Back Link
Reader View

Crypto Funds Add $858M as Clarity Act Drives Market Optimism

finance.yahoo.com · Mon, May 11, 2026 at 7:31 PM GMT+8

Digital asset investment products just pulled in nearly $860 million in a single week, extending a six-week streak of inflows as momentum builds around the U.S. Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.

Inflows hit $857.9 million last week, the largest since late April, pushing total assets under management to $160 billion, according to CoinShares’ Monday report.

Bitcoin led inflows with $706.1 million, bringing its YTD total to $4.9 billion, while altcoins also gained traction, with Ethereum attracting $77.1 million, Solana with $47.6 million, and XRP $39.6 million.

Meanwhile, short-Bitcoin products recorded $14.4 million in outflows, the largest this year, suggesting investors are unwinding bearish hedges as confidence builds.

The surge came as Bitcoin briefly climbed above $80,000 mid-week, supported in part by improving sentiment tied to the CLARITY Act’s progress through Congress.

The world’s largest crypto briefly topped $82,000 over the weekend before pulling back to the $81,000 range, according to CoinGecko data.

The CLARITY Act moves to a key Senate markup this Thursday, with a June floor vote planned and the White House targeting July 4 passage.

“The Clarity Act has been the major driver for the inflows — it's something both the crypto industry and institutions have been waiting for since last year,” Nic Puckrin, co-founder of Coin Bureau, told Decrypt.

He added the Act is “a catalyst rather than the sole reason,” as institutional interest has been “building in the background this whole time,” and that resolving the legislation would “remove a major regulatory obstacle.”

White House Targets July 4 for Clarity Act Passage: Crypto Adviser

Dean Chen, analyst at crypto exchange Bitunix, described the current trend as "capital rotation and dip-buying activity rather than the beginning of a fully confirmed long-term bull cycle."

Bitcoin retraced nearly 50% from its October 2025 all-time high of around $126,200, he told Decrypt, making recent inflows look more like value-seeking than structural re-rating.

"I believe the recent inflows are more reflective of spillover capital from overheated traditional risk assets and value-seeking flows into heavily corrected crypto assets," Chen said.

A coalition of major banking trade groups wrote to the Senate Banking Committee on Friday, saying that Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD)'s proposed compromise language contains loopholes that could allow crypto firms to effectively pay interest-like rewards using stablecoins.

Tillis responded that he and Alsobrooks "respectfully agree to disagree," signaling the committee intends to proceed regardless.

Puckrin said that if banking opposition stops the CLARITY Act “in its tracks,” it would hit sentiment, though the bigger risks remain “geopolitics, energy shocks, and inflation.”

He warned that without a near-term resolution to the Iran conflict, rising oil prices could trigger broader inflation and tighter liquidity, hitting crypto as “the most liquidity-sensitive asset there is.”

On macro risks, Chen flagged this week's CPI print as the key short-term catalyst, warning the backdrop "increasingly resembles a 'slowing growth but sticky inflation' environment."

A hotter-than-expected inflation reading could reprice Fed cut expectations, lift Treasury yields, and strengthen the dollar, conditions under which recent inflows "may prove to be more tactical and short-term in nature rather than evidence of a durable long-term trend reversal," he said.