Bitcoin Nears $80K as Trump's Clarity Act Push and Hyperliquid Comments Ignite a US Crypto Rally
The US crypto market staged one of its sharpest turnarounds of the year this week, with Bitcoin climbing roughly 22% to challenge the $80,000 level for the first time since May. The rally traces back to a Wednesday White House meeting where President Donald Trump gathered crypto executives and federal regulators, including SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC Chair Michael Selig, to push Congress toward passing the long-stalled Clarity Act — a bill meant to establish clear federal rules for digital asset markets.
Bitcoin broke through $72,000 within 48 hours of the meeting, a level it had failed to reclaim for months after peaking near $94,820 in January. Traders and analysts have described the move as more than a short-term bounce, pointing instead to a broader shift in market structure as Treasury buybacks and expectations of looser monetary policy pull capital back into risk assets, gold, and digital assets alike.
Clarity Act Momentum Builds — But the Outcome Is Still Uncertain
Executives including Coinbase's Brian Armstrong and Ripple's Brad Garlinghouse met with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick ahead of Trump's remarks, underscoring how central the industry has become to the push for legislative clarity. The Clarity Act would divide oversight of digital assets between the SEC and CFTC, a framework the industry has lobbied for since the last bull cycle. While sentiment has improved sharply, several analysts caution that the bill's path through Congress remains far from guaranteed, and some of the market's optimism may be pricing in a best-case outcome.
Hyperliquid Steals the Spotlight as Trump Floats a US Pathway
The rally's most striking single-asset move came from outside the Bitcoin-Ethereum core. During the same White House event, Trump singled out Hyperliquid — the dominant decentralized exchange for perpetual futures, which currently blocks US-based users — saying CFTC Chair Michael Selig was "working very hard" on a compliant way to bring the platform onshore.
The comment sent Hyperliquid's native token, HYPE, sharply higher, with gains reported between 11% and 21% depending on the trading window, and the token later touched a fresh all-time high near $78. US-listed products tied to the ecosystem moved in tandem: exchange-traded funds from 21Shares, Bitwise, and Grayscale each rose close to 20%, while Nasdaq-listed Hyperliquid Strategies jumped more than 30% in a single session.
Selig had signaled openness to this kind of framework as early as June, telling Bankless that onchain platforms like Hyperliquid could "transform" US financial markets and that regulators wanted a compliant path for them to operate domestically. Traditional derivatives venues, including CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange, have pushed back on the idea, arguing that offshore-style perpetual platforms could distort reference prices unless brought under direct CFTC registration.
What It Means for the Broader Market
Bitcoin's advance has lifted the rest of the market with it. Ethereum climbed above $2,400 and XRP rallied close to 20% over 24 hours, part of a broad altcoin recovery that market participants are calling the strongest weekly performance for digital assets in roughly two years. Bitcoin remains well below its all-time high of $126,198 set last October, and traders are now watching the $76,000–$80,000 zone as the next technical hurdle.
For now, the combination of a White House-endorsed regulatory push and a concrete, if unconfirmed, pathway for platforms like Hyperliquid to operate legally in the US has done what months of market chatter could not: convince traders that Washington may finally be ready to give digital assets the rulebook they've been waiting for. Whether the Clarity Act clears Congress — and what an onshore Hyperliquid would actually look like — remains the key question for the weeks ahead.
