Morning Minute: Bitcoin Hits $86,000 as Oil Slides and ETFs Bid

Crypto majors continue their climb while alt leaders hit new ATHs. What’s driving the recent run up?

Tyler Warner · 23 Sep 2026 · 5 min read

Wire content from Decrypt

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. And check out our daily news show ‘FOMO HOUR’ covering all of the top stories and market action.

GM!

Today’s top news:

Crypto majors cool after recent rally; BTC at $85.3k
ZEC and HYPE hit new ATHs as alts continue rally
BTC ETFs see $715M in net inflows; ETH has $162M
CME to launch Bitcoin Cash and Uni futures on Oct 19, both surge
Robinhood Crypto teases something coming for stock tokens, RH Chain leaders jump

📈 Bitcoin Hits $86,000 as Oil Slides and ETFs Bid

Bitcoin pushed through $86,500 Tuesday and is up about 14% on the week, taking total crypto market cap above $3 trillion. Spot Bitcoin ETFs took in $999 million Monday. And 97 of the top 100 coins are green over seven days. The crypto tides are turning.

Alongside the Bitcoin pump, ETH hit $2,750. SOL pushed to $120. Hype, ZEC and VVV all hit new ATHs. And even the NFT leader CryptoPunks have caught a bid, running past a $90k floor.

Wall St is also on the move. The Nasdaq Composite closed at a record Monday, up 2.26% for its best day since June, with Intel gaining 12% and AMD adding 10% as it crossed a $1 trillion market cap. Chipmakers extended that into Tuesday for their longest winning streak since April.

BitcoinBTC · USD$85,804+13%24H7D1M1YYTDSep 16Sep 18Sep 20Sep 21Sep 23$87.2k$83.3k$79.5k$75.6k24h HighHigh$87,25124h LowLow$85,266VolVol$1.6BMarket projectionsOdds by MyriadToday$84,000 to $86,000$84k–$86k65% chance This weekBelow $86,000Below $86k53% chance This monthBelow $86,000Below $86k53% chance→Buy Bitcoin with USDTPowered by Jupiter$50$100$500BuyPrice data by CoinGeckoCoinGeckoMore Bitcoin news and projections →

The oil selloff helped. Brent briefly slipped below $98 and WTI under $93, the lowest since September 8, after reports that Iran offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within days if Washington eases pressure. Trump told the UN General Assembly he expects a deal right after November’s midterms, and Saudi Arabia is working to restart its East-West pipeline by the weekend.

Coming back to crypto, the setup for the next bull market is becoming clear. The SEC and CFTC are providing market structure clarity without the CLARITY ACT. There is a massive tokenization boom happening and still in its infancy, with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev likely leading the way after showing off what types of primitives can be spun up in just weeks with tokenized stocks on Robinhood Chain. Those who were expecting an early October bottom are slowly capitulating, as are retail buyers ($999M in ETF inflows for Bitcoin was the biggest day since October 2025).

So hang on to your seats. The next crypto bull market may very well be off and running…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

Crypto majors are cooling off this morning; BTC -0.3% at $85.3k; ETH -1% at $2,720; SOL even at $117; HYPE even at $95; ZEC +7% at $1,620
Top alt movers include BCH (+26%), ZRO (+21%), TIA (+15%) and UNI (+12%)
Oil -2% at $91; Gold -0.1% at $4,340
Stock futures are slightly red as yields rise; DOW -0.2%, Nasdaq -0.3%
CME will launch Bitcoin Cash and Uniswap futures October 19 pending regulatory review, in standard and Micro sizes, making them its tenth and eleventh single-asset crypto contracts
Lummis said Democrats chose “visceral hatred” for Trump over passing the Clarity Act, while crediting Gillibrand and Alsobrooks as honest brokers in negotiations that grew the bill from 300 pages to over 600
The CFTC warned that “mention markets” carry heightened manipulation risk and can only be offered in limited circumstances, listing four factors exchanges must weigh before listing contracts on what someone will say
A single repeating trade size near $5,499 made up 57% of Kalshi’s sampled ETH perp volume, with $2,500 and $5,000 clips accounting for 54% of bitcoin perps, which Kalshi attributes to its market maker incentive program but others are calling obvious wash trading
The SEC sent a crypto custody proposal to OMB covering broker-dealers and investment companies, letting firms hold non-security crypto without special registration and confirming advisers can use state-chartered trusts
Coinbase is building post-quantum custody for its roughly $250 billion in assets, designed to support whatever signature scheme Bitcoin adopts, using programmable HSMs
BlackRock said AI agents will need machine-native settlement rails in a whitepaper called The Machine-Native Economy, naming stablecoins as the likely leader and floating tokenized claims on compute as a tradable, collateralizable asset

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

The Bitcoin ETFs saw $715M in net inflows on Tuesday; the ETH ETFs saw $162M in inflows; and the SOL ETFs saw $29M
21Shares listed Europe’s first Zcash ETP on Euronext Paris and Amsterdam alongside an ETHFI product, both physically backed at a 2.5% annual fee, a month after Grayscale’s US Zcash ETF debut

Meme Coin Tracker

Meme leaders were mostly green led by Pengu and Bonk; DOGE +2%, SHIB even, PEPE -4%, PENGU +15%, TRUMP +1%, SPX -5%, BONK +12%
Robinhood chain leaders were green up 10-30%; Pons +10% to $480M; AI +10% at $270M; Cashcat -1% at $165M; Boner +25%, Meme +33%, Musebook +60% and Shroom +60% led top movers
Solana top movers were led by SI +250%, Jeanphil +190%, OTC +90%, GP +65% and Ember +28%; Ansem -1% to $170M

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Hyperliquid led onchain protocols in revenue with $2.37M, followed by Pump at $1.92M, Stonk at $1.27M and Pons at $378k
Near’s Confidential Intents TVL passed its public TVL for the first time ever

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

NFT leaders were green led by Punks again; Punks +6% at 34 ETH, BAYC +3% at 6.85 ETH, Pudgy +3% at 3.52 ETH
Identity MD (+13%) and Milady (+20%) led top movers; FWAIR PFPs +70% to 3.7 ETH
CryptoPunks saw 37 sales in the past day as the floor moved up to 34 ETH
Jack Butcher’s Credits debuted at a 0.03 ETH floor with 760 ETH volume (120k supply)