Bitcoin ETFs Rebound, Clarity Act Fails, and Altcoins Surge After Fed Hike

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs snapped a two-day losing streak on Thursday, recording net inflows of $159.5M after back-to-back sessions that drained roughly $746M from the funds. BlackRock's IBIT drove the entire daily gain with $183.7M in net purchases, while Fidelity's FBTC shed $16.6M and VanEck's HODL posted $7.6M in outflows. Total assets under management across all U.S. Bitcoin ETFs now stand at $96.2B, with cumulative net inflows since January 2024 reaching $54.7B.

On the policy front, the Senate dealt the crypto industry a significant blow this week when the Clarity Act failed to clear the 60-vote procedural threshold needed to advance. The bill would have established a comprehensive market-structure framework for digital assets, dividing regulatory oversight between the SEC and the CFTC, setting registration requirements, and strengthening anti-money-laundering protections. Despite public backing from President Trump and aggressive lobbying by crypto executives, many industry participants had already grown resigned to the bill's failure in 2026.

Altcoins Lead the Broad Market Recovery

A broad crypto rally took hold on September 18 as post-Fed relief washed over digital asset markets. The Federal Reserve had raised its benchmark rate 25 basis points to 3.75%-4.00% on September 16, its first increase since 2023, briefly rattling risk assets before sentiment reversed. Global crypto market capitalization climbed to roughly $2.77 trillion, up about 2% on the day, with daily trading volume near $98B.

Altcoins led the charge as Hyperliquid's HYPE jumped 12.3% to $91.31, Solana gained 10% to $110.84, and XRP rose 7.2% to $1.38. Bitcoin climbed 5.5% to near $80,659, while Ethereum added 5.2% to $2,587. A second regulatory catalyst added fuel: the SEC issued its Innovation Exemption on September 17, creating a five-year conditional framework allowing qualifying Tokenized Securities Venues to facilitate trading in tokenized U.S. stocks through permissioned automated market maker liquidity pools. Analysts noted that Friday's recovery was driven by a combination of post-Fed relief, improving regulatory sentiment, and rotation into altcoins rather than any single Bitcoin-specific catalyst.