Bitcoin Nears $70,000, Ether Jumps 18% as Treasury Liquidity Move, White House Meeting Trigger Short Squeeze

Bitcoin rose as much as 8% and ether jumped roughly 18% to 20% over the past 24 hours, in a rally driven by three catalysts landing in the same two-day window: a Treasury Department move to boost bond market liquidity, a new SEC proposal easing rules for crypto asset offerings, and a White House meeting between US President Donald Trump and crypto industry executives.

The Treasury announced on August 19 that it would at least double the size of its buyback operations for longer-dated Treasury securities, from a $2 billion cap to at least $4 billion per operation, effective September 9 through the current refunding quarter. Traders read the move as a liquidity backstop for the broader Treasury market, and it fed through into a bond rally and lower yields that in turn supported risk assets, including crypto.

A day earlier, the SEC proposed a new rule, called Regulation Crypto Assets, that would create two exemptions letting crypto issuers raise up to $5 million over four years, or $75 million a year, under lighter disclosure requirements than a standard securities offering. Then on Wednesday, Trump hosted crypto and technology executives at the White House, including representatives from Coinbase, Gemini, Ripple and Chainlink Labs, and pushed Congress to advance what he called a fair version of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, the market-structure bill that has stalled in the Senate.

The combination triggered a short squeeze. Bitcoin touched nearly $70,000 overnight, its first approach to that level since June 2, before settling just above $69,000. Ether outpaced it, surging past $2,250 and reclaiming ground it had not held since May, with a weekly gain of about 20%, the strongest among major tokens. Roughly $1.9 billion in liquidations were recorded over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data, the large majority of them short positions caught on the wrong side of the move.

Some of that move may prove temporary. Bitcoin's rally cleared a technical level near $66,600 that chartists had been watching for much of August, opening a path toward $76,000 if it holds, but this week's Federal Reserve minutes showed several officials still open to a rate increase if inflation does not ease, a risk that remains unresolved. Ether's 18% move came on a liquidity and policy headline rather than anything specific to Ethereum, which is typically the kind of rally that gives back at least part of its gains once the initial short covering runs its course.