The crypto market enters the final week of September with several macroeconomic and industry events scheduled between September 28 and October 4. The calendar includes the U.S. JOLTS job-openings report, August PCE inflation data, the September employment report, Korea Blockchain Week, Base’s Cobalt upgrade and several large token unlocks.
The macro sequence follows the Federal Reserve’s September 16 decision to raise the federal funds target range to 3.75%–4.00%. The upcoming inflation and labor data will therefore provide additional information on the U.S. economy after that decision rather than determine the September rate move itself.
On the supply side, Hyperliquid’s HYPE unlock is the week’s larger scheduled release by dollar value, while DoubleZero’s 2Z unlock is much larger relative to its circulating supply. Scheduled unlocks represent tokens becoming available under vesting schedules; they do not necessarily mean those tokens will immediately be sold or transferred to exchanges.
The macro calendar: JOLTS, PCE and the jobs report
The week’s major U.S. economic releases are concentrated between Tuesday and Friday.
Tuesday, September 29
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for August is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ release schedule. The July report showed job openings at 7.2 million after a downward revision, while the August release is scheduled for September 29.
The day also includes the Conference Board’s September consumer-confidence reading and the Case-Shiller home-price index. Australia’s central bank is also scheduled to announce its monetary-policy decision.
Wednesday, September 30
August Personal Income and Outlays, including the PCE price index, is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. ET. The same release window includes the third estimate of second-quarter GDP. The Bureau of Economic Analysis currently lists both releases for September 30 at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The previous GDP estimate showed 1.5% annualized real GDP growth for the second quarter, according to the BEA’s second GDP estimate.
The PCE report is particularly relevant to monetary-policy expectations because the PCE price index is the inflation measure targeted by the Federal Reserve. July’s PCE inflation was 3.7% year over year, while core PCE was 3.3%, according to the BEA’s PCE data.
Wednesday also brings ADP private payrolls at 8:15 a.m. ET and the September ISM Manufacturing report is due later in the week.
One additional factor matters when comparing the new GDP and PCE figures with earlier releases: the BEA’s 2026 annual update begins on September 30 and will revise a range of historical economic data. The BEA’s annual-update notice says the update covers data from the first quarter of 2021 through the first quarter of 2026 and includes methodological improvements affecting inflation-adjusted consumer spending and the PCE price index.
Thursday, October 1
The ISM Manufacturing Index for September is scheduled for release, alongside weekly U.S. jobless claims. China’s National Day holiday also begins October 1, with the Golden Week holiday period running into the following week.
Friday, October 2
The week’s labor-market focus culminates with the September Employment Situation report at 8:30 a.m. ET, according to the BLS release calendar. The August report showed 162,000 nonfarm payroll jobs added and an unemployment rate of 4.1%, according to the BLS.
Factory orders are due later Friday, while eurozone inflation data will also be monitored by global markets.
For crypto markets, the key issue is how the incoming inflation and labor data affect expectations for future Federal Reserve policy. A stronger-than-expected inflation or labor reading can reinforce expectations for restrictive policy, while weaker data can produce the opposite interpretation. The Crypto Times does not forecast the data or its market reaction.
Korea Blockchain Week anchors the industry calendar
Korea Blockchain Week 2026 is scheduled around Seoul’s Walkerhill Hotels & Resorts, with the wider event calendar beginning September 29 and the main conference running September 30 to October 1, according to the official KBW 2026 event calendar.
The event’s schedule includes partner and ecosystem gatherings around the main conference, making Seoul one of the week’s main locations for announcements involving crypto infrastructure, partnerships, products and digital-asset markets.
Elsewhere, Sibos 2026 is taking place in Miami Beach through October 1, while the Bitcoin Treasuries Conference is scheduled in New York on September 28–29. The Wyoming Blockchain Stampede runs in Laramie through September 30, and the Dark Prague privacy conference begins October 2.
CoinEx is also scheduled to continue its wind-down this week, with spot trading ending September 29. Its remaining withdrawal period extends into December.
Base prepares for the Cobalt upgrade
Base is scheduled to activate its Cobalt upgrade on mainnet at 18:00 UTC on Wednesday, September 30. Base’s official status page says mainnet node operators must run version 1.4.2 or later. The Sepolia testnet activation took place on September 23.
Cobalt includes changes to Base’s B20 token standard, including support for paying transaction fees in B20 tokens, as well as validity transactions that allow transactions to remain pending until specified on-chain conditions are satisfied. Base’s developer documentation describes validity transactions as conditional transactions that can use state and block-number conditions before inclusion.
The upgrade also includes work on a dynamic upgrade registry. That mechanism is being introduced in metrics-only mode, rather than replacing the existing compiled activation schedule at this stage.
One important correction for node operators is the software requirement: Base mainnet requires v1.4.2 or later, rather than v1.4.1. The Cobalt upgrade also does not include the native account-abstraction work previously associated with EIP-8130.
Token unlocks: HYPE and 2Z lead the schedule
Token unlocks can increase the amount of an asset available to holders, but the scheduled amount should not automatically be treated as expected selling pressure. Tokens can remain in wallets or be transferred without being sold.
Hyperliquid’s HYPE has a scheduled unlock on September 29. Tokenomics currently lists approximately 14.18 million HYPE, equivalent to about 1.4% of total supply and 2.7% of market capitalization, with an estimated value of roughly $1.3 billion at current prices. The tracker says its data has been verified by the Hyperliquid team.
The exact dollar value will change with HYPE’s market price, so the token count is the more stable way to describe the scheduled release.
DoubleZero’s 2Z has a larger proportional supply event scheduled for October 2. Recent estimates put the release at roughly 1.63 billion to 1.66 billion 2Z, representing about 47% of circulating supply. Recent token-unlock reporting estimates approximately 1.66 billion tokens.
The difference between the two events is therefore primarily one of scale relative to existing circulation: HYPE represents a large dollar-value unlock, while 2Z represents a substantially larger increase relative to its current circulating supply.
Other scheduled releases during the week include Kamino (KMNO), Collector Crypt (CARDS), Sui (SUI), EigenCloud (EIGEN), Ethena (ENA), and Falcon Finance (FF).
The bottom line
The week combines three different sources of potential market information: U.S. inflation and labor data, crypto-industry events and protocol/supply developments.
The macro calendar is led by Wednesday’s PCE and Friday’s employment report following the Federal Reserve’s September rate increase. Korea Blockchain Week brings the main concentration of crypto-industry events, while Base’s Cobalt upgrade provides a defined protocol milestone.
On the supply side, HYPE’s September 29 unlock is notable for its dollar value, while DoubleZero’s October 2 release is notable for its size relative to circulating supply. Neither scheduled unlock establishes that holders will sell the newly available tokens.
Looking ahead, Ethereum’s Glamsterdam reaches Sepolia on October 6, TOKEN2049 Singapore follows on October 7–8, and the next Federal Reserve meeting is scheduled for October 27–28.
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