News · Oct 21, 2026 · 3 min read
Bitcoin today: Switzerland approves a retail bitcoin ETF, US funds take in $527 million
Switzerland's regulator cleared the country's first retail fund that holds bitcoin directly, and US spot ETFs had their biggest day since 22 September, nearly erasing October's outflow. Bitcoin has traded inside a 6.7% range for a month.
Switzerland approves its first retail bitcoin ETF
On 20 October the Swiss financial regulator, FINMA, approved the country's first exchange-traded retail fund that invests directly in bitcoin. It classes the fund as an "other fund for alternative investments" with a particular risk under Swiss law, and it granted an exemption from the usual risk diversification rules because bitcoin has a long trading history and high trading volume.
FINMA's release is as much warning as welcome. It says investments in bitcoin, even through an approved ETF, remain very risky, and that firms selling crypto-based products must follow Swiss conduct rules at the point of sale. This is a fund that holds the coins directly, not a note that tracks their price.
US funds take in $526.6 million, their biggest day since 22 September
US spot bitcoin ETFs took in $526.6 million on Monday 19 October, according to Yahoo Finance's report of SoSoValue data. BlackRock's IBIT was the only fund with a net inflow. TokenPost put IBIT's inflow at $665.2 million, offset by outflows of $83.6 million from Fidelity's FBTC and $54.9 million from Grayscale's GBTC.
It was the funds' largest day since 22 September, when they took in $714.75 million. The funds had lost $617.17 million in October up to that point, and the day cut the month's net outflow to $90.57 million, which matches our own ETF flow chart. The funds took in $3.5 billion in August and $2.6 billion in September on the same chart, so October is the month the buying paused. One session does not make a trend.
Bitcoin has held a 6.7% range for a month
Bitcoin closed at $81,859 on 20 October and read $83,058 on 21 October in our series. Over the 30 days to 20 October it traded between $81,136 and $86,608, a range of 6.7%. Leveraged traders had a quiet day on 20 October: $31 million of longs and $49 million of shorts were force-closed on our liquidations chart.
The network added hashrate, and difficulty is up 5.9%
Mining difficulty rose 5.92% on 16 October, to 140.58 trillion, the largest since 27 June's 7.15%. Hashrate has come with it: our series reads about 1,066 exahashes a second on 20 October and 1,152 on 21 October, though a single day's reading is an estimate and the weekly average is the figure to watch.
Hashprice, the dollars a petahash earns in a day, was $36.79 on 20 October on our hashprice chart, against $41.11 on 23 September. Bitcoin's price barely moved between those dates, so the difference is the network growing.
What it means for miners
A fund that buys bitcoin competes for the same coins miners produce. At the scheduled pace the network pays out about 450 new bitcoin a day in block rewards. Monday's $526.6 million of ETF inflows is roughly 6,400 bitcoin at that day's price of $82,008, about fourteen times a day's new supply. A rule change in Switzerland adds one more route for buyers; it does not change what a coin costs to make.
That cost is the number a miner controls. On the most efficient machine we stock, the Antminer S23 XP Hyd at 8.9 J/TH, at Nigeria's 3.9¢ power, electricity comes to about $18,000 a coin at today's hashprice, against a market price of about $83,000. That is electricity only, and it excludes the machine and the pool fee. Whatever the funds do next week, the machine that spends the least power per terahash keeps the most coins.
About $18,000 of electricity to make a coin, $83,000 to buy one.
Sources and further reading
- FINMA approves Switzerland's first Bitcoin ETF — FINMA, 20 Oct 2026
- Bitcoin ETFs Pull $526.6 Million, Their Biggest Day Since September 22 — Yahoo Finance, 20 Oct 2026
- U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETF Inflows Reach $526.7 Million, Highest Since Sept. 22 — TokenPost, 20 Oct 2026
Disclosure
Firsthand Bitcoin sells and hosts mining hardware, including this machine. No manufacturer, distributor or affiliate programme paid for or reviewed this page and we take no commission on the links above. Historical figures are computed from daily bitcoin price and network hashprice, each day valued at its own prices. Nothing here is investment advice.