Investors screening the market for the best crypto to buy have increasingly come to view idle Bitcoin as a problem to be solved rather than an asset simply to be held. While a brand-new BTC Layer 2 prepares for launch with the aim of enabling a wide range of Bitcoin use cases, spot Bitcoin has climbed back above $78,000, notching a 1.68% gain over 24 hours, and the wider market has added 1.84% to reach $2.68 trillion. The Fear and Greed gauge reads 67, a “Greed” print, while crypto ETFs have taken in $119.35 million over the past day.

Short liquidations of $216.25 million have dwarfed the $53.2 million recorded on the long side, an indication that the market's bounce has forced short positions to close. September is typically Bitcoin's weakest month, but even so the asset is down only 0.73% over the past two-and-a-half weeks, and it has achieved an unexpected recovery after the Federal Reserve delivered its first US rate increase in more than three years.

That firm Bitcoin bid has kept money moving into token sales for new BTC-related products, where buyers can lock in a known price while listed markets digest policy headlines. Bitcoin Hyper (HYPER) is building a Bitcoin-based Layer 2 that will process BTC through the Solana Virtual Machine and settle state back to the base chain. The HYPER sale has raised roughly $33.14 million as its L2 network prepares for a late-2026 mainnet launch.

Bitcoin Holds Near $78,000 After Fed Rate Increase

Bitcoin has spent the week absorbing a cluster of policy, but the leading cryptocurrency has still printed three consecutive daily candles. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve raised its target range by 25 basis points to 3.75%–4.00%, the first increase since July 2023. A day earlier, on Tuesday, the US Senate failed to advance the Clarity Act, drawing 49 votes in favor rather than the 60 required.

Both events would ordinarily weigh on risk assets, yet Bitcoin has managed to return to the $78,000 area it held before those decisions. A separate policy move has given traders a reason to stay active on digital-asset rails: the SEC has issued a five-year exemption allowing qualifying venues to trade tokenized US stocks through permissioned automated market makers. Traders have treated that order as support for on-chain market structures, and BTC, ETH, and SOL have all advanced over subsequent sessions. ETH is changing hands at $2,500, up 1.6% on the day, while Solana trades at roughly $106, up 5%.

Bitcoin's relative strength against traditional finance equities has improved as well. Analyst Daan Crypto took an unorthodox approach by examining the weekly chart of Bitcoin priced against the S\u0026P 500, noting that BTC could outperform the US stock market through 2027 under optimal conditions.

$BTC Has retaken its Summer 2024 lows against the S\u0026P 500. Especially that week that made crypto move was one where it gained back a lot of ground. Now it is key it can hold on to this area and keep the outperformance going. pic.twitter.com/WKWbChXU5W

— Daan Crypto Trades (@DaanCrypto) September 18, 2026 (source on X)

Regardless of whether Bitcoin can maintain its advantage over stocks, more capital will still seek ways to put BTC to work as long as prices hold steady — a dynamic that has kept Bitcoin Hyper's presale inflows running.

Bitcoin Hyper Presale Crosses $33 Million Ahead of Layer 2 Launch

Bitcoin Hyper (HYPER) is a Layer 2 network that enables users to move BTC through a canonical bridge, receive an equivalent balance on the faster chain, and send it with near-instant finality and low fees. A Bitcoin Relay program verifies block headers and transaction proofs before minting the user's balance on the Layer 2. Batches are then compressed, checked with zero-knowledge proofs, and committed back to Bitcoin, so the base chain remains the settlement layer. This design separates transaction execution on the faster network from final state settlement on Bitcoin, according to the project's stated architecture.

Execution runs on the Solana Virtual Machine, which lets developers ship payment tools, trading venues, and other applications that Bitcoin's base chain cannot run at speed. HYPER is the native token for gas, staking, and later governance through a DAO planned for 2027. Total supply is fixed at 21 billion tokens, split 30% to development, 25% to treasury, 20% to marketing, 15% to rewards, and 10% to listings.

The project has also been working to improve network visibility. According to the team, better observability helps it track performance, understand transaction flows, identify issues earlier, and refine the ecosystem as it grows.

Bitcoin Hyper is improving network visibility. Better observability helps the team track performance, understand transaction flows, identify issues earlier, and refine the ecosystem as it grows. Read the full article pic.twitter.com/J6vKOUg1VP

— Bitcoin Hyper (@BTC_Hyper2) September 15, 2026 (source on X)

The public HYPER presale opened at $0.0115 and now prices the token at $0.0136864. Funds raised have reached $33.14 million, close to the current stage target of about $33.57 million. Buyers can stake from the point of purchase at a 35% APY.

Bitcoin Hyper's mainnet, the bridge, and the first decentralized applications are scheduled for later in 2026, with an initial listing price of $0.0137 per HYPER. As the project's most important deadlines approach, the sale has continued to attract bids through the market's swings this year.

HYPER's $33 Million Raise and 35% Staking APY Keep Early Buyers Active

The same market-wide move that lifted Bitcoin 1.68% on the day has shown up in Bitcoin Hyper's presale figures. A $33.14 million raise at $0.0136864 per token leaves only a thin gap to the $0.0137 listing price the project has set for HYPER's public market debut, and the raise sits roughly $430,000 short of the current stage target. Staking at 35% APY means tokens purchased now can add to balances before that listing and before the Layer 2 starts charging gas in HYPER.

The project's stated thesis is that its new chain will give BTC a high-throughput execution layer without leaving the Layer 1's fundamental security model. The team argues that Bitcoin's resilience through a Federal Open Market Committee rate increase and a failed market-structure vote in the Senate, combined with continued demand for faster rails for the coins holders already own, has supported the sale. With more than $33 million already committed and the L2's mainnet still on the 2026 roadmap, the HYPER presale remains in focus for observers tracking Bitcoin infrastructure developments.

This is based on a press release published on icobench.com.