The U.S. legislative slowdown tied to the Clarity Act coincided with a $952 million weekly withdrawal from digital-asset investment products ending December 22, 2025, according to CoinShares. The report frames the move as a policy-driven risk-off shift that immediately tightened institutional risk budgets and redirected capital flows.
What CoinShares says drove the outflows
CoinShares characterizes the policy delay as the key friction point, arguing that prolonged regulatory uncertainty pushed institutions toward faster de-risking, portfolio rebalancing, and redemptions across pooled crypto products. In that framing, the absence of a clear U.S. market-structure baseline shortened decision horizons for funds and treasuries.
The report highlights concentrated pressure in the two largest assets, noting that Ethereum led outflows with $555 million while Bitcoin saw $460 million in withdrawals, signaling that the unwind was not limited to fringe exposures but hit the core of institutional positioning.
CoinShares also explicitly linked the flow reversal to both policy and large-holder behavior, with James Butterfill stating, “We believe this reflected a negative market reaction to delays in passing the US Clarity Act which has prolonged regulatory uncertainty for the asset class alongside concerns over continued selling by whale investors.”
Not all allocations moved in the same direction. CoinShares reported that Solana and XRP posted inflows of $48.5 million and $62.9 million, respectively, implying selective redeployment rather than a blanket exit from the asset class.
From an operating model perspective, the pattern is consistent with institutions responding to uncertainty by adding process overhead. Longer approval cycles, expanded pre-trade legal checks, and heightened scrutiny of custody and counterparty arrangements tend to add steps per operation and slow execution, which can amplify redemption velocity when multiple allocators de-risk concurrently.
For fund managers, the practical implication is capital planning under a policy overhang. If legislative delays persist, the data point to a tougher path for record annual inflows and a higher premium on liquidity readiness, redemption design, and transparent custody assurances to preserve capital stickiness during external shocks.
CoinShares ties the $952 million outflow week to Clarity Act delays, with the largest pressure on Ethereum and Bitcoin and offsetting inflows into Solana and XRP. The next operational milestone is the Clarity Act markup now expected in January 2026, which the report frames as a key trigger for whether institutional friction eases or remains elevated.
