Trump Walked Into the White House with Crypto Executives and Bitcoin Jumped Above $70,000 on the Spot
Bitcoin rose roughly 22% in a week to settle above $78,000, its strongest weekly run since 2024, after the US Treasury doubled long-end bond buybacks and more than $2.5 billion in short positions were liquidated. Trump hosted crypto executives at the White House and personally pushed Congress to pass the CLARITY Act. The SEC proposed a new offering regime exempting crypto raises up to $75 million. Harmony rolled back its entire chain after an attacker forged 3 trillion tokens. Bitcoin ETFs posted their largest single-day inflow in three and a half months. Here is a clear look at the most important crypto and tech stories making headlines.
Bitcoin Surged 22% to Above $78,000 as $2.5 Billion in Shorts Were Liquidated
Bitcoin rose roughly 22% to settle above $78,000, its strongest weekly performance since 2024, after the US Treasury doubled its long-end bond buyback program and more than $2.5 billion in short positions were forcibly closed.
The Treasury doubling bond buybacks injects liquidity into the financial system and historically pushes investors toward risk assets. When that much liquidity enters the market at the same time $2.5 billion in shorts get liquidated, the upward move accelerates fast. Short sellers who bet against Bitcoin had their positions automatically closed as the price rose, and each liquidation added more buying pressure on top of the macro tailwind. A 22% weekly move is not organic price discovery. It is a squeeze.
Trump Hosted Crypto Executives at the White House and Pushed for the CLARITY Act
President Trump hosted crypto industry executives at the White House and publicly urged Congress to pass the CLARITY Act, sending Bitcoin above $70,000 during the event.
A sitting president publicly demanding Congress pass specific crypto legislation from the White House is without precedent. The CLARITY Act would establish the most comprehensive crypto market structure framework the US has ever had. Trump’s personal involvement signals this is no longer a niche policy issue being handled at the agency level. It is a White House priority, which changes the political calculus for every senator deciding whether to vote for it.
The SEC Proposed a New Offering Regime Exempting Crypto Raises Up to $75 Million
The SEC proposed “Regulation Crypto Assets,” a bespoke offering framework that would exempt crypto raises up to $5 million for four years and up to $75 million for 12 months from standard securities registration requirements.
This is the first time the SEC has proposed a framework designed specifically for crypto fundraising rather than trying to fit token sales into existing securities law. A $75 million exemption covers the fundraising needs of most legitimate crypto projects. The four-year runway for smaller raises gives early-stage teams time to build without immediate regulatory overhead. If this passes, it removes one of the biggest legal risks that has pushed crypto fundraising offshore for the past decade.
The US Treasury Opened Public Comment on GENIUS Act Stablecoin Rules Until October 19
The US Treasury issued a proposed rule implementing Section 3 of the GENIUS Act and opened a public comment period on stablecoin issuance running until October 19.
Public comment periods are where the actual shape of financial regulation gets determined. The GENIUS Act passed with broad language. The Treasury’s implementing rules fill in the specific reserve requirements, audit standards, and operational obligations that will determine which stablecoin issuers can operate in the US and which cannot. Anyone in the stablecoin business has until October 19 to influence what those rules look like before they become final.
Citi Plans to Launch Bitcoin Custody for Institutional Clients Later This Year
Citi said it expects to launch Bitcoin custody for institutional clients before the end of the year under a new Custody+ platform.
Citi is one of the largest banks in the world with custody relationships covering trillions in assets. When it launches Bitcoin custody, it does not need to convince institutional clients to try crypto. It offers Bitcoin storage to clients who already trust Citi with everything else they own. That frictionless path from existing relationship to crypto custody is exactly what most institutions have been waiting for before making a meaningful allocation.
Visa Is Looking for a New Stablecoin Settlement Partner After Mastercard Acquired BVNK
Visa began searching for a new stablecoin settlement partner after Mastercard completed its acquisition of BVNK, which requires exchange licenses in the US, Canada, the UK and Singapore.
Mastercard buying Visa’s stablecoin settlement partner is a competitive move that forced Visa’s hand. BVNK cannot serve both networks as a neutral infrastructure provider once it is owned by a direct competitor. Visa now needs to find or build its own stablecoin settlement layer, which accelerates the race between the two payment giants to control how digital dollar payments move globally. Whoever locks in the better infrastructure wins a significant share of the next decade of payment volume.
Bitcoin ETFs Logged Their Largest Single-Day Inflow in Three and a Half Months
US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $517 million in net inflows in a single day, their largest daily total in three and a half months, with BlackRock’s IBIT accounting for $284.7 million of that figure.
$517 million in a single day is institutional buying at scale. The last time ETFs pulled in this much in one session was during the peak accumulation period earlier in the year. BlackRock taking $284.7 million of the total means more than half the day’s inflow went into a single fund. When IBIT leads a day like this during a 22% weekly price move, it is not retail chasing momentum. It is large allocators adding to positions they have been building for months.
Metaplanet Invested 2,100 BTC to Take a 95.7% Stake in a Nasdaq Company It Will Rename Superplanet
Metaplanet agreed to invest 2,100 BTC plus $2.5 million in cash for a 95.7% stake in Nasdaq-listed Super League Enterprise, which will be renamed Superplanet and operate as Metaplanet’s US Bitcoin treasury vehicle.
Metaplanet is Japan’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder. Acquiring a Nasdaq-listed shell and converting it into a US Bitcoin treasury company gives Metaplanet a publicly traded US presence without going through a traditional IPO process. The 2,100 BTC investment is not a financial trade. It is the capitalization of a new vehicle designed to hold Bitcoin on behalf of US investors through a structure that already has exchange listing, regulatory standing, and shareholder infrastructure in place.
Harmony Rolled Back Its Entire Chain After an Attacker Forged 3 Trillion Tokens
Harmony confirmed a full chain rollback to August 11 after an attacker exploited a vulnerability to forge approximately 3 trillion ONE tokens, discarding more than 109,000 confirmed transactions in the process.
Rolling back a blockchain means erasing every transaction that happened after a specific point in time. 109,000 confirmed transactions that users believed were final were simply deleted. For anyone who received funds, made trades, or completed contracts during that window, those actions no longer exist on the canonical chain. Forging 3 trillion tokens out of thin air is not a typical exploit. It is a complete compromise of the chain’s monetary integrity, and a rollback was the only way to restore it.
A Governance Exploit Drained $8.5 Million from Term Labs After an Attacker Bought Enough Votes
A governance exploit drained roughly $8.5 million in ether and stablecoins from Term Labs vaults after an attacker accumulated enough voting power through token purchases to authorize the withdrawals through the protocol’s own governance mechanism.
Governance attacks are different from code exploits because the attacker does not break any rules. They follow the rules exactly, buying enough tokens to hold a majority vote and then using that majority to authorize transfers to themselves. $8.5 million drained through a legitimate governance vote means the protocol did exactly what it was designed to do. The design was the vulnerability. Any DeFi protocol where a temporary token majority can authorize large treasury withdrawals is one large market purchase away from the same outcome.
Wrapping Up
This was one of the most consequential weeks in crypto in 2026. Bitcoin ran 22% on macro liquidity and a short squeeze. Trump made the CLARITY Act a White House priority. The SEC proposed its first crypto-specific offering framework. Citi announced Bitcoin custody. Visa lost its stablecoin partner to Mastercard. ETFs pulled in $517 million in a single day. And underneath all of it, Harmony erased 109,000 transactions to escape a 3 trillion token forgery, Term Labs lost $8.5 million through its own governance system, and 1,314 BTC worth $94 million moved out of wallets that had been sitting dormant since 2014. The bull case and the attack surface are both expanding at the same time.
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