transaction. Instead of outright denying suspicious transactions, it adapts verification intensity: low-risk remains frictionless, medium-risk requires extra biometrics, and high-risk triggers MFA and manual review. AP2’s federated learning allows multiple institutions to co-train anti-fraud models without sharing sensitive data, markedly improving industry-wide risk control.
Real-Time Decision Engines & Open Banking for Financial Data Services Under open banking, data aggregators have an opportunity to evolve from data providers to decision services. AP2’s real-time processing and intelligent decisioning enable “real-time financial health monitoring and auto-optimization.” By integrating accounts across banks and institutions, AI Agents monitor users’ financial health and execute optimizations: move excess balances to higher-yield accounts; automatically apply for better credit products if current card APRs exceed market averages; predict cash-flow risks based on spending patterns and income. Privacy-preserving tech ensures data security, while smart-contract execution brings these optimizations to life.
A Compliance Bridge for Digital Currency Infrastructure Stablecoin issuers like Circle and Tether, as well as crypto exchanges, can use AP2 as a bridge between TradFi and digital assets. With AP2’s multi-currency support and smart-contract capabilities, institutions can offer automated digital-asset allocation and risk management services while leveraging AP2’s compliance framework to meet regulatory requirements — advancing enterprise payment adoption of digital currencies.
Conclusion
The release of Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) heralds a new era of AI-driven intelligent transformation in payments and settlement. Through the Mandates mechanism and Verifiable Credentials, AP2 not only solves the core technical challenges of autonomous payments by AI Agents, but also offers traditional payment firms a historic opportunity to transform from transaction processors into intelligent financial service platforms. From zero-dispute services for gateways and intelligent liquidity for cross-border payments, to end-to-end automation for enterprise finance SaaS and personalized AI wealth management for digital wallets, AP2 injects intelligence into every link of the payment ecosystem — driving a fundamental shift from passive response to proactive prediction, and from per-transaction pricing to value-based pricing. As Google collaborates with 60+ companies to build the AP2 ecosystem, a new payment and settlement system driven by AI Agents is taking shape. This is not only an innovation in technical protocol, but also critical infrastructure for the AI Agent economy — set to redefine the future trajectory and competitive landscape of the payments industry.
Sector Performance
According to weekly returns, the GameFi sector performed the best, while the DeFi sector performed the worst.
- GameFi sector: Within GameFi, IMX, SAND, GALA, MANA, and BEAM have large weights, with a combined share of 75.78%. Their weekly gains were 51.52%, 4.16%, 6.18%, 7.79%, and 1.16%, respectively. It can be seen that most GameFi tokens rose more than those in other sectors, making GameFi the best performer.
- DeFi sector: Within DeFi, LINK, UNI, ENA, AAVE, and ONDO have large weights, with a combined share of 85.49%. Their weekly declines were 3.12%, -3.69%, -7.85%, -3.61%, and 2.41%, respectively. It can be seen that most DeFi tokens fell more than those in other sectors, making DeFi the worst performer.
Next Week’s Major Crypto Events
- Monday (September 22): Korea Blockchain Week 2025
- Thursday (September 25): U.S. Q2 Real GDP (annualized, final); U.S. Initial Jobless Claims for the week ending September 20
- Friday (September 26): U.S. August Core PCE Price Index (YoY); U.S. September University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index (final)
Summary
This week, the cryptocurrency market showed a choppy upward trend: BTC moved higher, while ETH remained range-bound. The market sentiment index edged up from 74% last week to 75%, essentially unchanged and still in a bullish zone. The stablecoin market showed synchronized growth: USDT market cap rose 1.06% to $171.2B, continuing a strong $1.8B increase and indicating sustained inflows mainly from non-U.S. investors; USDC market cap rose 1.52% to $73.3B, ending last week’s decline and achieving growth of over $1B, reflecting a positive signal of U.S. investors re-entering.
Google’s release of the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) was the most important industry event of the week. Through the Mandates authorization mechanism and Verifiable Credentials technology, AP2 fundamentally solves the core technical challenges of autonomous payments by AI Agents, marking the official entry of the payments and settlement industry into an AI-driven era of intelligent transformation. AP2 not only fills the “last mile” of autonomous execution for AI Agents, but also offers traditional payment companies a historic opportunity to transform from transaction processors into intelligent financial service platforms. From zero-dispute services for payment gateways to intelligent liquidity management for cross-border payments, from end-to-end automation for enterprise finance SaaS to personalized AI wealth management for digital wallets, AP2 injects intelligence into every link of the payment ecosystem — driving a fundamental business-model shift from passive response to proactive prediction and from per-transaction pricing to value-based pricing. As Google joins with more than 60 companies to build the AP2 ecosystem, a new AI Agent–driven payment and settlement system is taking shape, one that will redefine the industry’s future trajectory and competitive landscape.
Next week, Fed policy expectations and macro data will be a key dividing line for market sentiment. Although this week’s 25bp rate cut met expectations, divergences in the longer-term rate-cut path shown by the dot plot still need to be digested. More importantly, the Fed’s shift in focus toward employment data makes labor market indicators the key variables shaping monetary policy expectations. Against the backdrop of steadily recovering but uncertain institutional buying power, next week’s U.S. August Core PCE and employment data will directly influence market direction. Investors should closely track macro data changes and institutional fund flows. In this critical period of partial policy realization and data-driven tug-of-war, they should both seize the positive signals from synchronized stablecoin growth and guard against risk-off sentiment if data underperforms expectations, preparing adequately for potential two-way volatility.