Bitcoin Touches $70,000 for the First Time Since June: What’s Driving the Rally

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The crypto market has snapped out of its summer slumber. Bitcoin briefly jumped to $70,000 on Wednesday, the first time since early June, and the largest cryptocurrency is currently trading at around $69,671, a gain of roughly eight percent within 24 hours. The move is even more pronounced for Ethereum: ETH added 17.6 percent to about $2,254. Anyone who read recently that the Clarity Act and geopolitics were blocking the ascent, or that bitcoin had only just bounced back to $64,000, is now getting the opposite programme.

The Largest Crypto Assets at a Glance

What stands out is the breadth of the move. It is not just the two heavyweights doing the pulling: Hyperliquid leads the field with a 23 percent daily gain, Chainlink has made up more than 20 percent over the week, and Solana, XRP and Zcash are each in double-digit territory. Only TRON and the Bitfinex token LEO are lagging, both slightly in the red on a weekly basis. Stablecoins such as USDT and USDC are holding their dollar peg, as expected.

Three Triggers at Once

Several factors came together to drive the rally. First, politics: U.S. President Donald Trump used a crypto event at the White House to urge Congress to take the next step and pass a fair version of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. Coinbase, Gemini, Ripple and Chainlink Labs were among the companies represented. In the Senate, too, there are growing signs of movement on the Clarity Act: Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott told the SALT conference the bill has a good chance of advancing in September, with a procedural vote set for the middle of the month.

Second, liquidity: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent doubled the size of the Treasury Department’s bond buyback operations. Traders read that as a backstop for the more than $30 trillion Treasury market, easing financial conditions and supporting risk assets.

Third, institutional money. According to SoSoValue, U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs took in $517 million in a single day, the most since early May. Ether ETFs pulled in $189 million, their strongest reading since the autumn of last year. XRP and Solana products saw smaller inflows, with only the Hyperliquid product recording an outflow of roughly $2 million.

Record Losses for the Short Sellers

Anyone betting on falling prices was run over. Bearish crypto bets lost a record $2.7 billion as bitcoin marched towards $70,000. It is exactly the kind of liquidation-driven acceleration that fires when a market breaks out after months of sideways trading with leveraged positions on the wrong side.

The chart picture fits: market technician Aksel Kibar had identified an inverse head-and-shoulders formation building since the June lows, with a neckline near $66,600. On that reading, a confirmed break opens the door to prices around $76,000.

One Damper Remains

There is no tailwind from the U.S. central bank, however. The Fed minutes released recently show that a majority of officials favoured leaving rates unchanged, with several even arguing for a hike. Many consider tighter policy necessary should inflation fail to come down. Most do expect price pressure to ease by year end as the effects of tariffs and earlier energy price increases fade, but they still see the risks tilted to the upside.

The decisive question now is whether the inflows hold. A single strong ETF day confirms the breakout but not its durability. Bitcoin has produced a fakeout from this range before. A second and third day of inflows on this scale would be the signal for the sustained institutional bid that has been missing since spring. If the market turns quickly instead, the $64,000 level comes back into view as support.