The channel for the next wave of money is being dug

The Liquidity Map · Crypto report

The channel for the next wave of money is being dug

Clarity Act, ETFs, ETNs, proxies: the instruments through which big money reaches crypto are being built right now, exactly when nobody is looking. That is where the discount is.

July 20, 2026 · 9 min read

Key takeaways

Interest in crypto is at a low right now. That is not the exit signal, it is the discount. People buy the iPhone on Black Friday but sell exactly when the price in capital markets drops.
The Clarity Act is, for crypto, what the Securities Act of 1933 was for the stock market: the rules by which an asset becomes trustworthy for big money. It passed the House, but it is not law yet.
The 2024 ETF is the map. At approval, everyone shouted top signal. What followed was the road to 124,000, then a whole series of ETFs, ETNs and proxies. The doors opened then, not now.
ETF, ETN and proxy are three different doors to the same price, with different risks. A proxy like MicroStrategy amplifies the move both ways: more risk, not less.
The money is next door, in pensions, stocks, gold, but it has not come in yet. You do not see institutional accumulation now, you see disinterest. The channel is being dug for the next wave, not for today.

When Black Friday comes and you can get the same phone at half price, you are happy. In capital markets, people do the opposite: they run from the discount and buy only when the price rises. Crypto is on discount now, and nobody is looking.

It sounds like bad news. Read properly, it is something else. While a few people still argue whether it is worth buying, the institutions of traditional finance have quietly built every instrument through which they will be able to enter. This report is about that channel.

Definition

Clarity Act

The US bill (Digital Asset Market Clarity Act) that would set clear rules for crypto: who regulates what, which asset is a commodity and which is a security, what a token must meet to trade cleanly. It passed the House of Representatives in July 2025 and advanced in the Senate committee in May 2026, but it is not law yet.

The discount

A low price scares exactly the wrong people

There is a strange human reflex. On clothes, phones, gadgets, you wait for the sales. In capital markets, when the sale comes, you get scared. When the price is low, nobody wants it. When it rises, then it feels safe to buy.

In crypto we are right at the discount point. Interest is at a low, prices have sat down for a long time, and the questions have stopped. Nobody asks what to put money into anymore. That is not the signal that it is over. It is the signal that nobody is looking.

You buy what is on discount and misunderstood, not what is already on every screen.

This season did not bring the liquidity tsunami of the past. Waves came, pulled back, came again. But it is precisely the current lack of interest that makes the discount real. Nobody fights over what nobody wants.

And behind the disinterest, something is happening that the price does not show: the rules and the instruments through which big money will be able to enter are being put in place. That changes the space for good, even if today it looks dead.

discountInterest in crypto is at its lowest in years. In capital markets, that is exactly where the opportunity is, not in euphoria. Nobody fights over what nobody wants.

The first piece of this channel has a name heard more and more: the Clarity Act.

Clarity Act

A Securities Act for crypto

To understand what the Clarity Act would do, look at 1933. Before the Great Depression, America was in a boom. Over 250 companies were making cars, all wanting to be the next Ford, sought financing, listed. When the crash came, the market fell almost 90% in three years, and of the carmakers fewer than twelve remained.

There was no system to separate the serious companies from the garage ones. That is how the Securities Act of 1933 was born, and with it the SEC: rules by which a company is vetted and becomes trustworthy for the investor. That is why today the S&P 500 holds evaluated companies, queued up, ready to support the market.

Crypto is a new technology. It does not fit the rules written for classic companies in 1933.

Crypto never had that rule. Today anyone can start a coin from their garage that just exists and trades, without proving anything. The Clarity Act would do for crypto what the Securities Act did for the stock market: bring clarity, the rules by which an asset becomes clean and trustworthy for big money.

It is not a price promise, and it is not certain it passes this year. It cleared the House in 2025, advanced in the Senate committee, but it still has to pass. It could come next year, it could come in 2027. And the exact when does not matter: what matters is that it is being built.

1933 → todayThe Securities Act created the rules and the SEC, so money had something to trust. The Clarity Act would do the same for crypto, a technology that does not fit the old rules.

The original text of the Securities Act of 1933. The SEC was born from it, the regulator that gave the market rules to trust. The Clarity Act would be the equivalent for crypto.

If you want to see how big money behaves with a rule like this, look at what the 2024 ETF did.

2024 ETF

What the 2024 approval taught us

In 2023, when the first Bitcoin ETF was announced, the whole internet shouted top signal. At approval, in January 2024, top signal again, done, back to the lows. Bitcoin was around 40,000.

The opposite happened. At approval there was a short correction, then the road continued to 124,000. Markets are driven by human behavior, and behavior repeats: just like the iPhone, announced in January 2007 and launched six months later, with growth along the way.

Bitcoin did not hit a new high at the ETF approval. The road came after, not at the announcement.

Today's structure resembles that one: a stretch of chop, a major support tested, the same voices shouting it is over. It is not an exact copy, it is a behavioral analogy, not a prophecy.

What matters is what followed the 2024 ETF: not just one fund, but a whole series of new instruments. That is where the doors opened through which big money can reach crypto. And the difference between them is worth knowing.

January 2024At the spot Bitcoin ETF approval, everyone shouted top signal. What followed was the road to 124,000, not a return to the lows. The road comes after the rule, not at the announcement.

Bitcoin, log scale. The dotted line is the spot ETF approval of January 2024. At the announcement everyone shouted top signal, then the road to 124,000 followed.

After the ETF came, one after another, ETFs, ETNs and proxies. Three different doors to the same price.

The doors

ETF, ETN, proxy: three doors, not one

A spot ETF holds the real asset, Bitcoin or Ethereum, in custody. You buy the fund, it holds the coin. It is the most direct of the doors. On Bitcoin it was approved in January 2024, on Ethereum in July 2024.

An ETN is a debt instrument issued by a bank that tracks the coin's price but does not hold the coin. When crypto rises, so does it. At a broker like XTB there are over 40 ETNs on Bitcoin, Solana, XRP, Ethereum, Chainlink, with taxes withheld at source. And a proxy is a company, like MicroStrategy or the miners, that gives you indirect exposure.

Three doors to the same price, with different risks. Not just one, as people think.

The difference is not cosmetic. An ETF holds the coin. An ETN is a bank's promise, so you also carry the bank's risk. A proxy carries the company's risk on top of the coin's, and that is where the amplification comes from.

Look at MicroStrategy since the ETF approval: it rose eight times over, then fell back, while Bitcoin did a fraction of the road. A proxy amplifies both ways. It is not safer because it is a stock, it is riskier.

over 40 ETNsAt a single broker, XTB, there are over 40 ETNs tracking coin prices. Add the ETFs and the proxy companies: hundreds of paths built to the same price.

Growth since the ETF approval, base 100, log scale. MicroStrategy, a Bitcoin proxy, rose eight times over, then fell. It amplifies both ways.

All these doors lead somewhere. The question is where the money that will use them comes from.

The money

It is next door, but it has not come in yet

Money does not appear from the ground, it moves. Energy is not lost, it transfers, and money does the same, from one asset class to another. That is why where the wave can come from matters, not only where it ends up.

Next to crypto sit huge pools. Gold, stocks, and since August 2025 also American pensions, where an executive order opened the door for alternative assets, including crypto, in 401k plans. A pool of over 10 trillion dollars whose gate has just been opened.

A small rotation from a huge pool is enormous for a space as small as crypto.

Here is the nuance the hype skips. This money has not come in yet. Right now you do not see institutional accumulation, you see disinterest. The focus is on stocks, on artificial intelligence, on other things. The 2026 flow was not even always positive.

But the channel is being dug. The rule, the instruments, the access, all being built right now, when nobody is looking. Cycles are not manipulated, herd behavior drives them. And behavior says interest returns at the end, when the price is already high, not now.

$10 trillionThe approximate size of the American pension pool whose door to crypto was opened from August 2025. Not money that came in, but a pool that can now rotate a part this way.

The large capital pools, pensions, stocks, gold, pass through a framework of rules toward crypto, a space under 3 trillion. A small rotation from them is enormous here.

We know where the money can come from and through which doors. What remains is how we position until it does.

How we're positioned

That is the framework. The part that matters for you is how you sit until the wave comes.

We do not position on headlines about the law or ETFs. We position on market structure on monthly closes and on the accumulation zone. Bitcoin stays the leader: if it does not move, nothing moves.

We accumulate methodically, in steps, the average not the minimum. You do not buy with all your money at the perfect bottom, just as you do not sell it all at the top. One tranche now, ammunition kept for the second, and the market sets the average. The zone to watch on Bitcoin is 51,000-58,000, with invalidation on monthly closes below it.

This season, Ethereum sits next to Bitcoin, not just Bitcoin. It is the first time we set out with ETH as a main position alongside BTC, accumulated in steps in the zone under 2,000. Altcoins stay last, the small and speculative part, and nothing without a Bitcoin majority in the portfolio.

And if the law does not pass this year, it is not a problem. We are still in a stretch of chop, and the channel gets dug anyway. We prepare for the next wave, not for today's headline. A discount is not a reason to fear, it is the moment we keep ammunition for.

Conclusions

One reflex remains: in capital markets, what scares you through a lack of interest is often exactly the discount. The channel through which big money enters is being dug now, quietly, not in euphoria.

The Clarity Act would bring the rules, like the Securities Act in 1933. The ETFs, ETNs and proxies are the doors, already open since 2024. And the pools the money can come from, pensions, stocks, gold, just got access. What is missing is the timing, and it is not announced in headlines.

Short term, the stance stays methodical accumulation, not a chase after news. Long term, we stay on the side of the one who buys the discount, not the one who runs after the price when it is already high. The rest is noise.

What to watch this week

Clarity Act: does it clear the Senate or not? Either way, it is not a top signal and not an exit signal. It is a piece of the channel, not the timing.
Bitcoin: does the 51,000-58,000 zone hold on monthly closes? That is where it is decided whether the bottom is in, not in the headline of the day.

Bitcoin, log scale. Accumulation zone 51,000-58,000. The 57,700 target was hit exactly. As long as the zone holds on monthly closes, the bottom is in or very near.

The Channel for the Next Wave of Money Is Being Built

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