Bitcoin Hits 8-Month High Near $87K - Markets Weekender

Bitcoin rallied despite a Fed rate hike and stalled CLARITY Act

Earlier this month, the Senate rejected cloture on the CLARITY Act by a single vote (49 in favor, 50 against), ten short of the 60 needed to begin debate.

The next day, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 3.75% to 4.00%, its first hike in three years, with 16 of 18 FOMC officials projecting at least one more increase before year-end. 

Traders had spent weeks bracing for both events to hit simultaneously and more than $540 million in bullish crypto positions were liquidated in the 24 hours around the CLARITY vote alone.

BTC dipped to around $75,000 to $75,900 in the immediate aftermath, before returning to the $76,000 to $76,700 range within hours of the Fed's announcement. It didn’t test the deeper capitulation levels some had expected. 

By September 18, BTC broke decisively above $81,000 and the real move started September 21: a rally from a Sunday close near $81,159 straight through $86,000, then finally $87,397 in a single session. 

Roughly $750 million in short positions were liquidated as BTC cleared the $82,000 resistance zone that had capped every rally attempt since August.

On September 17, the SEC issued a five-year Innovation Exemption allowing eligible platforms to trade tokenized U.S. equities directly on public blockchains. The CFTC issued a parallel no-action position protecting software developers from certain enforcement risk, both landing less than 48 hours after the CLARITY Act's collapse.