Bitcoin is trading at $86,276, just 1.2% below its $87,498 year-open price, and needs a close above that level by December 31 to finish 2026 in the green. The token has rallied 15% from its September 15 low of $74,888, the day the Senate rejected a key crypto market structure bill, and closed at $86,595 on September 21. The rebound was fueled by a record $999 million single-day inflow into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs on September 21, including $381 million from BlackRock, $289 million from ARK, and $239 million from Fidelity, alongside more than $800 million in short positions liquidated within 24 hours. Offsetting those gains, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to a target range of 3.75% to 4.00% on September 16, with the next decision due October 28, while the 10-year Treasury yield hovers near 4.96% and the CLARITY Act remains stalled in the Senate. Bitcoin remains down 23.3% over the past year, and a drop below its September 18 close of $80,875 could send it back toward September's lows.
Bitwise Survey: Institutional Investors Did Not Sell Despite 50% Crypto Decline
Bitwise, a crypto asset management firm, released its first survey report on institutional adoption of crypto assets on September 23, projecting that a majority of institutional investors will hold crypto assets within the next five years. The survey was conducted through in-person interviews between late March and April 2026 with investment officers at 15 institutions, including funds and foundations, public pensions, sovereign wealth funds, multi-family offices, investment consultants, and listed companies. According to the report, although the crypto market fell about 50% between October 2025 and April 2026, not a single institution reduced its allocation, and several institutions added to their positions. Every institution holding crypto assets held Bitcoin, and for nearly all of them it was the first asset purchased and the largest and longest-held position, while Ethereum and Solana were viewed as investments in early-stage technology, with holdings remaining small and allocations ranging from 0.5% to 13% of assets under management, mostly between 1% and 2%. No institution cited price as a condition for selling; instead, they cited ETH or SOL failing to demonstrate utility, regulatory setbacks, or a crisis of confidence across the industry. Matt Hougan, the chief investment officer who authored the report, and his colleagues believe the barrier to adoption is not investment value but organizational governance and reputational risk, and they predicted that adoption will proceed not linearly but exponentially, because disclosure by peers creates a structure that encourages the next wave of adoption. In Japan, a survey of domestic institutional investors published in April by Nomura Holdings and others found that 31% of respondents described their outlook for crypto assets as positive, up 6 percentage points from the previous survey in 2024.
Bitcoin Enters Bull Market, CryptoQuant Confirms but Expects Smaller Gains
On-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant concluded in a weekly report published on the 22nd that Bitcoin has confirmed its entry into a bull market. According to the report, Bitcoin has risen above its 365-day simple moving average of about $80,500 for the first time since March 2023 and is trading at $86,000; past breaks above this line signaled the start of bull markets in 2019 and 2023. The next resistance zone is $88,000 to $90,000, which overlaps with the upper band of short-term traders' realized price, and the firm warns that profit-taking selling is likely to intensify once the price reaches around $90,000. CEO Ki Young Ju said in a post on X that this bull cycle's gains will be limited to 3 to 5 times rather than more than 10 times, and that the subsequent bear market will also be milder. According to Farside Investors, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw total net inflows of $1.7137 billion over the two days of the 21st and 22nd.
Trump discloses purchases of Strategy shares and other assets worth up to $100,000
U.S. President Donald Trump bought Strategy shares worth between $51,000 and $100,000 in July, according to a periodic transaction report released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on September 22. The report showed two purchases: one of $1,001 to $15,000 on July 24 and one of $51,000 to $100,000 on July 27, with the July 27 purchase falling in the same dollar range as his largest previous purchase, recorded on February 12. There was also a sale of $1,001 to $15,000 on July 8. The report listed 1,156 transactions for July, with crypto-related trades making up only a small fraction of the total, while the largest transactions were sales of Microsoft and Amazon shares on July 20, each worth between $5 million and $25 million. The White House says the assets are managed independently by third-party financial institutions and that the president and his family are not involved in the trades. The disclosure came just after the Senate voted on September 15 against proceeding with the crypto market structure bill known as the Clarity Act, a vote attributed mainly to conflict over ethics provisions that would restrict the president's family from profiting from crypto, and it could reignite the debate.
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