Bitcoin breaks $87,000: How the crypto rally affects tech stocks

Bitcoin reached a price of $86,772 on September 21, 2026, after the cryptocurrency marked a daily high of $86,837. The rally brought average investors in US Bitcoin ETFs back into profit for the first time since January 2026, above their estimated cost basis of $81.72, as Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart reported on Monday morning. The rally occurred despite regulatory setbacks and a more restrictive monetary policy stance from the US Federal Reserve.

Bitcoin ETFs manage $98.8 billion

US Bitcoin ETFs—managed by BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, and Morgan Stanley—achieved net positive inflows of over $6 million in the week before September 21. On Thursday and Friday of that week alone, nearly $593 million flowed into the ETF vehicles according to Coinglass data. The total assets under management of Bitcoin ETFs currently stands at $98.8 billion.

The SEC approved Bitcoin ETFs in 2024. The funds experienced the most successful launch in the history of exchange-traded products, as retail investors can now invest in Bitcoin through traditional brokerage accounts without having to deal with cold storage and private keys. The current price is about 30% below the all-time high of $126,080 that Bitcoin reached in October 2025, before a massive liquidation event of over $19 billion in bets unwound.

Decoupling from tech stocks becomes visible

Bitcoin and tech stocks showed a marked divergence in the first half of 2026: Bitcoin ended the first six months with a decline of nearly 33%, while tech stocks and the Nasdaq 100 posted double-digit gains in the same period. Analysts interpreted this development as evidence of a decoupling between crypto and traditional tech markets.

In mid-September 2026, this decoupling continued. While tech stocks suffered from AI-driven sector selloffs, Bitcoin moved independently. In early 2026, investors had increasingly shifted into artificial intelligence stocks as Bitcoin fell. The recent rally, however, played out despite persistent uncertainty in the tech market.

Rally defies regulatory setbacks

Bitcoin continued its upward movement even though the US Senate narrowly blocked the CLARITY Act in the week before September 21. After the rejection, Bitcoin initially fell below $76,000 but quickly recovered and broke above the $86,000 mark. Experts described the performance as "resilient."

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates in September 2026 for the first time since 2023. The central bank had previously signaled it was in no rush to cut rates, which had contributed to Bitcoin's earlier decline. Despite the more restrictive monetary policy, Bitcoin ignored the news and benefited from investors increasingly betting on the so-called debasement trade—a strategy that wagers on currency devaluation and scarce assets.

The rally began in August 2026 after the US Treasury Department announced it would at least double the volume of its long-duration bond buybacks. Bitcoin subsequently posted its best week since 2023.

Institutional adoption gains momentum

Parallel to the price recovery, traditional financial institutions are increasingly integrating digital assets into their infrastructure. Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest credit institution, confirmed on September 15, 2026, a digital custody service for European corporate and institutional clients. Following receipt of the MiCA license (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation), targeted for October 2026, the service is to launch by the end of 2026. At launch, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and selected stablecoins and e-money tokens such as USDC, EURC, and EURAU will be covered. The bank will manage customer keys through hardware-based generation, multi-signature authorization, and shared warm/cold storage.

Anchorage Digital Bank N.A. expanded on September 16, 2026, its institutional custody to include Etherlink assets (Tezos Layer 2). The bank added xU3O8, a physically backed uranium concentrate token from Uranium.io with a market capitalization of approximately $9 million. This marks regulated bank custody of tokenized real-world assets held in separate, bankruptcy-remote accounts alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC, and USDT.

Circles' public mainnet Arc went live on September 18, 2026, with over 100 applications. Founding validators include BlackRock, Visa, DTCC, ICE, and Mastercard.

Analysts discuss year-end target

On September 19, 2026, Bitcoin broke through the $81,000 mark. Since then, analysts have debated whether the cryptocurrency could reach $90,000, $100,000, or more by year-end. A forecast compilation from July 23, 2026, had documented analyst predictions ranging from $38,000 to $250,000. Bulls pointed to increasing institutional adoption and effects of the Bitcoin halving as supporting factors.

Whether Bitcoin has permanently abandoned its earlier correlation with tech stocks or whether the current divergence is only temporary remains open. However, the data shows that Bitcoin in September 2026 is making independent price movements—regardless of volatility in the tech sector and despite a more restrictive macroeconomic environment.