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Bitcoin climbed to an eight-month high of $85,326.10 on Sep. 21, its strongest level since late January, according to CoinGecko. The leading cryptocurrency gained 6% in 24 hours, lifted by forced buying from a short squeeze that liquidated roughly $383 million in Bitcoin short positions over the past day, per the onchain analytics platform CoinGlass. Across all cryptocurrencies, more than $781 million in positions were liquidated in the last 24 hours, of which $659 million were shorts. Ether rose 6% to $2,731.56 and XRP gained 7.8% to $1.48, while Hyperliquid's HYPE token hit a new all-time high of $95.99 after the decentralized exchange rolled out a loan feature allowing users to borrow USDC and USDT against HYPE or Bitcoin collateral. Strategy bought 950 Bitcoin for $75.7 million during Sep. 14-20 and now holds 846,000 BTC, while Bitmine Immersion Technologies bought 27,562 Ether last week and now holds 5,983,940 ETH. The rally followed the failure of the Senate cloture vote on the CLARITY Act and the Federal Reserve's first interest rate hike since 2023, after which the Trump administration made several pro-crypto moves, including the SEC's five-year Innovation Exemption for tokenized U.S. stocks, a CFTC no-action position for certain software developers, the House Ways and Means Committee's passage of the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, and the House Financial Services Committee's passage of the American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026 to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve. Bitcoin was trading at $84,999 at the time of writing, per Decibel.

Bitcoin surged past the $86,000 level today, touching its highest point since January. As of 10:07 p.m. Thailand time, Bitcoin had climbed 6.04% to $86,088.80 in trading on the Coin Metrics platform, while analysts expect Bitcoin to potentially push up to the $90,000 level. Matt Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise, told CNBC's Squawk Box Europe that the "crypto winter" is over and predicted this will become the strongest and longest bull market in crypto history. Over the past five days, Bitcoin's price has risen more than 7%, and over the past three months it has climbed nearly 35%. Analysts at BTIG said in a report that as long as Bitcoin remains above the $75,000 level, the bulls can set a target for the price to break through $82,000 on its way toward $90,000. Bitcoin's rally came even after the U.S. Senate last week blocked the Clarity Act from moving forward. Hougan said the bill's failure to pass the Senate could also be a supportive factor for crypto prices, since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will continue to set the rules.

Bitcoin has risen 7.8% so far in September, historically its worst month, trading at $84,702 as of September 21, 2026 after ending August at $78,563. The gain defies September's average loss of about 2.9% since 2013, a record built largely on a five-year losing streak from 2017 to 2021 that predates spot ETFs and corporate treasury buying. September has now posted gains three straight years, with returns of 3.91% in 2023, 7.29% in 2024, and 5.16% in 2025, and this month is on track to be the fourth consecutive green September. The rally came despite a drop to around $76,000 after the Senate halted the CLARITY Act on September 15 and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates on September 16, with Bitcoin rebounding 11% over the next five days. Heading into the fourth quarter, Bitcoin is up 45% since the end of Q2 but still down about 3% from its December 31, 2025 closing price of $87,498, with spot Bitcoin ETF flows and holding above the $78,563 August level the key tests.