Bitcoin climbed above $86,900 on Wednesday, extending its rally from Friday's $80,800 high, with the cryptocurrency trading at $86,900 as Washington regulatory developments continue to boost market sentiment. According to CoinDesk, Zcash (ZEC) rose 10% to just above $1,616, leading gains among major tokens, while XRP added 6% to just above $1.62 and HYPE gained 4% to nearly $97. Bitcoin held near $86,900, up 1% over 24 hours, with Ethereum, BNB, and SOL each gaining under 1%, while TRX was the only large token to fall, down 1%. The latest surge follows the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filing two new proposals, Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets, with the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review. Tony Dicarlo, director of institutional propositions at RootstockLabs, noted that "Technically, Bitcoin's back above its 50 & 200 week moving averages, up ~29% in 35 days."
The American Reserve Modernization Act cleared the House Financial Services Committee on September 17 by 28 votes to 21, marking the furthest such legislation has progressed through Congress. As reported by CoinDesk, the bill would place the roughly 325,000 bitcoin the government already holds, most of it seized in criminal and civil forfeitures, into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve at the Treasury. The legislation requires the coins be held for at least 20 years and mandates quarterly audited proof that they are still there, while also ordering a study of ways to buy more without adding to the deficit. Dicarlo noted that "The SEC stepped up support of digital assets where Congress hasn't with the Innovation Exemption filling the CLARITY gap within 24 hours, driving sharp rallies in tokenization related digital assets and improving broader confidence."
Crypto-linked large caps rallied significantly on Friday morning, with Michael Saylor-backed Strategy (MSTR) leading the cohort, rising over 10% in morning trade. Coinbase (COIN) climbed more than 9%, while Circle (CRCL) and Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) gained around 7% each. The rally came after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cleared a path for authorized venues to offer tokenized U.S. stocks under a five-year conditional exemption. According to The Economic Times, Prateek Gupta, Head of Business at Mudrex, noted that the move was supported by regulatory developments, including the SEC exemption and new CFTC crypto proposals, improving market sentiment. HOOD stock also gained on Friday, up over 7% in morning trade after rising over 5% in the previous session.
The global crypto market capitalisation was up 4.83% to $2.88 trillion, according to Coinmarket cap data, with Bitcoin and Ethereum posting gains of 8.95% and 8.43% respectively over the last week. Among major altcoins, BNB, XRP, Solana, Hyperliquid, Dogecoin, and Cardano gained up to 20.4%, while Tron was down 1.18%. As reported by The Economic Times, Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Giottus, noted that Bitcoin is trading around $81,127 after recovering above the $80,000 level, with the rebound following last week's sharp correction after the Federal Reserve raised rates by 25 basis points. CoinDCX Research Team highlighted that Bitcoin closed the weekly trade above its 50-week moving average for the first time in 45 weeks, marking a significant technical milestone. Bitcoin's daily price swings show the cryptocurrency rallying to over $84,000, topping the May high resistance line and reaching the highest point since January, with limited overhead friction between $84,000 and $97,000 setting up potential momentum toward six figures.
Market experts emphasized the significance of the regulatory developments for institutional adoption. Avinash Shekhar, Co-Founder & CEO of Pi42, stated that "The SEC's new pathway for tokenized U.S. stocks brings traditional financial assets further onto blockchain rails. This is a meaningful shift because tokenization is moving from a conceptual use case toward an increasingly regulated market structure, potentially bringing more institutional activity and liquidity into blockchain based markets." According to The Economic Times, Riya Sehgal, Research Analyst at Delta Exchange, noted that crypto markets have shown notable resilience despite difficult macro and policy backdrop, with Bitcoin holding above $81,000 and Ether near $2,660 after a sharp recovery from last week's lows. Nischal Shetty, Founder of WazirX, attributed the surge past $80,000 to the September 2026 FOMC meeting, stating that the 25-basis-point rate hike to a 3.75%-4.00% target range had already been fully priced into the market. However, analysts remain cautious about calling this a full-blown bull run, with Alex Kuptsikevich from FxPro noting that "this is already a bull market, but that does not rule out sudden pullbacks, so it is worth exercising heightened caution until clearer signals of a transition to active growth emerge."
