Crypto Market Recap Sep 22: Bitcoin Pauses at $86,000 USD, the Miners ETF Becomes an AI Fund
Bitcoin (BTC) traded at $86,311.72 USD ($121,344.26 CAD) as of 5:05 p.m. ET Tuesday, down 0.34% in USD terms and 0.16% in CAD terms from the previous snapshot. Crypto trades continuously, so this is a snapshot, not a close. It marks the first pause in Bitcoin’s four-day run. Ethereum (ETH) fell further over the same window, trading at $2,750.69 USD ($3,868.89 CAD), down 0.93% in USD and 0.71% in CAD. The CAD/USD rate at the same timestamp was 0.711374.
Over the past 24 hours BTC traded between $85,085.28 USD and $86,734.00 USD, and ETH traded between $2,715.41 USD and $2,787.59 USD. Among the other majors over the same window, XRP rose 2.80% to $2.21 CAD, Cardano (ADA) rose 2.98% to $0.35 CAD, Solana (SOL) slipped 0.29% to $166.17 CAD, and Dogecoin (DOGE) added 0.74% to $0.14 CAD.
Source: Yahoo Finance hourly closes for BTC-USD and ETH-USD, pulled September 22, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. ET. Crypto trades continuously, so these are snapshots, not closes.
The run that paused
Bitcoin’s daily reading rose from $76,403.77 USD on September 17 to $86,602.91 USD on September 21, a gain of 13.35% in four sessions. Ethereum moved with it, from $2,447.11 USD to $2,776.47 USD over the same stretch. Today is the first day that run did not extend.
Both coins remain below their 2026 highs: Bitcoin is 11.0% below its January 14 high of $96,929.33 USD, and Ethereum is 18.0% below its January 14 high of $3,354.72 USD. Year to date from the January 1, 2026 reading, Bitcoin is down 2.8% and Ethereum is down 8.3%.
Why Bitcoin was flat today specifically: there is no single identifiable cause in the data we track. We are not going to invent one.
The stocks and ETFs did not move together
While Bitcoin eased 0.34% and Ethereum eased 0.93%, the Canadian and US listings tied to them split three ways. The Purpose Bitcoin ETF (TSX: BTCC.B) and Purpose Ether ETF (TSX: ETHH.B), the two funds that actually hold the coins, tracked them closely, up 0.24% and down 0.08%. The operating companies moved well beyond that range, up 2.57% to 4.22%. Galaxy Digital (Nasdaq: GLXY) led at $27.17 USD, and among the miners Hut 8 gained 3.36% on the TSX to $149.98 CAD and 3.08% on the Nasdaq to $106.61 USD, with CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK) up 2.57% to $15.14 USD. Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) was essentially flat, and Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR), the Bitcoin-treasury company, was the one name that fell, down 0.69% to $167.33 USD. Full figures for all nine listings are in the table below.
| listing | Sep 22 close | change |
|---|---|---|
| Hut 8 (TSX: HUT) | $149.98 CAD | +3.36% |
| Hut 8 (Nasdaq: HUT) | $106.61 USD | +3.08% |
| Galaxy Digital (Nasdaq: GLXY) | $27.17 USD | +4.22% |
| CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK) | $15.14 USD | +2.57% |
| Robinhood (Nasdaq: HOOD) | $124.25 USD | +0.77% |
| Purpose Bitcoin ETF (TSX: BTCC.B) | $16.81 CAD | +0.24% |
| Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) | $201.07 USD | +0.01% |
| Purpose Ether ETF (TSX: ETHH.B) | $12.93 CAD | -0.08% |
| Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) | $167.33 USD | -0.69% |
How little Bitcoin actually explains
This divergence is not a one-day story. Using returns over 263 trading days from September 1, 2025 to September 18, 2026, we calculate the R-squared of each listing against Bitcoin (against Ethereum for the Purpose Ether ETF), the share of a stock’s daily movement that moves with the coin. The Purpose Bitcoin ETF comes in at 0.87, tracking Bitcoin closely with a beta of 0.96. From there it falls fast: Strategy at 0.64, Coinbase at 0.56, Galaxy Digital at 0.40, and Hut 8, on either listing, at 0.14 to 0.16. An R-squared of 0.14 means about 86% of Hut 8’s daily movement comes from something other than Bitcoin.
Total returns over that period tell a different story. Hut 8’s 12-month total return was +139.34% on the TSX and +138.39% on the Nasdaq, against -35.64% for the Purpose Bitcoin ETF and -57.21% for Strategy. Keel Infrastructure (Nasdaq: KEEL), the former Bitfarms, sits at 0.19 R-squared with a 12-month return of +15.90%.
Source: bestcanadianstocks.ca calculation from Yahoo Finance daily adjusted closes, 263 trading days from September 1, 2025 to September 18, 2026.
The paperwork catches up
On the same day, that divergence became official for one fund. Grayscale’s Board of Trustees approved a rename on July 7, 2026, disclosed in a supplement filed July 13, 2026: the underlying index would move from the Indxx Bitcoin Miners Index to the Indxx High Performance Computing Index, and the fund would become the Grayscale AI Compute ETF, effective “on or about September 15, 2026.” A supplement filed August 28, 2026 pushed that date to “on or about September 22, 2026” and set the new ticker, GCPU, replacing MNRS. The fund’s summary prospectus dated September 22, 2026 now identifies it on the cover as the Grayscale AI Compute ETF, formerly the Grayscale Bitcoin Miners ETF, ticker GCPU, on NYSE Arca.
The prospectus is explicit about what the fund now is and is not: “the Fund will not invest in digital assets directly or through the use of derivatives,” and “because the Fund will not invest directly in any digital assets, it will not track price movements of any digital assets.” The index sorts companies by revenue exposure to a high-performance computing and AI theme, from Pure-Play (50% or more of revenue) down to Marginal-Play (under 20%), and fills its top 30 slots with Pure-Play names first, falling back to the other two groups only if fewer than 30 qualify. It places “digital infrastructure transition companies,” its term for the former miners, in the Marginal-Play group, where Quasi-Play and Marginal-Play combined are capped at 15% of the fund, with a 4.5% single-name cap inside that group. As of August 27, 2026, the index was concentrated in the Software industry. The management fee and total annual operating expenses are both 0.59%. We have no holdings file for the fund, so we are not naming what is or is not currently in it.
None of that timing means the rename caused today’s miner rally. The board approved the change ten weeks ago, and Grayscale announced it publicly in July. What landed today is administrative: the name, ticker and index all switched over on a date the market had known since late August. The coincidence worth noting is different: the rulebook caught up with a divergence our own numbers have been showing for a year, where a company whose revenue is mostly mining now lands, by the prospectus’s own rules, in a bucket capped at 15% of an index that was concentrated in software as of late August.
The Canadian angle
For a Canadian reader who owns Hut 8 on the TSX for Bitcoin exposure, the measured record says that is not really what they are holding: 14% of its daily movement lines up with Bitcoin, the rest comes from somewhere else. Our ranking of Canadian AI stocks by measured AI exposure already places Hut 8 second, the same repricing the Grayscale index rules describe in fund form. If the miners are not a Bitcoin trade, the more direct question is what on the TSX still is. Our Canadian crypto stocks ranked on Bitcoin per share page answers that with the metric that actually measures how much coin an investor is buying.
Disclaimer: The content on bestcanadianstocks.ca is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Always consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions. Crypto prices are a snapshot taken at 5:05 p.m. ET on September 22, 2026, not a close. Equity figures are September 22 regular-session closes. R-squared and beta are measured over 263 trading days to September 18, 2026.
