Year I · No. XXXVIII
Weekly · Paris
Sun 20 September 2026
❦
The Crypto Chronicle · The Week in Review
Data as of 2026-09-20 08:00 UTC
Week 38
Circulation: public
International Sunday Edition
This week: Bitcoin and macroeconomics clearly dominate, ahead of altcoins (5 main themes).
In focus this week
BTC/Macro lead
ETF BTC +$433mn
S&P 500 ▲ +0.2% 24h
The Week's Editorial

Bitcoin breaks $80,000, but institutions stayed away

ETF flows, world indices and press sentiment: the crypto market in a single read.

▲   Section I  ·  Markets — Free to share Public edition
I
Of Cryptocurrencies
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◆ Market indices · Week 38 vs. 7d
MARKET CAP top 125 CMC BTC DOMINANCE BTC / total TOTAL3 excl. BTC, ETH TOTAL3ES excl. BTC, ETH, stables FEAR & GREED index 0–100
$2.80T 57.8% $866B $586B 71
13–20 SEP $2.70T → $2.80T 57.5% → 57.8% $837B → $866B $558B → $586B 61 → 71
Δ 7D ▲ +3.8% ▲ +0.3 pts ▲ +3.4% ▲ +5.1% ▲ +10.0 pts
MIN / MAX $2.64T / $2.83T 57.4% / 57.8% $819B / $876B $540B / $597B 50 / 71
◆ Top 20 cryptocurrencies (excluding stablecoins) weekly review
# Crypto Price 7d Range Week low Week high RSI 7d Week volume
1 BTC $80,479.03 ▲ +4.1% 9.3% $74,967.97 $81,951.00 58 $7.86bn
2 ETH $2,575.50 ▲ +2.1% 13.1% $2,358.88 $2,668.00 61 $5.24bn
4 BNB $749.66 ▲ +3.2% 9.9% $704.29 $773.76 60 $669mn
5 XRP $1.38 ▲ +1.0% 20.0% $1.25 $1.50 51 $1.73bn
7 SOL $108.84 ▲ +6.9% 19.3% $95.82 $114.32 60 $1.76bn
8 TRX $0.3401 ▲ +0.1% 3.1% $0.3319 $0.3421 57 $170mn
9 ZEC $1,449.61 ▲ +25.9% 53.1% $1,041.70 $1,595.35 76 $2.61bn
10 HYPE $90.98 ▲ +14.6% 25.8% $75.19 $94.57 67 $296mn
11 DOGE $0.08532 ▲ +0.6% 16.7% $0.07831 $0.09135 47 $426mn
13 LINK $12.01 ▲ +4.1% 19.6% $10.62 $12.70 58 $172mn
14 LEO $8.90 ▼ −1.7% 11.3% $8.50 $9.46 39 $48k
15 ADA $0.2205 ▲ +6.2% 23.5% $0.1903 $0.235 48 $220mn
16 XLM $0.1908 ▲ +5.7% 18.5% $0.1724 $0.2043 51 $164mn
17 UNI $8.82 ▲ +38.2% 58.3% $6.00 $9.50 72 $639mn
18 BCH $246.99 ▲ +9.2% 25.0% $212.80 $266.10 42 $83mn
21 NEAR $3.48 ▲ +48.2% 71.7% $2.28 $3.91 72 $981mn
22 LTC $57.15 ▲ +5.5% 17.9% $50.20 $59.21 54 $128mn
24 AVAX $9.61 ▲ +29.3% 51.0% $7.17 $10.83 56 $246mn
25 CC $0.1052 ▲ +6.8% 28.3% $0.08867 $0.1138 42 $24mn
26 M $1.76 ▲ +49.1% 58.4% $1.07 $1.70 49 $1mn

Method: current price and 7-day change from CoinMarketCap (real time). Weekly min/max, range and volume are computed from Binance daily candles over the last 7 days — the current price may therefore sit outside that range after a very recent move. Range = (max − min) / min, in %. 7-day RSI uses Wilder's formula (period 14) on weekly candles (or aggregated daily candles when unavailable). Top 20 by market capitalisation, excluding stablecoins. Cryptocurrencies not listed on Binance are shown as “—”.

Context
◆ Neutral sentiment — analysis based on the international press of the past 48 hours.
Sources CoinMarketCap.com (prices, volumes, market capitalisation)  ·  alternative.me (Fear & Greed Index)  ·  TradingView (Total3 / Total3ES definitions)
II
Of World Markets
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Quotes as of 20 September 2026 at 07:30 (Paris time).
NORTH AMERICA.
S&P 500 7,651 ▲ +0.2%
Nasdaq Comp. 29,644 ▲ +0.7%
Dow Jones 51,683 ▼ −0.2%
◆
EUROPE.
CAC 40 FR 8,065 ▼ −0.9%
DAX 40 DE 25,304 ▼ −0.9%
Euro Stoxx 50 6,236 ▼ −1.4%
ASIA-PACIFIC.
Nikkei JP 65,019 ▲ +1.4%
Hang Seng HK 24,751 ▲ +0.1%
SSE Comp. CN 3,912 ▲ +0.9%
KOSPI KR 6,894 ▲ +2.7%
◆
LATIN AMERICA.
IBOVESPA BR 185,229 ▼ −0.4%
IPC Mexico MX 63,376 ▼ −0.8%
EMERGING MARKETS.
Sensex IN 74,295 ▼ −0.1%
JSE Top 40 ZA 6,938 ▼ −0.9%
Reading
On the financial press agenda this week: Bitcoin · macroeconomics · altcoins · ETF flows · regulation.
Patience is companion of wisdom, not handmaid of concupiscence: patience is the friend of a good conscience, not the foe of innocence.
— Saint Augustine, Christian philosopher and theologian (354-430)
III
Of Institutional Flows
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◆ Verdict · Friday 18 September session
Buying into weakness.
While Bitcoin marks time (−0.74%), institutions are buying (+$433mn). And while altcoins lose ground (−3.59% to −2.03%), investors are coming in.
 
 
FLOWS
PRICE 24H
BTC
12 ETF
+$433mn
−0.74%
ETH
11 ETF
+$144mn
−2.03%
SOL
9 ETF
+$48mn
−3.59%
XRP
5 ETF
−$0mn
−3.53%
DOGE
3 ETF
+$0mn
−2.96%
Net total: +$624mn  ·  40 spot ETFs  ·  AUM $122.2bn
Sources SoSoValue.com (reported flows, assets under management)  ·  CoinMarketCap.com (24-hour change in the underlying)
◆ Who holds what · CFTC report

No unusual moves in Bitcoin or Ether this week.

Ether: Leveraged Funds short at 27% of open interest, mid-range by historical standards.

Bitcoin: Leveraged Funds short at 31% of open interest, mid-range by historical standards.

Outside crypto — Yen: Asset Managers turn net long (+54,415 contracts, 4.5 σ), absorbed by Dealers — 31% of open interest held by 13 reporting entities.

A net short does not signal a bearish view: most often it reflects hedging, or arbitrage between the spot and futures markets.

Source CFTC.gov — positions as of 15 September 2026, published 18 September 2026

IV
Of Technical Signals
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◆ The week in review · 20 September

The signal that will define this week for the patient reader is not the one most visible in any single daily edition. Bitcoin ended the period at $80,486, having broken above $80,000 during Friday's session, with its latest price sitting near the upper boundary of its Bollinger corridor — the upper band at $81,616, the 20-day average at $78,390. That proximity to the upper band, combined with a 38.2 per cent surge in weekly volume against the prior week, is not routine noise. It describes a market that moved with conviction.

The week had not promised as much. Monday and Tuesday saw Bitcoin pressing against a documented resistance level without piercing it, momentum hovering around the RSI50 threshold, sentiment measured and cautious. A legislative setback mid-week — a crypto regulatory bill failing in the upper chamber — sent prices back from that ceiling and briefly returned Bitcoin's momentum to the neutral side of the ledger. The macro backdrop compounded the difficulty: a confirmed 25-basis-point rate rise added institutional hesitation to regulatory disappointment. At mid-week the market looked less like one gathering for a break and more like one settling into range.

Friday rewrote that reading.

The volume surge that accompanied the break above $80,000 lends the move credibility a price print alone cannot supply. Yet one counterpoint deserves its place in this account. ETF flows for the week were net negative in aggregate: Bitcoin-linked funds attracted $6mn in net inflows, while Ethereum products suffered $140mn of outflows, leaving the weekly total at minus $134mn. Institutional capital, as measured by listed fund flows, did not lead this rally; it followed at best, or stood aside.

Elsewhere, the week produced two sharp divergences within the top twenty. UNI gained 42.7 per cent and ZEC 37.3 per cent — the latter having registered an RSI above 70 for several sessions, the sole asset in the panel to enter that territory. Against them, LEO slipped 1.7 per cent, a modest decline that nonetheless stood as the week's most notable loss within the upper tier.

The editorial barometer moved from 46.4 to 58.4 — neutral throughout, but shifting in character from cautious neutrality to something closer to composure. The week ended not with euphoria, which the data do not support, but with a threshold crossed and volume behind it.

◆ Bitcoin · technical map · 1W · 52 weeks · 20 September
RSI 70 · $99,488RSI 50 · $74,047RSI 30 · $40,018$80,486SepNovJanMarMayJulSep
RSI 70 (overbought)RSI 50 (neutral)RSI 30 (oversold)
◆ Weekly RSI map · Top 10weekly position · daily target prices
Weekly RSI · oversold / overbought pricesgap vs MA200305070MA200BTC$64,839$84,852$80,48658.1+14.1%ETH$1,913$2,776$2,58861.4+24.6%BNB$588.56$797.45$750.4659.6+19.3%XRP$0.9756$1.66$1.3851.4+8.7%SOL$68.96$121.41$108.9160.0+30.0%TRX$0.316$0.3519$0.339956.7+3.5%ZEC$243.85$1,531$1,45976.0+179.9%›HYPE$51.84$98.09$91.0966.7+60.3%›DOGE$0.06446$0.1009$0.0857846.7-2.2%LINK$7.92$14.14$12.0758.2+30.9%
◆ Weekly performance · Top 107-day price change
7-day performance · sorted best → worst0%−41%+41%ZEC+37.3%HYPE+17.8%SOL+9.7%LINK+7.8%BNB+4.8%BTC+4.7%ETH+4.5%DOGE+4.1%XRP+3.1%TRX+0.4%
The week in motion · weekly RSIheating upcoolingsteady (faded)last weekthis weekZEC 69HYPE 61ETH 59BNB 56TRX 56SOL 55LINK 55BTC 55XRP 50DOGE 4576 ZEC +7.467 HYPE +5.761 ETH +2.660 SOL +4.960 BNB +3.158 LINK +3.258 BTC +3.557 TRX51 XRP +1.647 DOGE +1.9in colour: the cryptos that moved · in grey: the steady ones, set back
Analysis based on the international press of the past 48 hours.