[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong] As institutional investors continue to accumulate bitcoin and ether, capital flows in the cryptocurrency market are being reshaped around bitcoin and some large altcoins. With spot supply shrinking, major economic data releases and Asian market holidays are also expected to widen volatility this week.
On Sept. 28, blockchain outlet U.Today reported that BitMine increased its ether holdings to 6,001,302 ETH. That is about 4.9 percent of total ether supply. Strategy also expanded its bitcoin holdings to 847,666 BTC.
Strategy said it recently spent $138 million to buy an additional 1,666 bitcoin at an average price of $85,681. As bitcoin trades in the $83,000 to $84,000 range, institutional money has continued to absorb spot supply, shifting the market’s centre of gravity toward bitcoin and ether.
The macroeconomic calendar is a factor that could raise short-term volatility. In the United States, data due include the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, gross domestic product, the personal consumption expenditures price index and nonfarm payrolls. Depending on the results, market expectations for the Federal Reserve’s rate path could change.
Shrinking liquidity in Asian markets is also a variable. Stock markets in China and Hong Kong will be closed for the National Day holiday from Oct. 1. If trading volumes in Asia decline, order books could thin, raising the possibility of larger cryptocurrency price swings during U.S. trading hours.
In the altcoin market, XRP and Quant (QNT) stand out. Quant rose after The Clearing House adopted its architecture for an interbank onchain money business that processes more than $2 trillion a day. U.Today reported that Quant rose from the $70 range to around $350 to $370, but there is also criticism that the current level is overheated in the short term.
XRP is trading around $1.52. Ripple is not directly connected to The Clearing House, but it is accelerating the expansion of its own financial infrastructure. Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin has been integrated to allow direct exchange with tokenised fund shares such as BlackRock’s BUIDL and VanEck’s VBILL.
By contrast, signs of capital outflows are emerging in mid- and small-cap altcoins. CoinGlass said about 34,123 BTC, worth $2.8 billion, flowed out net from centralised exchanges over the past 7 days. CryptoQuant analysts, meanwhile, said exchange inflows of small altcoins rose to the highest level since October 2025.
The analysis is that as mid-sized investors take more profits, money is shifting into bitcoin and ether, where liquidity is relatively abundant.
In tokenised assets, Binance has also begun a new experiment. Binance launched a programme rewarding Marscoin (MARSCOIN) holders with SPCXB, a token linked to SpaceX unlisted shares. It allocated 30 percent of spot trading fees to fund SPCXB rewards, and the programme targets users holding at least 10,000 MARSCOIN at the time of daily balance snapshots. Binance said the bStocks token does not grant legal rights or voting rights in SpaceX itself.
Changes in the U.S. crypto regulatory environment are also affecting the expansion of the tokenisation market. The U.S. Senate on the 15th voted down the Clarity Act, which covers the division of authority between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, by 49 to 50. The two regulators later introduced temporary easing measures within their respective scopes.
The SEC issued an innovation exemption order easing the application of some rules to tokenised stock trading platforms and automated market maker liquidity providers. The CFTC also issued a staff letter exempting passive trading software developers, who do not custody assets or control order routing, from broker registration requirements under certain conditions.
This week, institutional spot buying is expected to continue in the cryptocurrency market, alongside economic data and liquidity shifts. Key variables for the short-term direction include whether money exiting altcoins will move further into bitcoin and ether, and how U.S. data will change market expectations for the rate path.