TL;DR

• Spot ETF bid returns: U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs took in roughly $757M in a day as BTC ripped through $114k, while ETH funds also saw net inflows.

• Regulators stall staking & new assets: The SEC delayed decisions on enabling staking in ETH ETFs and on new SOL/XRP spot funds, stretching the uncertainty trade.

• Macro sets the stage: U.S. CPI printed ~2.9% YoY for August; markets still expect the Fed to cut on Sep 17, framing a supportive liquidity backdrop for risk.

• RWAs to the front: Aave’s Horizon (institutional RWA borrowing) is live, targeting a tokenized asset market now around $26–28B.

• Crypto goes public (again): The IPO window stays hot (Circle in June; Bullish in August), and Gemini just upsized pricing after heavy oversubscription.

Spot ETF Flows vs. BTC Price. Source: SoSoValue

Network Fees — The sum of total fees spent to use a particular blockchain. This tracks the willingness to spend and demand to use Bitcoin or Ethereum.

• Bitcoin: ~$3.34M (–9.7% w/w; still near cycle-lows post-halving as mempools under-fill).

• Ethereum L1: ~$6.03M (–49.4% w/w; base-layer spend cooled sharply; activity remains concentrated on L2s).

Exchange Netflows — The sum of total fees spent to use a particular blockchain. This tracks the willingness to spend and demand to use Bitcoin or Ethereum.

• BTC: Outflows ≈ –$1.21B over the past week (continued drawdown in exchange balances).

• ETH: Outflows ≈ –$656M (ETF seeding, staking, and DeFi deployments keep draining inventories).

Market Pulse — Flows, Price, and Positioning

The bid is back. Spot Bitcoin ETFs logged about $757M in net inflows mid-week, the strongest in ~8 weeks, as BTC briefly pushed past $114k before settling near the figure. ETH funds saw smaller but positive flows, which, together with BTC strength, flipped the narrative after a lukewarm August. The flow-through is clear: ETF pipes remain the cleanest institutional conduit into crypto beta.

Consumer Price Index. Source: FRED

Macro didn’t ruin the party. August CPI (~2.9% YoY; core ~3.1%) reinforced the “sticky but stable” view. Yet despite inflation running above target, markets and several Fed watchers still anticipate a 25 bps cut on Sep 17, citing a softer labor backdrop and Powell’s Jackson Hole tone. That combination — disinflation versus jobs risk — keeps a “cuts with caution” base case that tends to favor duration-sensitive assets (growth equities, crypto).

FOMC cut probabilities. Source: CME Group

Policy & Regulation — The SEC’s “not yet” doctrine

In a mid-week filing batch, the SEC punted on staking features for spot ETH ETFs and also extended review on SOL/XRP ETF proposals. For ETH, staking inside an ETF raises custody, operational, and “investment company” wrinkles; expect more questions than answers this quarter. For SOL/XRP, politics and precedent loom larger than fundamentals. Delay ≠ denial, but time is its own headwind as competitors rack up assets.

Meanwhile, the GENIUS Act — the U.S.’s first federal stablecoin law — continues to rewire the landscape. Banks and OCC-licensed nonbanks now have a clearer path to issue and distribute payment stablecoins, unlocking bank-grade rails for tokenized money. Expect product launches to accelerate into Q4 as compliance playbooks harden.

DeFi & RWAs — From pilot to pipeline

Aave Labs’ Horizon is now live, giving qualified institutions the ability to borrow stablecoins against tokenized Treasuries and other RWAs — while anyone can supply liquidity. Two things matter: (1) the on-chain cost of capital versus T-bill yields and (2) credible KYC/KYB flows into the front-end. With tokenized assets hovering around $26–28B, plugging that collateral into blue-chip DeFi lending is the next logical bridge from read-only tokenization to read-write finance.

Tokenized U.S. Treasuries outstanding. Source: RWA

AAVE Horizon — Total Supplied by Asset. Source: AAVE

Aave Horizon — Total Borrowed by Asset. Source: AAVE

What to watch: counterparty frameworks, oracle design for RWA marks, and how quickly treasurers move beyond passive “wrapped paper” into active, term-matched borrowing on-chain.

Public Markets — The crypto equity flywheel

The crypto IPO window remains wide open. Circle (CRCL) priced and listed in June, establishing public-market comparables for stablecoin infrastructure. Bullish (BLSH) followed with a blowout NYSE debut in mid-August. This week, Gemini raised its price range after the book was 20× oversubscribed and is slated to trade under GEMI. The message: equity capital is chasing crypto operating leverage again, not just coins.

Parallel to listings, venues keep productizing the crossover trade. Coinbase Derivatives will launch Mag7 + Crypto Equity Index Futures on Sep 22, a neat wrapper for the “tech + ETF crypto beta” trade in one contract. Expect this to become a popular macro hedge/overlay for funds that traffic both sides.

CeFi & Retail — More pipes, better UX

At its HOOD Summit 2025, Robinhood rolled out AI-powered screening tools, social features, and futures enhancements. Less about shiny toys than distribution: these upgrades widen the funnel for retail to interact with crypto exposures adjacent to stocks and options. In a rising-rates-to-cut cycle, the brokerages that compress the “discover → allocate” loop will win share.

On the reserves front, Tether’s Q2 attestation (as of June 30) showed ~$162.6B in assets and reiterated large UST-bill holdings — a reminder that stablecoin treasuries are now macro-relevant buyers of U.S. duration. That bid matters if the Fed eases and duration rallies.

What To Watch Next

1. Sep 17 FOMC: Path and language around cuts; risk-on impulse if Powell leans employment-first.

2. ETF flow persistence: Can BTC sustain daily net inflows >$500M for multiple sessions?

3. ETH staking ETF filings: Any SEC questions that hint at a workable path (custody, slashing, income characterization).

4. RWA deal tape: First visible institutional borrows on Horizon and comparable platforms.

5. Public exchange cohort: Gemini’s debut and read-across to CRCL/BLSH multiples.