Bitcoin Tops $80,000 as Crypto Rally Outruns Rate Hikes and Yen Slide

Bitcoin climbed above $80,000 on Friday, adding nearly 6% in 24 hours and leaving the broader U.S. equity market behind as digital assets closed out a week that included a Federal Reserve rate hike and the collapse of a key crypto bill in Congress. The Nasdaq 100, S&P 500 and Dow were all in the red during the session, while the largest cryptocurrency pushed toward the top of its recent range near $82,000.

Ether rose 7.3% to close in on $2,600, XRP gained 8.9% and Solana jumped 12.7%. None of the 40 most liquid coins fell over the period, according to FxPro chief market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich, who said traders are "cautiously shifting their focus towards altcoins." NEAR led that group with a 30% gain, followed by UNI at 26% and APT at 18%.

Solana was the standout among major assets, breaking to $112 and its strongest price in seven months. The move followed weeks of consolidation after a rally of roughly 50% in August, and it dragged the network's decentralized-finance tokens along with it: Jupiter (JUP), the token of Solana's trading aggregator, Raydium (RAY), a decentralized exchange, and Meteora (MET), a liquidity protocol, each gained roughly 15% to 20%.

Hyperliquid's HYPE token also set a record, trading near $92 after an 11% daily gain as traders weighed signs of progress on U.S. regulation. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission submitted a proposal titled "Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets" to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review. Details have not been made public, and the submission is an early step in a rulemaking process as the CFTC works out how crypto markets could operate under its existing authority.

The rally did damage in the other direction. Roughly $470 million in short crypto derivatives positions were liquidated over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data. Bitcoin bears absorbed the largest share at $238 million as the price pushed through $81,000, while ether shorts lost about $85 million. Forced closures of losing short positions tend to accelerate rallies, since exchanges must buy back the assets to unwind the bets.

Crypto-linked equities followed the tokens higher. Strategy (MSTR) gained as much as 16.4%, Coinbase (COIN) rose 11.7%, Gemini (GEMI) added 31% and Securitize (SECZ) climbed 21.7%. Robinhood (HOOD) was up 7%. The gains extended Thursday's momentum, when the Securities and Exchange Commission granted an innovation exemption aimed at enabling trading in tokenized stocks — a development that lifted COIN and HOOD by about 5% each that day.

The rally stood against a tightening global backdrop. The Bank of Japan raised rates by 25 basis points to 1.25% overnight, yet the yen weakened more than 1% to 157.65 against the dollar, erasing roughly half of its gains since Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent intervened to support the currency when the pair traded near 162. The Federal Reserve lifted its own benchmark by a quarter point earlier in the week, to a target range of 3.75% to 4.00%, and the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield moved back above 5%. With further Fed hikes expected, analysts see additional pressure on the yen.

In corporate news, ProCap Financial (BRR) joins the Russell 2000 small-cap index effective Monday and will also enter the Russell 3000. Launched during 2025's bitcoin treasury company boom, the firm has pivoted to agentic finance and will rebrand as Silvia under ticker SVIA on Sept. 22, though it continues to hold more than 5,000 bitcoin. Separately, Warren Buffett announced in a shareholder letter on Friday that he is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway after 61 years, remaining as chairman emeritus while his son Howard takes the role. "Father Time always wins," Buffett wrote. "He has, however, been generous with me."