Bitcoin holds above $111,600 as Nasdaq seeks SEC approval to trade tokenized stocks alongside traditional securities.
Could Bitcoin and Ethereum new highs come before 2025’s close? Total assets in US money market funds climbed to a record $7.26 trillion for the week ending September 3, a seven-day jump of about $52.37 billion, according to data from the Investment Company Institute (ICI).
ICI’s weekly report to the Federal Reserve, released Tuesday, shows retail money market funds adding $18.90 billion, pushing their total to $2.96 trillion. Institutional funds saw an even larger increase from $33.47 billion to $4.29 trillion.
The researchers believe most of the money could trickle into more riskier assets like Bitcoin and altcoins, which could cause a Q4 2025 bull market run.
A money market fund is a type of mutual fund that invests in highly liquid, short-term debt instruments such as US Treasury bills, certificates of deposit, and commercial paper. Investors became fond of MMFs during the COVID-19 crisis of early 2020, when many considered the vehicles as “safety nets” from market turmoil.
Crypto analysts see the buildup in money market funds as a potential fuel for the next rally in digital assets. David Duong, Institutional Head of Research at Coinbase, asserted that rate cuts from the Federal Reserve could push outflows from these funds into riskier assets like equities and cryptocurrencies.
“There is over $7 trillion inside money market funds, and all of that is retail money,” Duong said in an interview earlier this week. “As those rate cuts start to come in, all of that retail cash flow is really going to enter other asset classes such as equities, crypto, and others.”
Economists expect the Federal Reserve to lower its target interest rate at its September 16 meeting, with market pricing in at least a 25-basis-point cut. Around 19% of Polymarket predictions anticipate a 50-basis-point reduction, while 78% see the 25-basis-point trim more practical.
“There is a little more than $7 trillion in money-market funds that yield about 4.5%,” Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Strategist at Cresset, explained in an interview with Boutique Family Office & Private Wealth Management. “If that yield gets knocked down to 4.25% or 4%, that could prompt more investors to redeploy cash into stocks.”
Despite the jitter surrounding cash outflows into digital assets, crypto markets remain subdued. Bitcoin traded flat above $112,000 on Monday, while Ethereum consolidated at $4,350. The CD20 index, which measures the performance of the largest digital assets, was slightly above 4,000, gaining 1.6%.
The August Nonfarm Payrolls report showed just 22,000 jobs added, far below expectations of 75,000. The weak print pushed futures markets higher and dragged two-year Treasury yields to yearly lows, with investors pricing 72 basis points of rate cuts this year.
Crypto markets’ options data confirmed a cautious stance. QCP Capital reported that risk reversals are increasingly skewed toward puts, and short-dated implied volatility elevated ahead of Thursday’s Consumer Price Index release.
Some economists view the record buildup in money market funds as a sign of underlying economic strain. According to a pseudonymous market strategist on X named EndGame Macro, the numbers are similar to previous periods of stress.
“We only see buildups like this when investors want yield but don’t want to take on duration or equity risk,” EndGame Macro wrote. “It happened after the dot-com bust, again after the GFC, and in 2020-21 when rates were floored and money waited on the sidelines.”
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