BTC Nears $72K as Altcoins Surge and Short Sellers Lose $3B

Bitcoin Nears $72,000 as Macro Rally Gains Steam

Bitcoin maintained its upward momentum Thursday morning, approaching $72,000 as a rally sparked by a U.S. Treasury announcement showed no signs of slowing. The surge gained extra momentum following favorable remarks from President Donald Trump during an Aug. 19 meeting with crypto industry CEOs.

Data from Bitstamp showed bitcoin rallied to a session high of $71,992, with mounting buying pressure pointing to a potential breach of $72,000 later in the day. The climb pushed bitcoin’s gains over the past 24 hours to 11.3% and lifted its market capitalization to $1.44 trillion.

Altcoins kept pace with bitcoin’s rally over the last 24 hours. Ethereum spearheaded the move, surging 19% by 5:36 a.m. EST after topping out just under $2,320. Other major tokens followed suit, with XRP, SOL, DOGE, and Zcash all securing double-digit gains.

In the derivatives market, the rally has decimated leveraged short positions. According to Coinglass data, liquidated short bets on bitcoin nearly topped $1.7 billion—a significant jump from the $1.1 billion recorded Wednesday afternoon. Overall market liquidations reached $3.35 billion, with liquidated short positions accounting for $3.07 billion.

Speaking at a White House meeting with technology leaders, top financial regulators, and crypto executives, Trump insisted that the U.S. is “leading by a lot” in cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence (AI). He reiterated that the U.S. is in a direct race against foreign competitors—specifically highlighting China—to lead crypto markets and financial technology.

Some CEOs attending used the occasion to call on Congress to pass the CLARITY Act, which has stalled in the Senate, to provide long-term legal certainty for domestic digital asset operations.

However, the White House event also drew controversy after President Trump explicitly referenced specific cryptocurrency protocols. In his remarks, Trump suggested his administration is actively coordinating to bring the decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid on-shore to the United States. The perceived endorsement triggered an immediate speculative surge for HYPE; building on gains from the Treasury’s earlier announcements, the token extended its rally to approach $74—placing it within less than $3 of reclaiming its June 16 all-time high of $76.87.

Critics also pointed to the price movement of LINK after Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, addressed delegates at the event. While an earlier announcement that Wyoming had switched from Layerzero to Chainlink’s CCIP caused LINK to jump 3% to $9.70, the token subsequently rallied to $10.86, bringing its daily gains to approximately 9%.