Bitcoin Holds $80K Amid Record ETF Inflows, $320M Liquid Network Hack, and Zcash Surge Above $1,200

Bitcoin is holding near $80,000 despite a perfect storm of negative macroeconomic news. A strong US jobs report, rising odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike, and escalating geopolitical tensions are weighing on sentiment, yet record ETF inflows and a structural shift in how institutional investors view BTC as a macro hedge are preventing serious pullbacks.

The total crypto market capitalization exceeds $2.7 trillion. The overall sentiment remains positive: the Fear and Greed Index stands at 75 (greed).

The day's top security incident struck Blockstream's Liquid Network. Approximately 4,019 BTC (roughly $320 million) were withdrawn from the sidechain's federation wallet via SideSwap PAK. The OP_RETURN message read: «we are whitehats, contact us on chain».

The sidechain was paused and bridge nodes disconnected. The federation wallet is an 11-of-15 multisig whose balance dropped from over 4,200 BTC to roughly 207 BTC. USDT DePix and other tokens were not affected, and the PAK was not compromised.

Charles Guillemet of Ledger questioned the good-faith nature of the actors involved. Samson Mow (JAN3) confirmed that the Signal number listed by the alleged attackers does not match the sender's address. The incident remains unconfirmed in full but raises serious questions about the reliability of federation-based sidechain models.

Sources: Bitcoin Magazine, The Defiant, Cryptopolitan

Bitcoin spot ETFs attracted $730.87 million on September 3 — the largest daily inflow in approximately eight months. Weekly net inflows reached about $924.5 million, and cumulative volume hit $55.62 billion. BlackRock's IBIT pulled in $117 million on the day, with aggregate net assets exceeding $62.6 billion.

However, analyst DonAlt warns: in the previous two instances when daily inflows exceeded $700 million, BTC soon formed a local top. His forecast: BTC could rise to $90,000 before pulling back. Over the month, ETFs absorbed approximately 42,800 BTC — 41% of total volume.

ETH ETFs also showed positive momentum, attracting $218.41 million in the first week of September, though at a significantly slower pace than August.

Sources: CryptoPotato, The Daily Hodl

The US added 162,000 jobs in August — nearly three times the 55,000 forecast. Unemployment held at 4.1%. The probability of a Fed rate hike at the September meeting rose to 53%. Inflation remains above the 2% target for 60 consecutive months, squeezing room for rate cuts.

Stock markets fell on the data. Brent crude approached $100 per barrel amid renewed military action between the US and Iran. President Trump urged the Fed to cut rates, pointing to a record trade deficit with China, Mexico, and Canada exceeding $1.2 trillion annually.

CPI data is scheduled for September 11 — a critical indicator for the Fed's next moves.

Source: The Daily Hodl

Despite the headwinds, Bitcoin showed surprising resilience. After the jobs report, BTC dropped from $82,400 to around $80,000 but quickly recovered. The cryptocurrency is up approximately 25% over the past month.

A crucial structural shift: Bitcoin's correlation with gold reached a six-year high, rising from near zero to over 50% since the start of the year. Meanwhile, correlation with Nasdaq fell from over 60% to roughly 30–33%. This may signal that institutional investors are reinterpreting BTC as a macro hedge rather than a technology asset.

The US Treasury has entered an active phase of its bond buyback program with a limit of up to $14.5 billion per week. The buyback cap for long-term securities doubled from $2 billion to $4 billion per session. The potential liquidity could become a driver for risk assets.

A dense short-liquidation zone between $79,500 and $82,000 may amplify volatility. According to prediction market Kalshi, the probability of breaking above $85,000 before October 2 is 77%.

Sources: CryptoPotato, CryptoPotato, U.Today, CoinGape

ZEC rose approximately 19–20% in 24 hours, crossing $1,200 for the first time in nearly 10 years. Market capitalization exceeded $20 billion, surpassing HYPE and DOGE. Over three months, ZEC is up 370%; over a year, approximately 2,700%. ZEC became the ninth-largest cryptocurrency.

Drivers include the launch of the Grayscale ZCSH ETF on August 25, which attracted over $34.4 million in net inflows (assets grew to $400–463 million), and a massive short squeeze: approximately $54.3 million in positions were liquidated in 24 hours, of which $48.91 million were shorts. Shielded addresses grew to 4.85 million ZEC — a June high.

Sources: U.Today, CoinGape, CryptoPotato

ARB surged from approximately $0.08 in late August to $0.20 in September — a 120% weekly gain. Robinhood Chain, launched in July on Arbitrum technology, generates about $3.75 million in daily fees. 10% of the protocol's net revenue (8% to ArbitrumDAO treasury, 2% to developers) flows back into the ecosystem.

Arbitrum co-founder Steven Goldfeder confirmed that Robinhood retains approximately 90% of net revenue, sparking debate. Anatoly Yakovenko (Solana) suggested monetizing through app fees instead. Robinhood's gas subsidy expires September 29. DEX volume exceeded $1.5 billion.

Sources: U.Today, Crypto.News

Solana attracted $348 million in net RWA inflows over 30 days, outpacing all other blockchains. RWA market value on Solana grew 11% to over $4.23 billion. BlackRock BUIDL, Franklin Templeton BENJI, VanEck VBILL, and Ondo Finance all operate on Solana. For comparison: Ethereum +0.77%, Stellar +5.22%, Avalanche -14.06%.

Tokenized stocks via DeFi are gaining momentum: Uniswap V4 holds $59.1 million in TVL for tokenized stocks, leading Kamino Lend ($41.7 million). Total DeFi TVL in the tokenized stocks segment stands at $192.6 million.

Sources: Crypto.News, BTC-ECHO, Crypto.News

HYPE reached a new all-time high of approximately $89.60 on trading volume exceeding $1 billion in 24 hours. Market capitalization: about $19.8 billion, ninth among cryptocurrencies. 174,800 HYPE ($14.96 million) were withdrawn from a Binance hot wallet — a sign of accumulation. An institution reportedly linked to a16z added approximately $13 million in HYPE.

Bitwise's HYPE ETF added $10.5 million after a four-day pause — the largest tracked purchase since August 27. Cumulative fund purchases reached $166.3 million. Grayscale is preparing a competing HYPG fund with a 0.29% fee. RSI stands at approximately 80.9, indicating overbought conditions.

Sources: Brave New Coin, Crypto.News

Twelve mining wallets from the Satoshi era, inactive for over 16 years, moved a total of 600 BTC (approximately $48 million). Each block in March 2010 carried a 50 BTC reward. Whale Alert confirmed no connection to Satoshi Nakamoto. The activation of ancient wallets is traditionally interpreted as a potential signal that long-term holders intend to take profits.

Sources: Cointelegraph, U.Today

Strategy acquired 4,603 BTC for $370 million — its first purchase in approximately 10 weeks. The company now holds over 843,775 BTC (roughly 4% of total supply). It raised $8.41 billion through ATM in the second quarter. Meanwhile, MSCI is reviewing a possible exclusion of Strategy, which could reduce its institutional appeal.

Source: BTC-ECHO

Vitalik Buterin proposed splitting Ethereum transaction components into actions and dependencies, enabling parallel dependency verification. Pure dependencies could be replaced with a single STARK proof. The proposal is linked to EIP-8141 (Frame Transactions). Buterin estimates that over 90% of Ethereum's activity does not require full dynamic flexibility, opening the path to significant throughput improvements.

ETH is consolidating in the $2,440–$2,520 range. Whale activity at current levels has essentially disappeared. A clean daily close above $2,520–$2,560 is needed to confirm upside.

Sources: U.Today, Crypto.News, CryptoPotato

The CLARITY Act — key legislation for crypto regulation in the US — has hit significant delays. The Senate postponed the vote before the August recess (return: September 14, narrow window). The House cancelled votes on the weeks of September 21 and 28. The National Sheriffs' Association shifted from opposition to neutrality.

Galaxy Research lowered the probability of the CLARITY Act passing in 2026 from 50% to 30%. Prediction market forecasts are below 20%. The cloture vote requires 60 senators; Republicans hold 53 seats. The House leaves Washington on September 17 — two days after the scheduled vote.

The US Supreme Court has begun considering the status of prediction markets: New Jersey filed a writ of certiorari in the Kalshi case. The question is whether prediction markets tied to sports contracts constitute gambling or federally regulated swaps.

The Fed proposed frameworks for including payment stablecoins in monetary aggregates M1 or M2. A Bank of Korea study found that direct Binance fiat-stablecoin pairs strengthen the link between crypto demand and forex markets.

Sources: CoinGape, CryptoPotato, CoinDesk, Crypto.News

Beyond the Liquid Network hack, several other incidents underscore cybersecurity importance. Chilean exchange Orionx — backed by Tether — shut down after a forensic audit revealed over $7 million transferred to uncontrolled wallets. Criminal charges have been filed against co-founders. Chilean regulator FMC had rejected Orionx's authorization application back in June.

A Trezor data breach via partner ShipMonk expanded: over 80,000 customers were affected for orders placed in 2019–2021. ShipMonk confirmed data deletion multiple times, but the data was never actually removed. Trezor systems and hardware wallets remain uncompromised, but customers are vulnerable to phishing attacks.

On September 3, XRP Healthcare in the XRPL ecosystem was attacked: approximately 267,000 XRP and millions of associated tokens were stolen. Private seed phrases were sent to a server upon activation of staking functions.

Sources: Cointelegraph, Crypto.News, BTC-ECHO, U.Today

Better Mortgage and Coinbase launched Bitcoin-backed mortgages. Borrowers pledge BTC at a 250% collateral ratio. Better can rehypothecate the pledged BTC — it is frozen for the duration of the mortgage. Applications reached $360 million.

21 international financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Bank of America, are planning to create their own digital dollar.

Kraken launched cash-settled perpetuals on OpenAI and Anthropic stock with up to 5x leverage. Anthropic delayed its IPO to October while finalizing a credit facility of approximately $15 billion.

Polymarket signed a deal with LeBron James for a marketing campaign focused on American football. The combined monthly volume of Polymarket and Kalshi grew from under $5 billion to approximately $24 billion.

Pencil Finance completed a $1 million loan cycle entirely on-chain, supporting over 6,600 students across 118 schools in Southeast Asia.

Sources: CoinDesk, Crypto.News, Brave New Coin, Crypto.News, Decrypt

XRP ETFs recorded eight consecutive green days, though Friday was the first zero-inflow day in three weeks. Ripple signed a multi-year marketing deal with the University of Florida: the XRP logo will appear at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. AI agents executed over 4 million transactions on the XRP Ledger via the x402 protocol.

Dogecoin approached $0.10, breaking above its 200-day moving average. Peter Brandt revived his legendary 2019 parabolic target of $100,000 for BTC. Willy Woo suggested Bitcoin's four-year cycle could transition to a six-to-eight-year cycle.

Upbit is ending BONK support on September 7 following a governance attack on BonkDAO that resulted in approximately $20 million in losses. Ukrainian police dismantled a network of fake crypto platforms that stole up to $1 million per month, affecting users in over 20 countries.

The IMF confirmed that all bitcoins acquired by El Salvador after the first program review came from private donations, not public funds. The MENA region reached an annual on-chain volume of approximately $350 billion, with Turkey leading at about $200 billion per year.

Sources: CryptoPotato, Decrypt, U.Today, Cryptopolitan, CoinDesk, CryptoPotato