Bitcoin is holding near $86,000 after U.S. spot exchange-traded funds logged a third straight week of net inflows, even as daily creations have slowed and sellers continue to defend the area just above $87,000.
The largest cryptocurrency traded at $85,790 early Monday, around 6:15 AM UTC, up 1.05% on the session. The day’s range ran from $85,444 to $86,930. Market value stood near $1.72 trillion, with about $19.8 billion changing hands over 24 hours. Bitcoin remains well below its 52-week high of $126,198—as per CoinGecko recorded data.
The flow picture is firmer than the price chart. Farside Investors data show U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs took in $2.39 billion in the week ended September 25 and a further $82.9 million in the week ended October 2. That followed a mid-September turn back to net creations, leaving three consecutive weekly inflow prints on the tracker.
The latest week is an order of magnitude smaller than the late-September surge, and Farside’s October 2 row still showed no figure for BlackRock’s fund, so that weekly total can be revised.
Inflows Narrow, and BlackRock Carries the Bid
The week ended September 25 was the strongest since the run-up to last October’s peak. Daily net inflows on Farside’s table were $999.0 million on September 21, $714.7 million on September 22, $346.9 million on September 23, $190.7 million on September 24, and $134.5 million on September 25. The sequence faded each session, but it stayed positive.
The following week did not. September 28 and 29 were modestly green, at $31.0 million and $66.2 million, respectively. September 30 then reversed, with $148.7 million leaving the complex and ending a nine-session inflow streak. October opened with $102.7 million on the 1st, led by a $195.6 million intake into BlackRock’s IBIT, and a partial $31.7 million on the 2nd. Fidelity’s FBTC was the main offset, with a $125.6 million outflow on September 30 and a further $60.7 million on October 1.
Cumulative net inflows since the funds launched in January 2024 stood at $57.7 billion on Farside’s table. IBIT alone accounted for $65.6 billion of cumulative creations, more than the group total, because older products such as Grayscale’s GBTC remain deeply negative on a cumulative basis. The split matters: the latest week’s net figure stayed positive largely because IBIT absorbed more than the rest of the complex gave back.
Ether funds did not match that pattern. Spot Ether ETFs recorded net outflows into the start of October, a contrast that has kept Bitcoin’s share of regulated crypto demand elevated even as its own daily prints cooled.
Price Stalls Under $87,000 as the Macro Bid Softens
Price has not confirmed the flow turn. Bitcoin pushed toward $87,100 on October 2 and then slipped back, a rejection near $87,000 that left leveraged longs exposed. By October 3, the coin was back near $84,600. Early Monday’s bounce toward $86,000 recovered part of that drop, but it did not clear the band that has capped rallies since late September.
Traders are treating $86,000 to $88,000 as near-term supply and $82,000 to $84,000 as the first area of demand. A daily close above $88,000 would put $90,000 back in view. Another failure leaves the mid-$80,000s as a range rather than a base for a new leg higher. Bitcoin is still about 32% below its October 2025 high, so the market is repairing a drawdown, not extending a breakout.
The macro backdrop explains some of the hesitation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said on October 2 that nonfarm payrolls rose by 29,000 in September and that unemployment held at 4.2%. Both were little changed. Average hourly earnings rose 0.1% on the month and 3.0% over the year. The soft print cooled talk of another Federal Reserve hike at the October 28 meeting.
The CME FedWatch tool has shifted toward a hold, after markets had priced a much higher chance of a quarter-point increase earlier in the week. Softer labor data helped risk assets at the margin, but Bitcoin’s reaction has been measured: a gain of about 1% over the week, not a trend change.
October’s seasonal reputation is doing less work than the flows. The month has often been one of Bitcoin’s stronger stretches, and the first two trading sessions were green for the ETFs. The amounts, though, are small next to the $2.39 billion week that repaired 2026’s flow balance. Without a fresh acceleration in creations, or a clear break of $87,000 to $88,000, the setup remains a standoff between steady institutional demand and overhead supply.
What would break it is visible in the same data. A run of daily inflows back toward the hundreds of millions, rather than the low tens, would show the late-September bid was not a one-week event. A close above $88,000 would show that bid is reaching the spot market. Until one of those prints, the three-week inflow streak is support, not a signal.
Also read: Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX Still Hold Over 30,000 Bitcoin: Why Is He Not Selling?
