Bitcoin Tops $78,000 as Ether and XRP Confirm a Broad US Crypto Rally

Bitcoin traded above $78,000 on Saturday, capping a week in which it rose more than 20% from lows near $62,000–$66,000 — its best five-day stretch since 2024. The move accelerated on Friday with a single-day gain above 7%, pushing the coin back through several technical levels it had lost during the summer slowdown. Trading volume across the market climbed alongside the price, a sign the rally was backed by real order flow rather than thin weekend trading.

Washington's regulatory push adds fuel

The rally's immediate trigger was political rather than technical. President Trump met with crypto industry executives at the White House and pressed Congress to pass a "fair version" of the CLARITY Act, the market-structure bill widely seen as the industry's best chance of a clear federal rulebook. He also said the United States intends to remain the dominant force in bitcoin and digital assets. Separately, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department would expand its long-term bond buyback program, a move that briefly pulled down long-dated Treasury yields and weakened the dollar — both of which tend to make dollar-priced assets like bitcoin more attractive to global buyers.

Ether and XRP confirm the rally isn't a one-coin story

What turned a bitcoin bounce into a market-wide rally was the size of the moves elsewhere. Ether climbed roughly 8% to trade above $2,500, while XRP jumped as much as 25% at one point before settling with double-digit gains near $1.45. Altcoins broadly outperformed bitcoin on a percentage basis, and DeFi tokens posted some of the sharpest gains of the week. Analysts pointed to a historic short squeeze as an amplifier: more than $3.5 billion in leveraged short positions were liquidated as prices moved against traders who had bet on further declines, forcing additional buying that pushed prices higher still.

Institutional money returns through ETFs

Spot bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest single-day inflow in months, with BlackRock's fund alone accounting for the large majority of new money entering the category on Thursday. Ether-linked funds also pulled in fresh inflows, reversing weeks of outflows during the summer. Crypto-linked equities moved in sympathy: Strategy's stock rose sharply in premarket trading, and Coinbase shares advanced as well, reflecting how closely traditional markets are now tracking crypto sentiment.

What to watch next

Standard Chartered's Geoffrey Kendrick said investors should now be positioning for bitcoin to reach $100,000 by the end of 2026, while Fundstrat's Thomas Lee described the past week's liquidations as among the largest ever recorded. Those are analyst calls, not certainties — bitcoin remains well below its January 2026 high near $94,820 and its all-time high above $126,000 set last October, and thinner weekend liquidity has historically made the $78,000–$80,000 zone a volatile test. Whether the CLARITY Act actually reaches a vote in Congress's September session will likely matter more to the rally's durability than any single day's price move.