Bitcoin surpassed the $81,000 mark on Saturday, reaching an intraday high of $81,702 on September 18. The cryptocurrency had been trading near $76,400 the prior day and had initially slipped toward the $75,000–$76,000 range before rebounding. This move marked its first climb above $80,000 since September 7, with the asset trading at $81,309.4 at 22:50 ET, up 5.62% for the day.
The price gain came despite a 25‑basis‑point increase in the Federal Reserve’s policy rate and a quarter‑point rise by the Bank of Japan that lifted its benchmark to 1.25%, the highest level in 31 years. On September 17, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded approximately $159 million of net inflows, providing additional support to the market.
A short squeeze drove significant liquidations, with roughly $192 million of leveraged crypto positions wiped out within one hour on Friday. More than $183 million of those liquidations were short positions, of which Bitcoin shorts accounted for about $119 million.
Regulatory developments also featured prominently. The U.S. Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act during the week. The CFTC submitted an undisclosed crypto market proposal to the White House Office of Management and Budget and issued relief permitting certain software providers to connect users to regulated derivatives markets without registering as introducing brokers, subject to restrictions. The SEC introduced an innovation exemption that gives qualifying platforms a five‑year pathway to offer on‑chain trading of certain tokenized stocks without having to register as securities exchanges.
Trader sentiment, as reflected on Polymarket and Myriad, assigned an 84% probability to Bitcoin reaching $84,000 before falling to $55,000, a 59% chance of hitting $90,000 this year, and a 25% probability of attaining $100,000. The downside risk of touching $70,000 before year‑end was seen at 48%. In the broader market, Ether rose 6.37% to $2,619.81, XRP gained 8.97% to $1.4238, Solana increased 10.54% to $113.57, BNB edged up 1.78% to $762.00, and Cardano advanced 8.93% to $0.2330, while Dogecoin and Shiba Inu posted gains of 6.62% and 3.98% respectively, and the TRUMP meme coin traded flat.
