Cryptocurrency prices rallied sharply on the afternoon of September 21, with Bitcoin climbing rapidly to briefly touch the $85,000 per coin milestone. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $84,915.1, up 5.42% over the past 24 hours and reaching its highest level since late January.
Other major digital assets also joined the upward move, with Ethereum surpassing $2,700 per coin, while SOL, XRP, and Dogecoin each recorded gains exceeding 6%. According to data from Coinglass, the broader cryptocurrency market saw 136,000 traders liquidated over the past day, with total liquidation value reaching $750 million. Long-position liquidations accounted for $100 million of that figure, while short-position liquidations made up the remaining $650 million.
Key catalyst behind the rally
On the news front, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled a new rule on September 17 dubbed the "Innovation Exemption," which permits qualifying trading platforms to offer tokenized stock trading within the United States. The rule also grants eligible platforms a range of regulatory exemptions for a five-year period. The SEC stated that the initiative is designed to let market participants explore on-chain stock trading within a controlled environment, while simultaneously helping regulators accumulate practical experience for crafting long-term rules.
Institutional positioning and market outlook
JPMorgan noted that Bitcoin could draw more support than gold if investors begin unwinding defensive positions they had built against Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The bank pointed out that gold ETFs have already recovered all of their outflows from early 2026, whereas Bitcoin ETFs have only clawed back roughly half of their outflows so far. Open interest in futures markets remains elevated across both asset classes, suggesting that institutional investors are still increasing their exposure.
Alice Liu, head of research at CoinMarketCap, observed that despite recent rate hikes by both the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has continued to grow. This suggests that markets may have already partially priced in those policy shifts. She emphasized that the more pressing question now is how rising financing costs will affect market positioning going forward.
Additionally, the SEC's "Innovation Exemption" remains a temporary and conditional regulatory arrangement, as comprehensive cryptocurrency market structure legislation has yet to be completed. The current price surge more accurately reflects a re-pricing of the market's expectations for phased improvements in the regulatory environment, rather than signaling that the U.S. cryptocurrency regulatory framework has been fully established.