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Crypto's Best Week of the Year: $2.6 Billion Floods Into Bitcoin and Ether ETFs
US spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs pulled in a combined $2.6 billion in their strongest week of 2026, as Bitcoin briefly topped $79,000 during its biggest weekly gain in two years , driven by falling yields, Treasury buybacks and Washington's crypto embrace.
After a long stretch of muted flows, American crypto exchange-traded funds have roared back to life. The past week delivered the kind of numbers that turn heads well beyond the usual crypto crowd, signaling that institutional appetite for digital assets has returned with real force.
US spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs recorded their strongest inflow week of 2026, pulling in a combined 2.6 billion dollars. That figure represented the heaviest intake for the two groups in roughly ten months, a decisive break from the sluggish demand that had characterized much of the year.
A wall of money returns
The split between the two asset classes was telling. Bitcoin ETFs drew about 1.918 billion dollars over the week, while Ether ETFs attracted 697.2 million dollars, confirming that the enthusiasm was not confined to the largest cryptocurrency but extended across the market's leading names.
Price action matched the fund flows. Bitcoin briefly traded above 79,000 dollars, capping its largest weekly gain in two years, while both Bitcoin and Ether posted advances of between 24% and 28% over the seven-day stretch, a powerful surge by any measure.
Notably, Ether outperformed Bitcoin over the period, and broad participation across smaller tokens confirmed a wider risk-on mood. XRP and Solana funds added modest inflows of their own, while a Hyperliquid product stood out as the lone outflow, at around 2 million dollars.
What lit the fuse
The rally did not happen in isolation but sat atop a stack of reinforcing catalysts. Falling Treasury yields made riskier assets more attractive, and the US Treasury's announcement that it would double the maximum size of its liquidity-support buybacks helped push long-term yields lower still.
Politics supplied the other half of the story. Fresh White House support for the sector, including a meeting between President Donald Trump and crypto executives to discuss accumulating large amounts of Bitcoin and other assets, sent an unmistakable signal of institutional acceptance from the very top.
Layered on top was a coordinated regulatory push from the SEC and CFTC, which reassured investors that a clearer rulebook is finally taking shape. Together, these forces transformed cautious optimism into the kind of decisive buying that shows up plainly in ETF flow data.
Why the ETF signal matters
For all the volatility of crypto prices, spot ETF flows have become one of the most reliable windows into genuine institutional conviction. Unlike fleeting price spikes, sustained inflows reflect allocators making deliberate, sized decisions to hold exposure through regulated vehicles.
The open question, as always, is durability. A single blockbuster week does not by itself establish a lasting trend, and crypto has a long history of sharp reversals. But with policy tailwinds and macro conditions aligning at once, this rally rests on firmer foundations than many that came before it.
