Bitcoin passes $70,000 as Trump pushes Clarity Act

Bitcoin rose above $70,000 for the first time since early June after President Trump hosted the chief executives of Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken, Ripple and Intercontinental Exchange at the White House and urged Congress to pass the CLARITY Act. Ether also climbed, extending a days-long rally across the broader crypto market as traders priced in a renewed push for the legislation.

The CLARITY Act would settle which federal regulator oversees which tokens, classifying most cryptocurrencies as commodities under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission while leaving some, including securities-like tokens, under the Securities and Exchange Commission. A version passed the House last year but has stalled in the Senate, where Democrats have objected to ethics provisions touching Trump's own crypto holdings; a procedural vote is now scheduled for September.

A rally built on the prospect of legislation is a bet on Congress rather than on the tokens themselves, and a prospect is not a passed bill.