Bitcoin rose more than 5% Thursday to $72,383.99 — its highest level since June 1 — after President Trump hosted top crypto executives at the White House to push for passage of the Clarity Act, bringing the cryptocurrency's two-day gain to 12%.
Bitcoin climbed to its highest price since June 1 on Thursday, rising more than 5% in a single session to $72,383.99, as a coordinated push from the White House and cryptocurrency industry leaders revived hopes that the stalled Clarity Act could still clear Congress before year's end.
The move extended a two-day gain of 12% for the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. As recently as earlier this week, bitcoin was trading near the $63,000 level.
The rally began Wednesday when Treasury yields pulled back sharply, easing pressure on risk assets. That shift triggered a broader rotation into crypto that was amplified by a short squeeze, with roughly $2.7 billion in crypto short positions liquidated, according to data from CoinGlass.
Crypto-adjacent equities followed the move higher. Coinbase and Circle each rose around 7%, with Strategy also building on gains from the prior session.
The political catalyst arrived Wednesday when the White House hosted the chief executives of several leading cryptocurrency companies — including Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, Ripple, and ChainLink — for a last-minute meeting in which President Donald Trump urged Congress to pass the crypto market structure legislation known as the Clarity Act.
"We need Congress to take the next step by passing the Clarity Act — a fair version of the Clarity Act," Trump said in opening remarks. "It's a very, very powerful structured legislation which will keep us ahead of China, keep us ahead of everyone else, will open the door to the next wave of innovations and innovators."
The White House meeting took place a day before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission held its inaugural Innovation Advisory Committee meeting on Thursday.
Trump's reference to "a fair version" of the bill points to the central sticking point in negotiations: Democrats have pushed for stricter ethics provisions that would bar the president and other public officials from personally profiting from cryptocurrency, while Republicans have resisted those clauses as overly targeted.
The Clarity Act is widely viewed by market participants as a key catalyst that could pull crypto markets out of a downturn that began last fall. Investor sentiment had soured significantly after the Senate departed for its August recess without holding a vote, with negotiations still deadlocked over the ethics provision and other unresolved differences.
Bitcoin remains approximately 40% below its October 2025 high of around $126,000, underscoring the distance markets would need to travel even if legislative momentum builds.
The next critical test comes September 15, when the bill must clear the Senate's first procedural vote. Analysts and industry observers say a failure at that threshold would effectively end the Clarity Act's prospects for 2026, as congressional attention shifts toward midterm election priorities in the months that follow.
Sara Montes de Oca is the Editor in Chief of TechEchelon. Previously a correspondent and producer in Washington, D.C., covering business, finance, and politics.
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