Bitcoin Shrugs Off Headwinds to Reclaim $81,000, Buoyed by ETF Inflows and Regulatory Optimism

Bitcoin digested the twin headwinds of the U.S. Senate's rejection of a regulatory framework bill and the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike, reclaiming the $81,000 level. After confirming support near the $75,000 mark over the weekend and staging a successful rebound, market attention has shifted to whether further upside is in store.

As of 9 a.m. on the 21st, Bitcoin was trading at $81,309, according to crypto market data platform CoinGecko. Ethereum was at $2,654. Per CoinMarketCap data as of 8 a.m., Bitcoin was at $81,192, down 0.04% from 24 hours earlier.

Bitcoin had faced a barrage of negative news last week after the U.S. Senate failed to pass a procedural vote on the CLARITY Act, a digital asset market structure bill, followed by the Federal Reserve raising its benchmark rate by 0.25 percentage point. Immediately after the Senate vote, roughly $570 million in long positions were liquidated, and U.S. crypto-related stocks such as Coinbase (COIN) and Circle (CRCL) briefly slid around 10%.

However, spot prices recovered their losses relatively quickly. Market analysts note that the possibility of the bill's defeat had already been largely priced in, limiting the actual shock. Jag Kooner, head of derivatives at Bitfinex, assessed that "the market never had high expectations for the Senate to pass the bill in the first place."