U.S. equities finished higher, according to data from MSX.COM, with all three major indexes ending the session in positive territory. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.61%, the S&P 500 gained 1.14%, and the Nasdaq climbed 1.69%. The VIX volatility index, often tracked as a fear gauge, fell 10.23% by the close. AI-related stocks posted broad gains. Tempus AI led the group with a 14.85% rise. Super Micro Computer added 9.5%, Astera Labs advanced 9.06%, Arm gained 8.57%, and Ambarella rose 6.6%. Odaily also noted that MSX is a major RWA trading platform. The platform has listed hundreds of RWA tokens tied to popular U.S. stocks and ETF underlyings, including Nvidia, GOOGL, MSFT, AMZN, META, TSM, and AMD. The figures cited in the report were attributed to MSX.COM data.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved an "innovation exemption" that creates a temporary, conditional route for on-chain trading of certain tokenized NMS stocks, with SEC Chair Paul S. Atkins laying out four core requirements. Those include U.S.-based venues, permissioned access, a ban on synthetic tokenized equities, and an issuer opt-out right backed by a 30-day notice process. The agency also said token holders must receive rights equivalent to those attached to traditional securities, including dividends and voting rights. Elsewhere, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $159 million in net inflows on Sept. 17, according to SoSoValue. BlackRock's IBIT was the only fund with net inflows, adding $184 million, while Fidelity's FBTC saw the largest daily outflow at $16.6386 million. Total net assets across spot Bitcoin ETFs stood at $96.247 billion, with a net asset ratio of 6.26% and cumulative historical net inflows reaching $54.728 billion. The day also brought a wide set of market and project updates: a Bitcoin whale moved 1,651.82 BTC to Kraken, Hyperliquid launched manual borrowing against HYPE and BTC, Across Protocol began its transition to AcrossCo with ACX set to lose all functions after Jan. 8, 2027, and Nostra paused lending after an oracle manipulation incident on Starknet.

Sentiment around artificial intelligence has shifted sharply over the past 10 days, according to a translated commentary by Bret Jensen published by TechFlow. The piece argues that a wave of public calls to slow AI development — from a former OpenAI safety employee, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Microsoft CEO, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk — may reflect more than safety concerns. Jensen points to two possible motives behind the regulatory push: an attempt by leading AI labs to shape a costly federal compliance regime that smaller rivals cannot afford, and a broader effort to build expectations for a federal backstop if the sector runs into trouble. The article also highlights mounting financial pressure across the AI infrastructure buildout. It says five hyperscale cloud providers now carry about $3 trillion in off-balance-sheet liabilities and more than $1.3 trillion in on-balance-sheet debt, while free cash flow has deteriorated. Oracle posted negative free cash flow of $23.7 billion in FY2026, and Alphabet reported negative free cash flow of $5.9 billion in the second quarter, its first negative quarterly figure since going public in 2004. Against that backdrop, Anthropic’s planned IPO at roughly a $2 trillion valuation, expected within the next one to two months, is framed as one of the most important market events for the rest of 2026.

Markets headed into the Federal Reserve decision with rate expectations already leaning hawkish, while a failed procedural vote on the CLARITY Act added another layer of uncertainty for crypto-related stocks. The Fed is scheduled to release its rate decision and Summary of Economic Projections at 02:00 Beijing time on Sept. 17, followed by a press conference at 02:30. Bloomberg reported on Sept. 15 that interest-rate swaps tied to the meeting had largely priced in a 25-basis-point hike, which would lift the federal funds target range to 3.75%-4.00% if delivered. At the same time, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia had canceled some September crude cargoes for European customers and that loadings at Yanbu had been suspended, pushing Brent crude futures to about $108.16 a barrel. In Washington, the U.S. Senate failed to advance debate on H.R.3633, the CLARITY Act, by a 49-50 vote. The measure was procedural rather than a final rejection of the bill, but it extended uncertainty around digital-asset classification and the division of oversight between the SEC and CFTC. Crypto prices and related equities weakened. BTC traded near 75,805.01 USDT, down 2.69% over 24 hours, while ETH fell 4.48% to about 2,400.93 USDT. Coinbase closed at $172.11, down 10.10%, and Circle fell 11.41%.

Anthropic is facing a widening backlash after CEO Dario Amodei argued in his Sept. 12 essay, “We Must Pace the Frontier,” that frontier AI development should slow so safety research, interpretability work and regulation can keep up. The reaction has gone well beyond disagreement over policy. Investor Michael Burry publicly attacked recent calls from Anthropic and OpenAI to put the brakes on AI, calling the message “self-serving” and arguing that an industry-wide slowdown would most benefit the companies already in front. He also tied the rhetoric to IPO storytelling, saying claims that a company is so powerful it could become dangerous can serve as a promotional frame. The criticism deepened after U.S. commentator Kevin Bass mapped what he described as an “AI Doom Machine”: overlapping links between Anthropic backers, philanthropy, AI safety organizations, third-party model evaluators and media projects focused on AI risk. Bass questioned whether evaluator independence is credible when those institutions share funding ecosystems, while also arguing that Anthropic’s rising valuation could feed more money back into the same safety narrative and regulatory push. The debate is landing as Reuters reports Anthropic is preparing a potentially record-setting IPO of up to $100 billion at roughly a $2 trillion valuation, with Nvidia discussing an investment of up to $10 billion. The Wall Street Journal separately reported that Anthropic may pitch investors on a total addressable market above $30 trillion, even as the company has committed more than $100 billion over 10 years to Amazon cloud services and has a roughly $30 billion Microsoft Azure partnership.

The U.S. Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act after the measure drew only 49 votes, well short of the 60 needed to move legislation forward. According to CoinDesk, negotiations broke down over ethics restrictions tied to President Donald Trump’s crypto holdings, with Democrats arguing the bill did not do enough to prevent senior officials from profiting from personal digital asset positions, while Republicans said they had already made major concessions. Binance, meanwhile, said its commodity-linked TradFi perpetual contracts would move to a 24/5 trading schedule starting Sept. 16 at 05:00 Beijing time, ending the previous one-hour daily maintenance pause. The change covers XAUUSDT, XAGUSDT, XPTUSDT, XPDUSDT, COPPERUSDT, CLUSDT, BZUSDT and NATGASUSDT, as well as future contracts in the same category. On-chain trackers also flagged several notable transfers. Onchain Lens said Multicoin Capital moved 441,000 HYPE, worth about $35.31 million, from four wallets to Coinbase Prime over the past six hours, a transaction interpreted as a possible pre-sale move. Lookonchain reported that BIT deposited 1,400 BTC to Binance and withdrew 10,000 ETH, while Lazarus Group sold 911 ETH over the past two hours at an average price of $2,499.

U.S. equities finished lower, according to data from MSX.COM, with all three major indexes ending the session in negative territory. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.63%, the S&P 500 lost 0.45%, and the Nasdaq dropped 0.78%. The VIX volatility index, often tracked as a fear gauge, rose 0.58%. AI-related stocks were broadly weaker at the close. SoundHound AI posted the largest decline among the names listed, falling 4.95%. Synopsys was down 3.6%, Oracle lost 3.07%, Super Micro Computer slipped 2.99%, and Adobe declined 2.95%. The report also noted that MSX is a major RWA trading platform. According to the platform information cited, it has listed hundreds of RWA tokens tied to popular U.S. stocks and ETF underlyings, including NVIDIA, GOOGL, MSFT, AMZN, META, TSM, and AMD.

Protos reported on a widely circulated thread accusing Anthropic of financial conflicts tied to its outside AI safety evaluator, Model Evaluation and Threat Research, or METR. The allegations were laid out by Substack writer Kevin Bass in a lengthy X post on Monday, where he called for a Congressional investigation and linked Dustin Moskovitz’s Anthropic equity to nonprofit funding that he said ultimately supports METR and the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism. The post has drawn nearly 5 million views, though Protos said it has not verified the claims. The report centers on relationships involving Anthropic, METR, Good Ventures Foundation, Coefficient Giving, and Tarbell. It also notes recent comments from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on using “embedded evaluators” with employee-like access to review safety practices. Protos contrasted that narrative with Bass’ claim that the funding structure creates overlapping incentives. The piece cites Forbes reporting on Moskovitz and Cari Tuna moving an Anthropic stake into a nonprofit vehicle in early 2025, estimates of the holding’s value, METR’s disclosed funding commitments, Good Ventures’ reported assets, and statements from Moskovitz, Coefficient Giving CEO Alexander Berger, Tarbell, and METR.