Bitcoin surges 5% to top $80,000 as investors look past Clarity Act’s failure

What happened: Bitcoin (BTC-USD) surged 5% to hover above $80,000 on Friday.

What’s behind the move: The world’s largest cryptocurrency rose as traders shifted into risk-on mode, looking past the failure of the Clarity Act and a Federal Reserve rate hike this week.

Crypto derivatives traders were strongly bullish, heavily positioned in call options to bet on a move higher.

“Once bitcoin broke past the resistance level around $78,000, shorts got liquidated, pushing it toward $80,000,” Nic Puckrin, cross-asset analyst and founder of Coin Bureau, told Yahoo Finance.

“The real test is now in the $80,000-$82,000 range, where resistance is much stronger,” he added.

What else you need to know: Meanwhile, the a congressional House of Representatives committee advanced the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill on Thursday. The measure would lock US government-held tokens in a federal reserve for at least 20 years and require regular audits of the holdings.

While it cleared the House committee on a strict party-line split, the bill still needs approval from the full House and Senate to become law.

Bitcoin has remained resilient this week despite the Clarity Act failing to clear a cloture vote in the Senate.

The crypto market had been closely following the bill, which aimed to establish a comprehensive federal framework for digital asset markets.

Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance.

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