Spot Bitcoin ETFs added $242.30 million in net inflows on August 27, extending their streak to nine consecutive trading days of inflows. Spot Ethereum ETFs matched the pace with $235 million in inflows on the same day, marking their own ninth straight session of inflows. The parallel streaks follow a stretch of heavy institutional buying, with BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) contributing $209 million of a $338 million Bitcoin ETF inflow on August 24, while its Ethereum fund ETHA added $90.92 million of that day's $116 million Ethereum ETF haul. Bitcoin traded near $79,500 on August 28, up 1.1% over 24 hours, while Ether changed hands near $2,490 over the same period. Total net assets across spot Bitcoin ETFs stood at $79.16 billion, with trading volume reaching $8.23 billion according to CoinGlass data.
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is preparing for another interest-rate hike in September, with markets increasingly betting on this outcome. Forecasts are growing in Tokyo financial markets that the BOJ will raise interest rates twice this year, with a policy-rate increase next month followed by another in December. The BOJ will hold a two-day monetary policy meeting on September 17-18 to discuss whether to raise rates again, according to the central bank. Overnight-index swaps are pricing in around an 82% probability of a rate hike, a significant increase from roughly 23% before the July meeting. If the bank raises rates in September, it would come just three months after the previous increase in June, marking a sharp acceleration from the roughly six-month intervals the BOJ has maintained until now.
The dollar-yen exchange rate nearly reached 164 last month, pushing the Japanese currency to its weakest level since 1986, or almost 40 years. After the US and Japan conducted joint yen-buying intervention in late July, the rate briefly fell to the 156 range before climbing back to around 160 this month. The Nikkei newspaper reported that a Japanese government official said conditions set by the US for joint intervention included faster rate hikes by the BOJ, indicating that Washington is pressing the central bank for additional tightening because Japan's low policy rate is viewed as a major driver of yen weakness. The BOJ is also wary that a weak yen could reignite inflation, with Japan's corporate goods price index rising 7.2% in July from a year earlier and consumer inflation excluding fresh food and energy at 1.9%.
US spot Ethereum ETFs netted $1.633 billion across 60 trading sessions, significantly outperforming Bitcoin funds which managed $173 million over the same period. The gap is wider than raw figures suggest, as Bitcoin's fund complex was eight times larger when the window opened, making the two totals sit on very different bases. Ethereum's intake equals 15.51% of the assets its funds held before the window opened, against just 0.2% for Bitcoin. Bitcoin funds experienced heavy two-way traffic, taking in $5.87 billion and giving back $5.69 billion, ending close to where they started. Ethereum has gained 34.74% since June 3, against 11.91% for Bitcoin, with Ethereum holders pulling 1.4 million coins off exchanges since June 3, marking an 18% drop in tradable supply according to Santiment data.
Ethereum holders pulled 1.8 million coins off exchanges since June 3, with the drain accelerating as the rally began. Santiment noted that ETH held on exchanges fell from about 7.69 million coins on June 3 to 6.28 million on August 27, representing an 18% drop in tradable supply. Bitcoin balances rose 0.25% over the same stretch, with Santiment placing current BTC holdings on exchanges near the upper end of their recent range. A further 275,000 coins moved off exchanges after August 19, pushing holdings to the lowest of the period. Ethereum rose roughly 27% between August 16 and August 27, while Bitcoin gained 26.5% across August so far, with neither asset falling when their holders chose opposite directions. Bitcoin's exchange share dropped to 6.50% of total supply on July 28, climbing to roughly 6.65% since, while Ethereum's share sits at 3.717%.
