Bitcoin reaches above $80k as the long-awaited CLARITY Act nears completion

(SeaPRwire) –   Bitcoin surpassed $80,000 on Monday morning, marking a 19% increase over the past month and outpacing the S&P 500’s approximately 10% gain during the same period.

This positive momentum appears linked to encouraging progress on the CLARITY Act, legislation designed to establish a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. The bill passed the House in July 2025 but faced delays in the Senate due to disagreements between banks and stablecoin firms regarding how stablecoin yields should be treated. However, after lawmakers resolved a key point of contention, the outlook for CLARITY has improved significantly.

“We’re in the red zone,” said Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) in a recent interview with Fox Business. The South Carolina Republican expressed hope of advancing the bill through markup in May and bringing it to a vote on the Senate floor by June or July.

The CLARITY Act encountered setbacks earlier this year when Coinbase withdrew its support in mid-January, partly because a draft amendment proposed restricting crypto companies from offering yield on user stablecoin balances. Although the GENIUS Act—passed in 2025 and focused specifically on stablecoins—bans stablecoin issuers from paying yield directly, third-party platforms like Coinbase are permitted to provide rewards on user stablecoin balances—a practice that banks have criticized as a “loophole.”

Late last week, Senators Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) reached an agreement allowing crypto firms to offer stablecoin yield, provided that such rewards are not “economically or functionally equivalent to interest or yield on an interest-bearing bank deposit,” according to Punchbowl News. Crypto-related stocks responded favorably to the news, with Coinbase and Circle seeing their share prices rise by 7% and 15%, respectively, on Monday morning.

Bitcoin’s surge amid the CLARITY developments is especially noteworthy given that Michael Saylor’s Strategy, a major Bitcoin-buying company known for accumulating large amounts of the cryptocurrency, has reduced its acquisition pace.

“The market may be gaining strength from broader support beyond just one narrative,” noted QCP, a digital assets firm, in a market update.

Nevertheless, Bitcoin’s upward trend could face resistance. A significant number of call options are positioned at $80,000, meaning options dealers hedging these positions must sell Bitcoin as the price climbs—creating what Bloomberg describes as an “electric fence” around that level.