Topline
The price of bitcoin soared past $75,000 late on Thursday, boosting other major cryptocurrencies in a surge that began Wednesday after the Treasury intervened in the bond markets and President Donald Trump urged Congress to pass industry-backed digital assets legislation known as the CLARITY Act.
Bitcoin crossed the $75,000 mark for the first time since May.
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Key Facts
The price of bitcoin—the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency by market cap—rose to $75,268 early on Friday, up more than $10,000 in the past two days.
This is the first time since May that the cryptocurrency crossed the $75,000 mark.
Ether, the second-most valuable cryptocurrency by market cap, rose to $2,363 early Friday, up more than 25% from the previous week.
The crypto rally helped boost other major tokens, with Solana’s SOL, Binance’s BNB, XRP and the memecoin DOGE rising 7%, 6.4%, 19.3% and 11.3%, respectively in the past 24 hours.
Data on Coinglass showed that short sellers were hit hard by the surge, with more than $1.25 billion worth of crypto short positions being liquidated in the past 24 hours—around $750 million of which were bets against bitcoin.
Key Background
On Wednesday evening, Trump hosted several crypto executives for an event at the White House, a day before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is set to hold its first meeting of its Innovation Advisory Committee. At the event, Trump called on Congress to pass the long-stalled CLARITY Act, which is backed by the crypto industry and will establish legal guidelines on digital assets. The president said: “We need Congress to take the next step by passing the CLARITY Act, a fair version of the CLARITY Act…It’s a very, very powerful structured legislation which will keep us ahead of China, keep us ahead of everyone else.” After the event, the crypto market saw a major surge, with bitcoin rising past $70,000 for the first time since early June.
tangent
Aside from Trump’s push for the CLARITY Act’s passage, crypto prices were also boosted by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s decision to intervene in the bond market to curb rising yields on long-duration bonds. A sell-off of these bonds had pushed the 30-year Treasury yield to its highest level since 2007—amid concerns about the war in Iran and U.S. national debt hitting $40 billion. Bessent announced the Treasury Department would double its buyback of long-dated bonds. The Treasury’s intervention helped boost risky bets, triggering an upswing in crypto prices.
further reading
Bitcoin Soars Above $70,000 After Trump Urges Passage Of Clarity Act (Forbes)
Bitcoin on Track for Biggest Weekly Gain in More Than Two Years (Bloomberg)