September 2026 Update

📈 Market Update: We’re so back?

Disclaimer: Not financial advice.

August’s Monthly Closes:

BTC: 25.1%, ETH: 32.4%, SOL: 41.4%, SUI: 6.6%, MON: 27.7%

While this month’s crypto rally was kicked off by macro news unrelated to crypto, it still proves that there is pent-up bullishness and FOMO in the crypto markets. While the four year cycle would have anticipated another 1-2 months of bear, we’re within the rough timing band for the start of a new cycle.

Am I saying a new cycle has started? No. Am I saying the bear market will continue? Also no.

The only thing I can definitively point to is the comeback of liquidations, as evidenced on August 22nd, with a >10% drops in alts like SOL and SUI in less than 10 minutes. As always, those trading with leverage will be wiped out, even in upward trending markets.

⚖️ Solana’s Big Governance Vote

We voted on Solana’s latest governance proposals, which aimed to formalize on-chain governance, accelerate disinflation, and introduce a burn mechanism for transaction fees.

While we voted against disinflation, I don’t mind seeing it pass. I think SOL holders and stakers (not necessarily validators) have proven their desire to reduce inflation.

🇷🇸 Solana Summit Serbia

I’m back from the Solana Summit Serbia, in Belgrade. Having missed the previous Summit in my hometown of Berlin, I figured a quick trip to Belgrade would be a good opportunity to gauge the latest vibes and reconnect with my friends from Superteam Balkan, Solbound, and 4PTO Labs.

I was also happy to finally visit the StartIt hub, Belgrade’s version of our beloved Web3 Hub in Berlin, whose history goes back 10 years. A fireside chat with founders including SolFlare’s Vidor brought the excitement of the larger conference back to earth for a humble, inspiring conversation.

🤖 The Vibe Coding Continues…

Market research and visualization tools, alerting improvements, and ongoing accounting improvements are some of the areas where I’ve been building, despite Cursor’s new limits on Claude model usage. I guess Grok is my new best friend. In all seriousness, though, I am finding that creativity and time are the only limiting factors when it comes to improving internal tooling and processes using vibe coding. My arc continues.

I hope you’re able to look back at the summer and say that you made the most of it. With vacations finished in August, it’s almost time to lock back in. Feeling refreshed? Are you ready?

All the best,

-Max Sherwood, H2O Nodes co-founder