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- SEC Order No. 34-106268 lets Nasdaq Texas name Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP as digital commodities, opening a 15% NAV allowance for actively managed crypto ETFs.
- Crypto market cap climbed to $2.711 trillion after a $566.90 million short squeeze liquidated 105,019 traders in 24 hours.
- Fed Governor Christopher Waller's disinflation remarks drove the rally, with spot Bitcoin ETFs pulling in $730.87 million and Ethereum ETFs adding $141.24 million.
- Zcash jumped 20% to $1,023, up 2,300% year over year, as OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra agent scandal on Germany's DseWiki revived demand for privacy coins.
- XRP ETFs extended inflows to 11 straight sessions and $1.68 billion cumulative, while the Senate's CLARITY Act cloture vote nears on Sept. 15.
On the morning of Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, the cryptocurrency market shifted into aggressive growth, triggering one of the largest short squeezes in recent days. According to CoinGlass, the positions of 105,019 traders worth a total of $566.90 million were forcibly liquidated over the past 24 hours, with short positions accounting for $478.91 million. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.711 trillion, or approximately $2.82 trillion including derivatives.
Macroeconomic developments triggered the trend reversal after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller acknowledged signs of disinflation and supported keeping interest rates unchanged at the Sept. 15–16 meeting. This eased risks coming from Asia, where the yen strengthened by 2% amid expectations of a rate hike by the country's central bank.
Against this backdrop, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $730.87 million in daily inflows, with BlackRock's IBIT accounting for $454 million, pushing total BTC fund assets above $103.34 billion, equivalent to 6.32% of the entire Bitcoin supply. Ethereum ETFs added $141.24 million, triggering $115.08 million in ETH short liquidations.
The current liquidity inflow coincided with the release of a key document from the U.S. regulator that changes the rules of the game for altcoins.
SEC creates the "Big Four". XRP is included too
The main legal event of the morning was SEC Order No. 34-106268. The agency granted accelerated approval to Nasdaq Texas, LLC to amend Rule 5711(d) governing Commodity-Based Trust Shares.
The document officially introduces three changes:
- establishes a definition of a "digital commodity" within the exchange's rules
- legalizes actively managed crypto strategies
- allows funds to hold up to 15% of their net asset value (NAV) in instruments that initially fail to meet strict listing criteria
To demonstrate how the new rule works, the SEC directly cited a practical example in the order involving a trust holding Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP, officially describing them as "digital commodities that currently meet the eligibility criteria."
This development brings together a chain of decisions made in 2025 and 2026. First, in September 2025, the SEC reduced the approval period for crypto ETPs from 240 to 75 days. Then, on March 17, 2026, a joint SEC and CFTC interpretation officially established a list of crypto commodities that included BTC, ETH, SOL and XRP, as well as ADA, AVAX, DOGE, SHIB, LINK and others.
In June, regulators approved T. Rowe Price's multi-asset ETF, trading under the ticker TKNZ, whose flexibility allows managers to rotate these assets within a single basket.
Despite the SEC's "commodity" designation, it remains merely the agency's interpretation rather than law. The market is therefore focused on the Senate's cloture vote on the CLARITY Act, scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 2:15 p.m.
The House of Representatives has already complicated the timeline by unexpectedly canceling its final September votes, which will most likely delay the law's final passage until the post-election lame-duck session.
Nevertheless, lobbying pressure is easing. In an official letter dated Sept. 5, the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA) withdrew its previous objections regarding DeFi and adopted a neutral position.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has already commented on the situation briefly: "Making America the crypto capital of the world is within reach — let's finish the job."
Zcash has risen 2,300%. What does AI have to do with it?
While institutional investors are building transparent, regulated funds, the alternative asset sector has experienced an anomalous surge. Privacy-focused token Zcash (ZEC) gained 20% over 24 hours as per the TradingView chart, briefly touching $1,023 and entering the world's top 10 cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization of $16.96 billion.
ZEC has gained 94% over the past 30 days and more than 2,300% over the past year. The local move turned into a total short squeeze: CoinGlass data confirms $36.46 million in forced ZEC liquidations, including $34.5 million in short positions, while open interest reached $2.3 billion.
The immediate catalyst behind the rally's acceleration was the launch of OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra model, designed for fully autonomous computer use and scoring 98.6% on the ARC-AGI-3 benchmark. Shortly afterward, researchers Sydney von Arx and Cormac Slade Byrd discovered that OpenAI agents had gone rogue and secretly made more than 15,000 unauthorized edits to Germany's DseWiki to bypass restrictions.
This incident coincided with ZEC's long-term bullish trend and became a signal for market participants to reassess privacy risks.
The ability of AI agents to instantly analyze public blockchains and de-anonymize transactions has led investors to view Zcash's zero-knowledge technology as a cryptographic shield against automated surveillance.
In addition, Nasdaq's new 15% NAV buffer has opened a legal window for asset managers: they can now purchase ZEC for regulated multi-asset products as a defensive instrument, accelerating the avalanche of short-position closures.
Crypto market news: What comes next?
The current market momentum is accompanied by a major restructuring of the industry's internal landscape, where institutional recognition of advanced projects is unfolding alongside a strict cleanup of the ecosystem:
- Institutional demand for XRP: Spot XRP ETFs extended their inflow streak to 11 consecutive sessions, adding $6.14 million in a day and bringing cumulative inflows to $1.68 billion, while daily liquidations remained modest at $11.39 million. The supply of the RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger exceeded $1 billion, while the network itself was approved by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) for recording hashes of official statistics.
- Major on-chain flows: A large institutional player completed a four-day sell-off, unloading its final 29,735 ETH worth $72.1 million and bringing total sales to $417 million. By contrast, Abraxas Capital continues to hold a $291.4 million short hedge on Hyperliquid. Meanwhile, Multicoin Capital took profits by transferring another 150,000 HYPE worth $12.8 million to Coinbase.
- Altcoin cleanup and listings: Following the $1.7 million Notional Finance exploit, Binance applied its strict Monitoring Tag to AVA, GNS, SCR and TOWNS, while also announcing the listing of MarsCoin (MARSCOIN) with a Seed Tag. KuCoin and Kraken will conduct their own cleanup rounds on Sept. 7 and Sept. 11, respectively.
The past 48 hours have been a classic short squeeze driven by a reversal in the Fed's rhetoric and news from the SEC. The industry is entering a phase of maturity in which the key crypto commodities — BTC, ETH, SOL and XRP — are steadily absorbing liquidity through ETFs.
Nevertheless, the Bitcoin-to-gold ratio has climbed above 18, its highest level since January, while historically record ETF inflows have often preceded local technical corrections.
September's "Rektember" seasonality remains the main short-term risk factor ahead of the crucial week in the middle of the month, when the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision and the Senate vote on the CLARITY Act will converge on the same timeline.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
