Bitcoin and Ethereum Surge with Trump Pushing CLARITY Act

From “Effectively Dead” to a Rally in 48 Hours

2 weeks ago, the passing of CLARITY Act’s odds appeared slim. The Senate missed out on its August 7 deadline, broke for a five-week recess, and proceeded to push the bill’s first procedural test to a September 15 cloture vote. Experts are perceiving this as a long shot considering how little floor time remained before midterm campaigning took over. Most investors had largely priced the bill as dead for the rest of the year.

But this trajectory changed fast. On Wednesday, August 19, President Trump hosted a group of crypto executives at a White House event in the Roosevelt Room, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Gemini’s Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and Kraken parent company Payward.

And Trump took this moment to publicly press Congress. “We need Congress to take the next step by passing the Clarity Act, a fair version of the Clarity Act,” Trump mentioned according to Bloomberg. “It’s a very, very powerful structured legislation which will keep us ahead of China, keep us ahead of everyone else.” He went to add that the US was at “the very beginning of a revolution” in finance.

And the markets reacted to this immediately and predominantly.

The Numbers

Bitcoin surged to approximately $71,834 late Wednesday, up more than 11.5% from Tuesday’s price and its first bump above $70,000 since early June. Ether surpassed it, doing more than 18% to $2,261–$2,288, being its highest level in a span of three months.

The wider digital asset market added nearly $190 billion in a single day, leading the total crypto market capitalization back towards $2.41 trillion.

On top of that, Solana, BNB, XRP, and Cardano all recorded gains, and crypto-linked equities also experienced a surge: Coinbase jumped close to 8% in premarket trading, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) surged 9.4% on top of a 13% advance the day before, Bitcoin mining machine maker Canaan increased 20%, stablecoin issuer Circle rose 8%, and Robinhood advanced 5%. Mara Holdings added an extra 5.5%.

The move was big enough to record a market event on its own terms. Thomas Lee, co-founder and head of research at Fundstrat, mentioned the substantial move sparked the second-largest short liquidation in crypto history.

Traders who had bet against further price gains got closed out as prices peaked, hence amplifying the rally’s momentum. Trading volume in the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) got to more rhan 4.5 times its 30-day average even before the rally.

Falling Treasury Yields

Trump’s comments weren’t the only factor affecting the markets. The US Treasury had independently declared a big increase in its buyback program for 20-year and 30-year government bonds, which led to long-term returns being relatively lower. Lower returns tend to push investors toward riskier assets, such as crypto Experts mentioned this as a real, independent factor to the rally.

The Hyperliquid Wrinkle

Inside the remarks in the White House was a second, more targeted comment: Trump declared that the the CFTC was working to bring on Hyperliquid, into the US “in a fully compliant legal fashion.” The market reaction to this was almost immediate.

Hyperliquid’s token increased approzimately 25% within 24 hours, and Hyperliquid Strategies stock, which had surged 30% the prior session, went on to add another 7.5% in premarket trading Thursday.

Hyperliquid runs predominantly outside direct US regulatory oversight, and a push to formally bring it into compliance indicates the administration’s regulatory ambitions lengthen beyond CLARITY’s core securities-versus-commodities query into decentralized trading infrastructure especially; a much newer and more contested sector of crypto policy.

What Traders Are Actually Betting On

Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick happened to be among the most bullish voices following the move, declaring investors should now be prepared for Bitcoin to hit $100,000 by year-end 2026.

This is a claim that relies heavily on Congress following through where the White House push leaves off. And this is uncertain.  The Senate’s official first real test is in September 15 with the cloture vote, and the foundational disputes that delayed the bill in the first place.

This is specifically the ethics provision limiting senior government officials, including Trump himself, from investing in cryptocurrencies.

Still with this move, Bitcoin still sits roughly 40% below its October 2025 all-time high of about $126,000, and Wednesday’s boost followed six frustrating weeks with the token being range-bound between $62,000 and $66,000 resistance. David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, acknowledged that the lack of fluctuation had become “rather frustrating for crypto traders,” even with Bitcoin essentially halved from its peak.

With that in mind, some of this week’s move indicates pent-up positioning unravelling all at once, as opposed to a clean, durable repricing depending on new legislative certainty.

Reading the Rally Correctly

Congress is yet to pass anything. The Senate’s procedural calendar is still intact (September 15), and the ethics dispute that delayed the bill for months is still unsettled. What really transformed is that the White House put in direct, public pressure at a time when the bill’s momentum looked stalled, and markets reacted to that signal.

Presidential pressure tend to reposition legislative priorities and floor time, and this level of engagement from Trump himself makes a big difference in comparison to earlier, quieter administration support. But this may also be the kind of catalyst that can vanish quickly if September brings on another delay. The impact of the rally was real, but whether it holds depends on if Congress offers something concrete this coming month.

Conclusion

Bitcoin and Ether had a big boost in the 2-day run since June, influenced by a direct presidential urge for crypto legislation. The rally is a signal of potential optimism that CLARITY’s odds have improved, however the bill’s passage through the Senate is yet to be short and the September 15 cloture vote is what will determine if this week’s momentum results to a legislative impact.

This is a developing story. We’ll update this piece as Congress returns in September and the CLARITY Act’s procedural path becomes clearer.