CoinShares reports $434 million weekly outflows from digital asset funds as US inflation runs hot

Crypto investment funds just had a rough week, and the culprit wasn’t a hack or an exchange collapse. It was a spreadsheet from the US government. Global digital asset investment products saw $434 million in net outflows for the week, according to a CoinShares report published October 16, 2026. The selling followed a pair of US economic releases that came in hotter than Wall Street expected: September inflation and September retail sales. The numbers that spooked the market Start with inflation. The US Consumer Price Index for September rose 0.6% month-over-month and 3.7% year-over-year. The consensus forecast had called for 3.6% annually. Gasoline did a lot of the heavy lifting. Fuel prices accounted for about half of the monthly increase. Then came retail sales. Spending grew 0.8% month-over-month in September, well above the roughly 0.3% that forecasters anticipated. August’s figure was also revised up to 1.3%. Why crypto funds felt it The flows CoinShares tracks come from exchange-traded products and similar vehicles. These let investors gain exposure to Bitcoin and other digital assets through a traditional brokerage account. The week’s outflows marked a reversal from previous...