Solana and Terra Soar, Equities Advance Following Fed’s Taper Talk: Markets Wrap

Investors allocated capital towards more inflation-sensitive sectors of the market after Chair Powell reassured that inflation is transitory during the virtual meeting.

article-image

Shutterstock

share
  • S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite neared all-time highs following Jerome Powell’s virtual speech.
  • SOL and LUNA surged on Friday, rising 13.79% and 15.75%, according to Messari.

Major US stocks rose after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that tapering may begin this year during his address at the Jackson Hole economic conference.

Powell said that the central bank may start to scale back its $120 billion per month asset purchases this year but did not give a clear timeline on when it would begin.

Following the virtual speech, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite neared all-time highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average made gains, climbing about 0.7% on-day. All major Wall Street gauges closed ahead.

Investors allocated capital toward more inflation-sensitive sectors of the market after Powell reiterated his view that inflation is transitory during his speech.

Equities

  • The Dow advanced 0.69% to 35,454.
  • S&P 500 climbed 0.88% to 4,509.
  • Nasdaq increased 1.23% to 15,129.

Insight

“The market is taking Powell as slightly dovish, and then it seemed a bit confusing because he did say that the Fed is going to taper QE starting this year, but we always expected that,” Tom Essaye, founder of Sevens Report Research told Blockworks earlier today. “That’s what everybody’s expected and priced in, instead what Powell did was spend most of his speech pushing back on the idea that inflation is a problem.”

Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday. Source: TradingView

Solana (SOL) and Terra (LUNA) soared on Friday, rising 13.79% and 15.75%, according to Messari. LUNA is trading at $31.42 and has a return on investment (ROI) of 186.52% in the last month. 

Solana’s recent surge in prices follows billowing demand for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Solana’s network is used to mint popular NFTs such as the “Degenerate Ape Academy”, raising $2.5 million after the digital collectibles first sold out. Solana is trading at $85.74.

Bitcoin and ethereum rose on Friday too, gaining 3% and 4%, as of press time.

DeFi

  • Uniswap (UNI) is trading at $27.14 with a total value locked of $4,827,246,343 advancing 6.3% in 24 hours at 4:00 pm ET. 
  • Chainlink (LINK) is trading at $25.61, advancing 4.2% with trading volume at $1,126,149,509 in 24 hours at 4:00 pm ET.
  • DeFi:ETH is 33.1% at 4:00 pm ET.

Crypto

  • Bitcoin is trading around $48,394.06, up 2.86% in 24 hours at 4:00 pm ET.
  • Ether is trading around $3,233.24, advancing 3.67% in 24 hours at 4:00 pm ET.
  • ETH:BTC is at 0.066, up 1.22% at 4:00 pm ET.
  • VIX fell 12.74% to 16.45 at 4:00 pm ET.

Currencies

  • The US dollar fell -0.41%, according to the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index.

Commodities

  • Brent crude jumped to $72.6 per barrel, up 2.15%.
  • Gold advanced 1.45% to $1,821.3.

Fixed Income

  • US 10-year treasury yields 1.305% as of 4:00 pm ET.

In other news…

In an exclusive with Blockworks, Visa’s Head of Crypto Cuy Sheffield said that the payment processor will continue to buy more NFTs after announcing their first purchase Monday of CryptoPunk #7610. Digital asset bank Anchorage Digital facilitated the purchase which was worth $150,000 in ethereum.

“We plan to continue adding additional NFTs to our collection with the goal of supporting the diverse group of artists and creators working in this space,” Sheffield said.

That’s it for today’s markets wrap. I’ll see you back here on Monday.

Want more investor-focused content on digital assets? Join us September 13th and 14th for the Digital Asset Summit (DAS) in NYC. Use code ARTICLE for $75 off your ticket. Buy it now.

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 24 - 26, 2026

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates (27).png

Research

Solana's spot trading landscape will remain bifurcated: prop AMMs will own the short-tail of highly liquid pairs, while passive AMMs continue drifting toward the long-tail. Both can win via vertical integration, but in opposite directions: passive AMMs are moving closer to users through token issuance platforms (e.g., Pump-PumpSwap, MetaDAO-Futarchy AMM), while prop AMMs are moving down the stack into transaction landing services and infrastructure (e.g., HumidiFi-Nozomi). The venues most at risk are legacy AMMs with limited end-user control and no durable, launch-driven source of order flow.

article-image

BTC finished the week up 1.6%, while L2s, RWAs and the treasury trade continued to grind lower

article-image

DTCC moves DTC-custodied Treasuries onchain via Canton, while Lighter’s LIT launches trading at a fees multiple in Hyperliquid territory

article-image

In the 90s, rapt audiences worldwide watched a coffee pot — will that fascination ever turn to crypto?

article-image

Some systems improve by failing — and crypto has no choice

article-image

Yield Basis introduces an IL-free AMM design that already dominates BTC DEX liquidity

article-image

Maybe tokenholders don’t need the rights that corporate shareholders have come to expect

Newsletter

The Breakdown

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Blockworks Research

Unlock crypto's most powerful research platform.

Our research packs a punch and gives you actionable takeaways for each topic.

SubscribeGet in touch

Blockworks Inc.

133 W 19th St., New York, NY 10011

Blockworks Network

NewsPodcastsNewslettersEventsRoundtablesAnalytics