Bitcoin held above $65,000 on Monday even as the U.S. Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act before its August recess. Instead, steady spot ETF inflows and a weaker dollar appear to have provided stronger support for the market than developments in Washington.
Bitcoin Posts Its Narrowest Saturday Range Since 2023
Bitcoin’s weekend trading was unusually quiet. The cryptocurrency moved within a range of just $350 on Saturday between its UTC daily high and low, according to TradingView.
That was Bitcoin’s narrowest Saturday range since Nov. 25, 2023, when the spread was only $297. Bitcoin was trading near $38,000 then, making the latest low-volatility session notable given that BTC is now priced substantially higher.
The compressed range also shows how limited Bitcoin’s price swings have become in percentage terms despite its much larger absolute value.
Weekend crypto trading typically sees lower liquidity because institutional desks, market makers and ETF-related flows are less active outside regular market hours.
Strategy Builds $4.65B Dollar Reserve
Strategy sold 1,690 BTC for $108.6 million last week and used the proceeds to repurchase 1,152,020 STRC preferred shares.
The company separately raised $653.1 million by selling 6.59 million MSTR shares. About $650 million went into its U.S. dollar reserve, while the remaining $3.1 million was kept as cash.
Strategy’s dollar reserve now stands at $4.65 billion. Its Bitcoin holdings fell to 840,447 BTC, acquired for $63.36 billion at an average cost of $75,385 per Bitcoin.
The company also has $785.2 million available for preferred-share repurchases and $1 billion earmarked for MSTR buybacks.
MSTR shares gained 0.5% in premarket trading Monday as Bitcoin hovered near $65,000.
Standard Chartered Bets on Chainlink
Standard Chartered expects Chainlink to benefit as more traditional financial assets move onto blockchains. The bank initiated coverage of LINK with a $200 price target for the end of 2030, compared with roughly $8 at the time.
Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s head of digital asset research, said growing tokenization and DeFi activity should increase demand for reliable blockchain data and infrastructure.
Kendrick described Chainlink as an institutional-grade system for bringing data onchain and moving it securely.
Chainlink currently connects about 70% of DeFi markets globally, according to Kendrick. Greater adoption of tokenized assets could increase usage, fees and demand for its services, potentially supporting LINK’s value.
The main risks are slower-than-expected tokenization growth and stronger competition from rival networks.
TSMC Signals Continued AI Chip Demand
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. posted a 45% jump in July revenue to NT$467.58 billion, or about $14.5 billion, indicating that demand for AI-related hardware remains strong.
TSMC, which manufactures chips for companies such as Nvidia and Apple, is expected by analysts to post a 46.8% increase in sales for the current quarter.
The company recently raised its 2026 spending and revenue outlook and plans to invest a record $60 billion to $64 billion in capital expenditures. That move reflects expectations that AI chip demand will remain strong through 2027 and beyond.
SK Hynix’s $38 billion expansion announcement on Friday offered another sign that the AI infrastructure buildout remains strong.
For Bitcoin, resilient demand for semiconductor stocks supports the broader risk-on environment. BTC was trading around $65,200 Monday and remained higher on the week.
H100 Boosts Bitcoin Holdings
European Bitcoin-focused company H100 has completed a major Bitcoin-based acquisition that CEO Sander Andersen called the largest public Bitcoin equity M&A deal in European history.
The transaction added 2,455 BTC, taking H100’s holdings from 1,051 BTC to 3,506 BTC. The deal involved no cash and assumed no debt.
The acquisition was completed at 1.0 times net asset value and increased Bitcoin per fully diluted share by 5%.
H100 shares climbed 6% Monday.
Bitcoin Holds Firm as CLARITY Vote Is Delayed
Bitcoin remained near $65,200 Monday, gaining about 3.7% over the past week, according to CoinDesk data. The move extends BTC’s rebound from an early-August low around $62,000.
Ether was near $1,925, while BNB, Solana and TRON also posted weekly gains.
The gains came despite the Senate failing to move the CLARITY Act forward before the August recess. The legislation received 51 votes, short of the 60 needed, pushing the earliest potential Senate action to Sept. 14.
The market’s muted reaction suggests the delay had largely been anticipated. Instead of triggering another sell-off, the failed vote appears to have reinforced expectations that the legislation would be postponed.
Market flows, rather than political developments, appear to be driving the latest move higher.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs have continued to attract inflows, while the weaker U.S. dollar following the soft jobs report has improved the backdrop for BTC.
Strategy Chairman Michael Saylor also fueled speculation over another Bitcoin purchase by posting the company’s Bitcoin acquisition chart with the words “Doing business.” The post followed Strategy’s disclosure that it had sold roughly 1,638 BTC to finance buybacks.
