The digital asset ETF market experienced broad weakness on September 16, with negative daily returns across Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana-focused products. Bitcoin ETFs generally declined around 3.5%–4%, reflecting continued pressure on the underlying cryptocurrency. Despite the price weakness, Bitcoin products recorded approximately $140 million in aggregate daily net inflows, led by the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) with roughly $134 million and Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) with about $53 million, partially offset by approximately $42 million in outflows from ARKB.
Ethereum ETFs experienced steeper declines, with many core products falling roughly 5% and leveraged products posting even larger losses. Despite the selloff, the Ethereum ETF group recorded approximately $120 million in aggregate daily net inflows, including about $81 million into ETHA, indicating that investor demand remained positive even as prices declined. XRP-related ETFs were the weakest segment, with standard products generally falling around 11%–12% and leveraged XRP products dropping more than 20%. XRP funds also experienced modest aggregate net outflows of approximately $2 million, reinforcing the particularly weak daily performance of the category.
Solana ETFs also moved sharply lower, with many products declining approximately 5% and leveraged funds losing more than 10%. However, Solana products still generated approximately $9.6 million in aggregate daily net inflows, supported by around $7.1 million into the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) and $3.9 million into the Grayscale Solana Staking ETF (GSOL), partially offset by outflows elsewhere. Overall, the day’s data points to a broad risk-off move across crypto ETFs, with XRP experiencing the most significant losses. At the same time, continued net inflows into Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana products suggest that investor demand persisted despite substantial short-term price declines.
From the evening of September 15 through the morning of September 16, the cryptocurrency market remained under significant selling pressure, with total market capitalization falling to approximately $2.67 trillion, down 1.1% as of 6:00 a.m. ET. The decline followed an even sharper 3.9% market drop during the September 15 evening session, signaling continued weakness across digital assets. Major Layer-1 cryptocurrencies were broadly lower, with Bitcoin declining 1.4% to $75,870, Ethereum falling 3.0% to $2,403, Solana dropping 3.6% to $97.19, and Cardano losing 5.2%. XRP was one of the hardest-hit major assets, falling 8.2% over 24 hours and 9.4% over seven days, while Avalanche, Hedera, and Polkadot also posted notable declines. NEAR Protocol was a rare exception, gaining 0.7% on the day, although it remained slightly negative for the week.
Losses were especially pronounced among several altcoins. Stellar declined 9.4%, XRP fell 8.2%, Ondo and Aave each dropped 6.4%, and Celestia lost 6.0%. Zcash stood out against the broader selloff, climbing 5.3% to $1,203, making it the most notable gainer in the September 16 morning update despite remaining down 2.7% over seven days. The weakness represented a continuation of the September 15 session, when XRP had fallen 11.3%, Stellar 9.4%, Cronos 7.8%, and Cardano 7.6%.
Metaverse and DeFi assets also participated in the broader decline. Internet Computer fell 3.4%, Axie Infinity declined 3.4%, Klaytn dropped 5.4%, and Chiliz lost 3.6%. Within DeFi, Aave fell 6.4%, Chainlink declined 5.1%, Uniswap dropped 4.9%, and Cronos lost 3.7%. Seven-day performance was also negative across most of these assets, with Chainlink down 12.1%, Aave down 7.2%, and Cronos down 7.3%, highlighting that the weakness extended beyond a single trading session.
The report also highlighted continued token buyback and burn activity across major DeFi protocols. Approximately $29.8 million worth of tokens were removed from circulation during the week ending September 13, slightly above the prior week’s $29.7 million. Hyperliquid led with roughly $14.7 million in buybacks, representing about 49% of total tracked activity, followed by Pump.fun at $4.4 million and Uniswap at $3.9 million. PancakeSwap contributed approximately $2 million, while Raydium recorded $1.4 million and saw the largest proportional weekly increase in the tracker at nearly 300%. Despite the buyback activity, the report notes that HYPE remained under pressure amid outflows from spot HYPE ETFs dating back to September 8.
Overall, the September 16 update reflects a broad and sustained risk-off period for the cryptocurrency market, with weakness spreading across large-cap cryptocurrencies, Layer-1 networks, DeFi, and metaverse tokens. Bitcoin remained below $76,000 while Ethereum traded near $2,400, and many altcoins experienced larger percentage declines. At the same time, isolated strength in Zcash and NEAR, along with continued token buyback and burn activity, provided some pockets of resilience within an otherwise challenging market environment.
