The US spot bitcoin ETFs took in $999 million on Monday. That is the most they have taken in on any day in our records, which start in April. BlackRock's IBIT took $381 million, ARK's fund $289 million and Fidelity's $239 million, and no fund had money go out.

Yesterday we told you the big funds had not driven this rally. The week to 18 September finished up just $6.1 million, after investors pulled $746 million out on the two days of the Fed meeting. Now they are buying.

Ether funds took in $270 million on Monday, also a record in our figures. Ether still slipped 0.2% overnight to $2,762 and has trailed bitcoin for two sessions running.

Bitcoin itself has barely moved since. It is $86,476 this morning, up 0.4%, a day after it reached its highest price since January. The fund buying landed on the day of the jump, and the price has held since rather than climbed.

All of this is happening while the Federal Reserve is raising rates. It raised them a week ago, the first rise since 2023, and St. Louis Fed president Alberto Musalem said this week that more rises are likely needed. On Polymarket, the bet on another quarter-point rise in October reads 54%.

Higher rates usually take money away from things like bitcoin. The funds bought a record amount on Monday anyway, in a week when the Fed is still pushing rates up. These buyers are not waiting for cheaper money.

If you own bitcoin, watch whether the funds keep buying at anything like this pace. If they do, this rally has a steady buyer behind it. Tuesday's figure comes out tonight, and we'll have it for you tomorrow.

Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange, now owns part of Circle. Circle is the company that issues the USDC stablecoin. A filing Circle made with the SEC on Tuesday shows Binance bought about 1.24 million shares at $80.84 each, 5% below where Circle's shares traded before the sale. It can't sell or hedge them for up to two years.

The two also signed a five-year deal to put USDC in front of Binance users, with a focus on emerging markets. Circle will pay Binance a monthly fee tied to how much USDC its users keep in certain wallets. It is their third USDC deal since late 2024 and it replaces the other two.

If you hold stablecoins on Binance, expect USDC to be pushed harder there. Binance now makes money when Circle's share price rises, as well as from the fees.

The US futures regulator is examining trades on the prediction market Kalshi. The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday night that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is looking at claims Kalshi inflated its volume in ether perpetual futures, contracts that track ether's price with no end date. In the trading records, the same trade of about $5,500 appears over and over.

Kalshi says wash trading, where one party trades with itself to fake activity, does not happen on its platform. It says the repeated trades came from market makers posting fixed prices that faster traders then took.

On the same day the CFTC warned the exchanges it oversees that contracts on whether someone will say a certain word are open to manipulation.

If you pick where to trade by volume, treat any venue's headline number as a claim until someone checks it.