Bitcoin climbed back above $80,000 on Thursday for the first time in nearly a week, and the ETF tape followed: spot bitcoin funds took in $433 million on Friday, the second-highest daily inflow of September, led by Fidelity’s FBTC at $310.7 million and BlackRock’s IBIT at $108.4 million. The rally shook off a bruising Washington week that had pushed funds into their worst stretch of the year.
A round trip in five sessions
The week’s ledger tells the story. Bitcoin ETFs opened Monday with $160 million of inflows. On Tuesday the Senate rejected cloture on the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act by a 49-50 vote, and bitcoin funds lost $450.3 million that session, their worst of the week. On Wednesday the Federal Reserve raised rates 25 basis points to a range of 3.75 to 4 percent, its first increase since 2023, and another $296 million left.
Thursday flipped. Friday’s $433 million recovered the $746 million lost across the two policy sessions. The weekly total landed at just $6.2 million, the smallest absolute figure in 141 weeks of trading, which is a polite way of saying the week ended flat after a violent round trip.
Cumulative net inflows across the complex now stand at $55.16 billion, with total net assets at $102.53 billion, about 6.29 percent of bitcoin’s market cap. Bitcoin traded near $81,000 after a 4.6 percent intraday surge, with ether at $2,625 and the global crypto market cap back to $2.88 trillion.
Zcash is eating the tape
The strangest number of the week sits in a fund that launched less than a month ago. Grayscale’s Zcash ETF, ZCSH, recorded $11.42 billion in trading volume for the week ending September 18, a full 32.5 percent of all spot crypto ETF turnover. Its inflows hit $98.2 million, the largest of any of the 14 crypto products tracked.
ZCSH listed on NYSE Arca on August 25 and now holds 596,268 ZEC, about 3.52 percent of Zcash’s circulating supply, up 28.4 percent entirely through in-kind deposits from authorized participants. DCG International Investments deposited roughly 85,705 ZEC worth around $100 million on September 8. Net assets sit near $914 million.
The token’s run explains the frenzy. ZEC traded above $1,500 on Friday, up roughly 2,800 percent over the past year, boosted by a disclosed purchase from Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang. Grayscale filed for a 3-for-1 forward share split, effective after the close on September 28, with split-adjusted trading starting September 30. The split does not change the fund’s value; it just lowers the per-share price so smaller accounts can buy in. Coinbase Custody holds the coins and the fund carries a 2.5 percent annual fee, roughly ten times what a spot bitcoin ETF charges.
| Fund | Weekly flow | Net assets |
|---|---|---|
| Zcash (ZCSH) | +$98.2M | $914.5M |
| Solana ETFs | +$13.2M | $1.62B |
| XRP ETFs | +$9.6M | $1.51B |
| Bitcoin ETFs | +$6.2M | $102.5B |
| Ethereum ETFs | -$140M | $16.7B |
Solana’s streak, ether’s slump
While bitcoin flatlined on the week, Solana ETFs quietly extended their inflow streak to 12 straight weeks, taking in $60.7 million and hitting their highest weekly total of the month. XRP funds added $9.6 million, about half the prior week’s pace, and Hyperliquid flipped to a $3.1 million inflow after losing $26.4 million the week before.
Ethereum was the only complex in the red, shedding $140 million for the week after three heavy redemption days midweek. Ether still gained on price, closing near $2,625, and the outflow looks more like rotation than exit: the same sessions that bled ether funds saw money parked in Zcash and Solana products at record pace.
The CLARITY wreckage and what replaces it
The Senate’s 49-50 cloture failure on September 15 did more than cost bitcoin funds $450 million in a day. It stalled the market structure bill that was supposed to divide oversight between the SEC and CFTC, and negotiations broke down over ethics provisions on officials’ digital asset holdings, stablecoin rewards and law enforcement powers. Prediction market odds of the bill passing in 2026 have fallen to around 14 percent from 82 percent in February.
In the gap, regulators are acting alone. The SEC proposed Regulation Crypto Assets in August, a tailored offering regime with exemptions up to $5 million over four years and $75 million in any 12-month period, plus a safe harbour that could let qualifying tokens stop being treated as investment contracts. The CFTC followed with developer-friendly no-action positions. DBS researchers framed it plainly this week: legislation stalled, but agency rulemaking offers a narrower, more achievable path to clarity.
What next week prices in
The macro calendar stays hostile. Traders put 54.2 percent odds on another Fed hike at the October 28 meeting and 88.2 percent on a higher range by December 9, per CME FedWatch. Sixteen of eighteen Fed officials expect at least one more increase this year. Grayscale research argued this week that a second 2026 hike would not shift crypto markets much, pointing out that bitcoin slipped only 4 percent after the Senate vote while keeping most of August’s 22 percent gain.
The near-term test is simpler: whether the Friday inflow was dip-buying or the start of a trend. ZCSH’s split on September 30 gives retail a fresh on-ramp the same day Evernorth’s XRP merger vote lands, so the altcoin ETF corner of the market has a busy week ahead. Watch whether ether funds turn positive again and whether Zcash volume stays at a third of the tape once the per-share price drops.