Bitcoin defied a week of adverse macroeconomic and political news to climb past $80,000 on Friday, reaching a two-week peak of $81,000. The asset briefly retreated after the Senate rejected the CLARITY Act and the Federal Reserve issued its first rate hike in over three years, but bulls regained control by the end of the trading week.
Bitcoin experienced extreme volatility last week, driven initially by persistent US inflation data. After the CPI report, the asset swung between $76,000 and $79,800 within an hour before calming down over the weekend.
The asset dipped to $76,400 on Monday but rallied to $79,600 ahead of the Senate vote on the CLARITY Act. When the Senate rejected cloture, bitcoin plunged to a three-week low of $75,000 before finding support.
The Federal Reserve concluded its FOMC meeting on Wednesday, hiking rates for the first time in over three years. Bitcoin’s initial reaction was modest, slipping to $75,000 once more before surging to over $76,000 within minutes.
On Thursday, the Bank of Japan also increased rates by 25 basis points to a 31-year high. Despite this, bitcoin reclaimed $78,000 during Friday’s morning session and later rocketed to a two-week peak of $81,000 as US trading hours began.
Strategy Refrains From Buying, Strive Accumulates. Strategy again declined to purchase more bitcoin, focusing on rebuilding its USD reserves. Meanwhile, Strive added another 469 BTC to its holdings.
JPMorgan Sees Bitcoin Support. Analysts at JPMorgan noted that bitcoin could gain more price support than gold amid easing ETF hedging demand, citing high short interest in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust.
On-Chain Data Signals Cycle Shift. The share of bitcoin addresses at a loss has dropped sharply, with one analyst stating that similar moves have historically ended bear markets rather than producing only short bounces.
SEC Eases Rules for Tokenized Stocks. The SEC launched an “Innovation Exemption” to promote secondary trading of tokenized stocks on blockchain platforms, easing regulatory burdens for Tokenized Securities Venues.
CLARITY Act Efforts Continue. Seven Democrats pledged to continue bipartisan work on crypto regulatory clarity despite the Senate setback.
CoinEx Shuts Down. After nine years, CoinEx announced it will close its platform by year’s end, citing declining market conditions and regulatory pressure. The exchange joins BitMart and BitMEX in exiting during the 2026 bear market.
