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Bitcoin ETFs pulled in more money last week than in any single week since October, yet the category is still down $2.9B for the year, a gap that reveals institutional flows are chasing this rally rather than positioning ahead of it.
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In Today’s Email:
**What Matters:ETF Inflows Hit 2026 Highs 👀Product of the Week:Solana Cuts Slot Time to 350ms 👩🚀Charts:**Strategy Shares Hit Two-Month High 📊
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WHAT MATTERS
**State of play: **Bitcoin and ether ETFs drew $2.6B in combined inflows last week, their strongest since October, as trading volume tripled to $29B during a broad crypto rally.
Bitcoin ETFs drew $1.9B in inflows, their largest weekly total since October 2025, pushing cumulative inflows to $53.7B.
Ether ETFs drew $697.2M, their best week since October, bringing cumulative inflows to $12.2B.
Combined trading volume climbed to $29B, with bitcoin ETF volume alone rising over 219% week-over-week.
Bitcoin briefly traded above $79,000 Friday, its largest weekly gain in two years, while ether topped $2,400.
Despite the rebound, bitcoin ETFs remain down $2.9B and ether ETFs $191.8M for 2026 year to date.
Why it matters: The swing from outflow to record inflow in one week shows institutional demand is still flow-driven, not conviction-driven.
Our take: Both ETF categories remain net negative for 2026 despite this rebound, the more honest read than one record week.
For builders and investors: Watch whether inflows persist past the rally days; sustained buying, not one strong week, signals real allocation.
PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
Solana completed a mainnet upgrade cutting target slot time to 350ms, the first step under SIMD-0525 toward an eventual 200ms goal that improves confirmation speed without raising throughput.
The upgrade cut slot time to 350ms from 400ms, shortening epochs from about 48 hours to 42 hours.
Shorter slots reduce confirmation latency but don’t increase overall network throughput, since each slot carries less work.
Developers plan three more 50ms cuts, with the next target of 300ms yet to have a set activation date.
Full finality still takes roughly 12.8 seconds, though the in-development Alpenglow overhaul aims to cut that to about 150ms.
**Other cool products: **
World Liberty𝕏launchesUSD1 perps.AftermathFi𝕏launchedPerpetuals V2.Solana Mobile𝕏launches$USDC Earn Vault.Oku Trade𝕏launchestokenized stock lending.Coinbase𝕏integratesHyperliquid into its Base App.Concrete𝕏launchesM0-powered concUSD stablecoin.
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CHARTS OF THE WEEK
**State of play: **MSTR rose 7.5% to a two-month high as bitcoin pushed toward $79,400 and Strategy’s STRC preferred stock recovered above $96 after nearly collapsing in a June selloff.
MSTR climbed above $120 while STRC topped $96 for the first time since June, nearing its $100 target price.
Strategy sold $333.7M in MSTR shares last week, directing proceeds toward STRC dividends and repurchases without buying bitcoin.
The company’s USD reserve rose to $4.8B while its 840,447 BTC holdings returned to $1.6B in unrealized profit.
TD Cowen pushed back on MSCI’s proposed methodology that could remove Strategy from its ACWI IMI index.
MicroCloud Hologram acquired 140,268 MSTR shares worth about $15.8M through structured note settlement.
**Our Take: **Strategy funding its own preferred stock recovery by selling equity, not buying bitcoin, is a telling reversal, the flywheel now runs on managing its own liabilities rather than accumulating BTC.
State of play: ZEC surged 22% to near $850, its highest since 2018, as Grayscale’s fifth amended ETF filing fueled a rally that’s more than tripled the token since June’s counterfeiting bug selloff.
ZEC jumped 22% to $818.77, briefly touching $855, with futures volume hitting $9.5B versus just $1.06B in spot volume.
Grayscale’s fifth amendment renamed its trust The Zcash ETF and set a 2.5% annual sponsor fee.
DCG, Grayscale’s parent, is in nonbinding talks to acquire 200,000 ZEC worth about $164M through the trust.
ZEC has more than tripled from its June low of $250 but remains about 75% below its all-time high.
Our take: A $9.5B derivatives bet stacked on $1.06B of actual spot trading means this rally is largely leveraged speculation on ETF approval odds, not real demand for the token itself.
QUICK BITES
Crypto card spendingtops$1B.Strategy shareshittwo-month high.Zcashhitseight-year high near $850.Solanacutsmainnet slot time to 350 milliseconds.Bitcoinrecordslargest weekly dollar gain in history.Ray Daliosaysinvestors should own ‘a bit of Bitcoin’.Grayscalemovescloser to launching first Zcash ETF in US.Term Financelosesan estimated $8.5M to governance exploit.Bitcoin & ether ETFsdraw$2.6B in strongest inflow week since October.
NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME
Onchain Lens’s𝕏readon Wintermute Position.Emperor Osmo’s𝕏readon Onchain Investigation Tools Worth Using.Nic Carter’s𝕏readon A Second and Final Eulogy for Bitcoin Maximalism.
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