Crypto’s ETF tape is telling three different stories at once. On Thursday, U.S. spot ether funds posted about $39 million in net outflows—the third straight session of withdrawals—while bitcoin ETFs vacuumed roughly $159 million and the lone U.S. Zcash fund added nearly $47 million, its strongest day yet in a month already above $230 million of inflows.
CoinDesk, citing SoSoValue, notes ether’s prior two sessions dumped about $224 million then $141 million. Oddly, ETH itself still rose ~2% to about $2,470 while the funds bled—price and flow diverging again. XRP ETFs flipped to roughly $5 million of outflows after a small prior-day inflow. Bitcoin printed about $77,216, up more than 1%.
Majors green, privacy coin louder
Across the board, majors advanced with equities and bonds as oil slipped a day after the Federal Reserve’s first hike since 2023. Zcash ripped another ~10% to about $1,488; Hyperliquid’s HYPE nearly matched that to just above $86. Solana gained ~5% toward $105, BNB ~4% near $750, Dogecoin ~4%, with ether and XRP each about 2%. Tron barely budged.
Over 30 days, ether funds are still more than $1.5 billion ahead and bitcoin nearly $2.5 billion—so Thursday’s ETH bleed is a streak, not a regime change. The narrative twist is Zcash: its ETF is pulling money on days when the two largest crypto ETF complexes are mixed-to-red, extending a privacy-coin flow story that started with the post-hike rip.
Macro: oil down, risk on
Cheaper crude eased the inflation headache the Fed just hiked into. The S&P 500 gained about 1% (biggest advance in six weeks), the Nasdaq 100 nearly 2%, and a chip gauge ~3%. The 10-year yield snapped an eight-day climb; the dollar was little changed; gold rose; Brent settled under $105. Crypto traded like a high-beta equity sleeve—following the tape rather than leading it.
That macro rhyme matters for how you read the ETF split. BTC catching $159M while ETH funds lose a third day suggests allocators are still treating bitcoin as the “cleanest” institutional beta after the Clarity Act flop and the hike, while ether’s flow momentum cooled even as spot ETH held up. XRP’s tiny outflow is noise unless it stacks.
Geeknewz take
Three-session ETH ETF outflows with rising ETH price is the classic “spot holders shrug, ETF traders rotate” pattern—annoying if you equate fund flows with truth. Bitcoin reclaiming $77K with solid ETF inflows says institutional risk appetite didn’t die with the Fed hike; it just got pickier. And Zcash eating nearly $50M in a day while majors bleed-or-bounce is the flow to screenshot: privacy beta is having a moment in a market that usually only has room for BTC and ETH narratives.
Next week’s tell is whether Zcash’s fund keeps winning on days ETH/BTC complex is soft—and whether ether’s outflow streak snaps when oil and yields settle. Until then: BTC is the adult chair, ZEC is the spicy side quest, and ETH ETFs are taking a smoke break.
Source: CoinDesk — Ether and XRP ETFs post outflows as bitcoin moves above $77,000 (Shaurya Malwa, Sep 18, 2026).