Ethereum bounced back on Friday after a mixed August consumer inflation reading, reclaiming the $2,600 handle in a session that had opened under pressure from the previous day’s hotter wholesale price data.
The move unfolded as traders reassessed the setup for next week’s Federal Reserve (Fed) policy meeting, treating the print as already reflected in prices and rotating back into large-cap crypto after two sessions of defensive positioning.
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, traded near $2,613 at approximately 2:29 p.m. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), up roughly 7.4% over 24 hours, according to market data aggregator CoinGecko. Market capitalization was about $318.0 billion. 24-hour trading volume was about $21.5 billion.
The session range spanned $2,433.27 to $2,647.68, with the low set overnight before the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) release, compiled by the BLS and one of the two main inflation gauges tracked by policymakers. ETH was still up about 6.7% on the week and about 37% over 30 days on the same CoinGecko tape. The token remains well below its August 24, 2025, record near $4,954.
August CPI matches headline consensus, monthly core stays firm
The BLS said the CPI for All Urban Consumers rose 0.4% in August on a seasonally adjusted basis and 3.4% over the previous 12 months on a not seasonally adjusted basis. Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy components, rose 0.3% for the month and 2.4% year over year. Gasoline accounted for more than a third of the monthly headline gain, while shelter inflation remained firm. Energy rose 2.1% on the month. Food rose 0.1%. The release time was 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time on September 11.
The reading followed the August Producer Price Index (PPI), released one day earlier on September 10, which surprised to the upside. Final demand rose 0.4% for the month and 5.4% year over year, with final demand goods up 1.1% and diesel fuel jumping 24.1% in a single month. Together, the two prints round out the last major inflation data policymakers will see before the FOMC meeting on September 15-16, which is expected to deliver the most consequential rate decision of the quarter for risk assets.
Bitcoin recovers toward $77,300 as headline CPI meets forecasts
Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market value, traded in a Friday range from about $76,000 to nearly $79,900 and was near $79,000 into the afternoon UTC session after an overnight slide below $77,000. BTC had slipped below $77,000 on Thursday following the PPI shock, and the headline CPI matching consensus provided some relief to broader risk sentiment.
Rate-hike odds for the September FOMC decision climbed toward about 70% to 74% after PPI, according to CME FedWatch data cited by market participants, and Ether’s relative outperformance on Friday lifted the ETH-to-BTC ratio to 0.03303, up 4.9% on the day.
The broader macro backdrop remains restrictive. The two-year U.S. Treasury yield held near 4.57% to 4.59% after the CPI release, close to its recent high. Brent crude stayed above $100 a barrel, with Thursday’s official Europe Brent spot print above $100 and Friday’s trade still elevated. Those two factors, together with the diesel-led PPI surge, are the main reason analysts continue to model a wide September range for Bitcoin. That range is a market view, not a forecast from the Fed or BLS.
Spot ETH ETF flows split, BlackRock’s staked product still adding
Spot Ethereum ETFs did not move as a single block. According to issuer-level data compiled by industry trackers Trader T and Delphi Digital for September 10 (U.S. session), U.S. spot Ether funds posted a combined about $29.8 million to $29.9 million in net outflows. Fidelity’s Ethereum Fund (FETH) shed $25.15 million, and BlackRock’s flagship iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) lost $18.59 million, while Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust (ETHE) recorded a $7.72 million outflow.
Cutting the other way, the iShares Ethereum Staking Trust (ETHB), BlackRock’s yield-bearing spot Ether product that began trading on Nasdaq on March 12, 2026 and which stakes between 70% and 95% of its ETH holdings, still took in $13.95 million. Grayscale’s Mini Ethereum Trust added $7.75 million.
The split explains why the Ether-specific bid has been described in flow trackers as persistent rather than uniform: staking-enabled products and treasury buyers keep adding, even as the older unstaked funds see redemptions. The prior session, September 9, had shown about $34.75 million of net ETH ETF inflows, led by ETHB.
Bitcoin ETFs told a heavier story. The 12-fund U.S. spot Bitcoin complex recorded $282.7 million in net outflows on September 10, extending a three-day streak of withdrawals, with the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) accounting for $164.3 million of that total. Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) lost $36.4 million, Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) $33.6 million, and BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) $24.5 million.
BitMine treasury tops 5.93 million ETH as exchange reserves fall
The Ether-specific bid remained identifiable in corporate treasury disclosures. BitMine Immersion Technologies, listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker BMNR, said in a September 8 press release that its crypto treasury reached 5,929,198 ETH as of September 7 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, valued at a $2,495 Coinbase reference price.
That figure represents about 4.9% of the roughly 122 million ETH circulating supply, placing the firm 97% of the way to its self-declared “Alchemy of 5%” target. BitMine said 5,067,309 of those tokens were staked, producing projected annualised staking revenue of $330 million at a trailing seven-day yield of 2.61%.
Exchange balances have declined in parallel. Independent on-chain trackers put exchange reserves near multi-year lows in a 14.9 million to 15.5 million ETH range this week. Circulating supply stood at 122.038 million ETH, according to CoinGecko. CoinGecko also listed aggregate treasury holdings at 7,942,552 ETH. Network gas fees, the fees paid to include transactions in an Ethereum block, hovered near 1.2 gwei during the afternoon bounce.
The steady fee level indicates that renewed on-chain activity from stablecoin transfers and real-world asset (RWA) settlements had not yet stretched blockspace capacity. CoinGecko’s same-day event feed also listed those stablecoin and RWA inflows as a Friday driver.
Quantum research surfaces again, but treated as a medium-term item
Separately, community attention returned to Ethereum’s cryptography roadmap after co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed EIP-8288, a design for recursive Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge (STARK) mempools that could lower the gas cost of quantum-resistant signatures and privacy protocols. The proposal extends work described in Buterin’s earlier Lean Ethereum roadmap and the network’s Post-Quantum Security team formed in January 2026. Markets treated the update as a medium-term protocol matter rather than a Friday catalyst.
CoinGecko separately flagged research saying the estimated cost of a quantum attack on Ethereum had fallen. That item was not the driver of the $2,600 reclaim.
Levels to watch into next week’s FOMC
The technical map into the FOMC is straightforward. Support sits in the Thursday-to-Friday low band between $2,430 and $2,440, followed by the round-number level at $2,400. Resistance is the session high near $2,648, then $2,700.
Polymarket contracts displayed on CoinGecko’s event feed priced the odds of an ETH close above $2,600 in September at 62.5% and above $2,700 at 36.5%, treating the $2,600 handle as the live line and the $2,700 area as a stretch target. A sustained daily close above $2,600 would keep the $2,700-to-$2,800 zone in analyst crosshairs.
The inflation sequence for this policy meeting is now complete, and the debate over the next 48 hours centers on whether the energy-led heat in both the PPI and CPI reports leaves the Fed enough room to hold rates at the current 3.50% to 3.75% target range or forces a 25-basis-point increase.
Fed funds futures pricing continues to lean toward a hike, and Chair Kevin Warsh’s press conference on September 16 will accompany an updated Summary of Economic Projections that traders will read closely for the 2026 dot plot. Ether’s bid, anchored by staking-enabled ETF demand, a corporate treasury base above 7.9 million ETH in aggregate, and declining exchange reserves, will be tested against that outcome.
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