Bitcoin ETF Inflows Soar to $2.39 Billion, But Altcoins Struggle to Follow
The US spot Bitcoin ETFs had their best week of the year, with $2.39 billion in inflows in 2026. However, this did not have a significant impact on the prices of other cryptocurrencies, such as Ether, XRP, and Dogecoin.
Bitcoin held around $83,000 after the ETF inflows, but its price fell 2.3% over the week. The $531 million in leveraged bets that were wiped out across the market in 24 hours added to the volatility. Leveraged traders borrow money to make bigger bets, and when prices move against them, exchanges force-close their positions, leading to sharper price swings.
Despite receiving fresh ETF money, only Bitcoin managed to hold its ground. The usual explanation is that Bitcoin is the safe bet in crypto, but a closer look at the supply numbers reveals a different story. Each week, the networks create new coins, either as rewards for the computers that keep them running or through scheduled unlocks. These new coins often get sold to cover costs, so a useful question is whether ETF buying is bigger than the new supply hitting the market.
Using last week's prices, the math shows that ETF buying is 9x new supply for Bitcoin, 12x for Ether, and 0.3x for Dogecoin. For XRP, the company behind it, Ripple, releases 1 billion XRP from locked escrow accounts every month, and the ETF buying of $75.59 million last week equals about 5% of a single monthly release. The real selling pressure is smaller, but it shows how modest the ETF demand still is for XRP and Dogecoin.
The problem for Ether is not demand, but yield. Ether's appeal to big investors is staking, where you lock up ETH to help secure the network and earn rewards. However, the staking pay is about 2.5% a year, which is less than the 5.24% Treasury yield. When a government bond pays twice what ETH staking does, with far less risk, the 'ETH as a yield asset' pitch gets harder to sell to a pension fund.
Bitcoin doesn't have this problem because it never pretended to pay interest. Its pitch is scarcity, and ETF buying at 9x new supply supports that pitch. XRP and Dogecoin, on the other hand, are still tied to the same things that always move them: legal news, Ripple announcements, and leveraged trading.