Crypto News Today: Fed Decision Looms, Zcash’s Ironwood Activates Successfully, Morgan Stanley Launches ETH ETF

Last Updated: July 29, 2026

Today’s Top Stories

• Federal Reserve rate decision lands today, with real hike odds. Prediction markets are pricing a genuine 20-25% chance of a surprise 25-basis-point hike — the highest odds of a hike this cycle — alongside an 80% base case for a hold. Some analysts call this the hardest Fed meeting to predict in years.
• Zcash’s Ironwood upgrade activates successfully. The NU6.3 upgrade went live July 28 at block height 3,428,143, permanently closing the vulnerable Orchard shielded pool and introducing a new, formally verified pool. Roughly 3.6 million ZEC remained in Orchard at the moment of the switch, with wallet providers rolling out migration tools.
• Morgan Stanley launches low-fee ETH and SOL ETFs. The new funds debuted on NYSE Arca yesterday with a 0.14% fee, the lowest of any comparable fund, staking underlying holdings and passing rewards to investors.
• Bitcoin shows signs of decoupling from AI-linked equities. BTC climbed even as SK Hynix fell 17% despite a 557% profit beat, the second time in a week Bitcoin has held up through a sharp tech-stock rout tied to reassessed AI infrastructure demand.
• GDP and PCE inflation data due later this week. Second-quarter GDP and the PCE inflation gauge follow the Fed’s decision, alongside earnings from Coinbase, Strategy, and Robinhood — a dense run of catalysts through Friday.
• Flare Smart Accounts simplifies XRP-to-DeFi onboarding. The update cuts the process down to a single XRP Ledger signature, adding a new wallet integration and a second yield vault.
• Telegram founder Pavel Durov charged by Russia’s FSB. Russia’s Federal Security Service charged Durov with aiding terrorist activity over the platform’s alleged failure to remove content used to coordinate attacks, adding him to an international wanted list.

Market Snapshot

The crypto market is broadly higher today, with Bitcoin up 1.63% to $64,478.57 and XRP leading gains among majors at +3.00%. Full price breakdown: crypto market today.

Regulatory Watch

The CLARITY Act remains shelved in the Senate behind a Russia sanctions bill, with a vote unlikely before the August recess. Today’s Fed decision is the more immediate regulatory-adjacent catalyst for markets broadly, given the unusually high uncertainty around today’s outcome — the first time this cycle a rate hike has carried real, non-trivial odds rather than being dismissed outright by prediction markets.

For asset-specific coverage, see Bitcoin news today, Ethereum news today, XRP news today, Dogecoin’s price page, Zcash news today, and HBAR news today.