Bitcoin Tops $85,000 For First Time Since Late January

Bitcoin has surged above $85,000 this morning for the first time since late-January...

The rally comes alongside advances in stocks and bonds, as falling oil prices and optimism ahead of a summit between US President Trump and Çin’s Xi Jinping are buoying markets more broadly. Rival digital assets have also bounced.

Ether, the second-largest token, has spiked up to almost $2750, while other cryptocurrencies including XRP, Solana and Monero also posted gains...

Bitcoin’s gains build upon a recovery that began late last week, when crypto absorbed the failure of the landmark Clarity Act (up around 14% since) to establish a clearer understanding of industry regulation as well the Fed's first interest-rate increase in more than three years.

“Financial markets have rediscovered a risk-on frame of mind after being consumed with worry about government bond yields, debt piles and the prospect of a return to tighter policy at the world’s most powerful central bank,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at investing and trading platform IG.

A green light on Thursday from the Securities and Exchange Commission for digital versions of securities to start trading in the US helped to brighten the mood.

Interestingly, Bitcoin treasury founder and pioneer Michael Saylor has said that the blockage of the Clarity Act is actually good for the digital asset space.

Writing on X on Saturday, the Strategy founder and chair said that legislation can make restrictions permanent just as easily as rights.

The Digital Assets industry is better off moving forward with supportive rules from the SEC, CFTC, Treasury, and banking regulators than accepting the restrictions in the final CLARITY compromise. We have an administration willing to modernize financial markets. We should use the next two years to put better financial products into people’s hands.

Our safest path forward is to create products that delight customers and deploy them broadly. Lower costs, easier access, useful services, and greater control over money give people a direct interest in preserving innovation. The strongest constituency we can build is a public that benefits from what we create.

Legal certainty matters. So does the freedom to compete. A law can make a restriction durable just as easily as it can make a right durable. Before celebrating permanence, we should examine what we are making permanent.

The September CLARITY compromise would have restricted covered providers from paying customers simply for holding payment stablecoins, while allowing qualifying activity rewards. It also would have directed Treasury to restrict certain rewards upon specified findings of substantial, detrimental deposit transfers from community banks.

Protecting a bank from a liquidity crisis and protecting it from a better competitor are different objectives. Financial stability requires sound oversight. Competition requires that customers be free to choose a better service. When technology reduces the cost of delivering financial services, consumers should share in the savings.

Additionally, Saylor’s Strategy purchased Bitcoin for the first time in three weeks, acquiring $75.7 million of the original cryptocurrency after seeking to rebuild investor confidence by reshaping its balance sheet and building out reserves.

The original Bitcoin treasury company - co-founded and run by Saylor - also repurchased $174 million of its STRC perpetual preferred shares, part of its effort to lift the price above par so that the securities can be used again to finance future Bitcoin purchases. Cash was used to fund both transactions, Strategy said in a filing on Monday. The preferred trade just below $99.

Strategy is now (846,002) just 1363 BTC below its all time high holdings from June 22 when it was 847,365...

“The crypto market capitalization has risen to $2.8T, its highest level since the end of January this year,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, the FxPro chief market analyst.

“Although Friday’s rally was followed by increased selling pressure, buyers have once again been dominating the cryptocurrency market since Sunday.”

Bloomberg reports that bitcoin open interest on the options trading platform Deribit was heavily dominated by calls, signaling bullish sentiment. The platform showed more than 272,000 contracts for the right to buy the token compared with over 154,000 for puts, or the right to sell.

“Bitcoin options market is positioned to capture the upside,” said Pratik Kala, a portfolio manager at digital-asset hedge fund Apollo Crypto.