Market snapshot · Aug. 12, 2026 close
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Digital assets, rules and market swings
The price closed Friday near $76,900 after briefly topping $79,000, recovering from about $62,800 at the start of the week as a Treasury buyback announcement and a legislative push lit a short squeeze.
Hyperliquid, Zcash and Chainlink each gained more than 30% in a week when liquidity expectations improved and legislative momentum returned, in the sharpest broad crypto move of the year.
Administration officials and industry leaders spent the week pressing senators to bring the digital asset framework to a vote, more than a year after it cleared the House.
The SEC is preparing an exemption for certain token offerings and both agencies are moving on market structure through rulemaking, a route that is faster than Congress and considerably less permanent.
The largest cryptocurrency has spent August trading in the low $60,000s after touching an intraday high near $65,400, leaving anyone who bought near last autumn's record deeply underwater.
The House passed it 294-134 in July 2025 and a Senate committee advanced it 15-9 in May, but the legislation spent the summer without a floor date before a procedural motion in August.
The asset has absorbed a war, an inflation shock, record fund outflows and stress among leveraged corporate holders, and has still fallen less than in any previous cycle.
Total supply contracted in July, ending an uninterrupted run of growth — though transaction volumes, which measure use rather than staged capital, told a more encouraging story.