Key Background
On Wednesday evening, Trump hosted several crypto executives for an event at the White House, a day before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is set to hold its first meeting of its Innovation Advisory Committee. At the event, Trump called on Congress to pass the long-stalled CLARITY Act, which is backed by the crypto industry and will establish legal guidelines on digital assets. The president said: “We need Congress to take the next step by passing the CLARITY Act, a fair version of the CLARITY Act…It’s a very, very powerful structured legislation which will keep us ahead of China, keep us ahead of everyone else.” After the event, the crypto market saw a major surge, with bitcoin rising past $70,000 for the first time since early June.
tangent
Aside from Trump’s push for the CLARITY Act’s passage, crypto prices were also boosted by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s decision to intervene in the bond market to curb rising yields on long-duration bonds. A sell-off of these bonds had pushed the 30-year Treasury yield to its highest level since 2007—amid concerns about the war in Iran and U.S. national debt hitting $40 billion. Bessent announced the Treasury Department would double its buyback of long-dated bonds. The Treasury’s intervention helped boost risky bets, triggering an upswing in crypto prices.