Bitcoin stayed wedged at $64,000 on Wednesday’s Wall Street open as gold hit six-week highs.

Key points:

• Gold analysis eyes Chinese demand as the precious metal hits its highest levels in six weeks.
• Bitcoin (BTC) sees a second day of lackluster performance against US stocks as the S&P 500 index builds on all-time highs.

China in spotlight as gold rebounds past $4,200

Data from TradingView showed continued BTC price inertia contrasting with upside for both precious metals and US equities.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Gold gained 2.8% on the day to hit $4,213 per ounce, its highest levels since June 22. Chinese appetite spurred the upside, with Bloomberg reporting 14 consecutive days of inflows for domestic gold-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

China gold ETF inflows data. Source: Bloomberg

These products saw their worst month of outflows on record in June per data from the World Gold Council. The year-to-date inflows to Chinese ETFs fell to 40 billion yuan ($5.6 billion). However, this is still the second-best H1 performance on record.

“Demand for gold ETFs stayed robust amid growing geopolitical and economic uncertainties, while the PBoC’s non-stop gold purchases continued to provide a supportive backdrop for sentiment. Institutional investor participation in Chinese gold ETFs has also risen, supporting demand for these products,” it commented, referencing China’s central bank gold purchases of 82 tonnes over the 20 months through June.

Elsewhere, US stocks were toggling between red and green while the S&P 500 index (SPX) touched a record high above 7,793 before pulling back at last look in early afternoon trading.

S&P 500 one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted that 66% of S&P 500 stocks were now above their 50-day moving average, with 57% beating the index’s standard benchmark tracker.

Bitcoin lacks impetus for recovery, analysis shows

As on the previous day, Bitcoin failed to keep up with the broader risk-asset optimism seen in equities. 

Related: Bitcoin price-metric basket sees longest capitulation since FTX blow-up: Glassnode

$64,000 remains a focus on low time frames, and market participants retained prior assumptions about the future of the current bear market.

“As long as the orange support here produces weaker rallies, price will keep forming Lower Highs to produce an eventual breakdown deeper into the $58000-$66000 Range (blue-blue),” trader and analyst Rekt Capital told X followers in comments on the weekly BTC/USD chart.

In research published on Tuesday, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant highlighted three prerequisites for a durable BTC price rebound to emerge. In addition to sustained inflows to the US spot Bitcoin ETFs, the market needed US bond yields to cool, along with the absence of expected interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

The Coinbase Premium — the difference in price between Coinbase’s and Binance’s BTC/USDT pairs — also needed to return to positive territory, CryptoQuant wrote, reiterating analysis from June. As Cointelegraph reported recently, the metric has been negative for nearly 80 days.

The Senate’s window to pass a comprehensive cryptocurrency market-structure bill is narrowing fast, with the chamber scheduled to enter its August recess within days and lawmakers still not clearly signaling a vote date. The pending legislation is the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, a proposal that has already cleared the House and now requires the right combination of timing and votes in the Senate.

Senator Cynthia Lummis said in an X post on Wednesday that she expects the Senate to hold a vote on CLARITY before it breaks for its month-long recess. With that deadline approaching, the central question for traders, platforms, and crypto-linked businesses is whether the bill can overcome a 60-vote procedural hurdle—without further amendments that could broaden political resistance.

Key takeaways

• Sen. Cynthia Lummis said she expects a Senate vote on the CLARITY Act before the August recess begins.
• Senate Democrats’ public schedule showed no vote set for CLARITY as of Wednesday, leaving only a few business days to act.
• The bill would need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster via cloture, making cross-party support essential.
• Opposition remains centered on stronger ethics provisions and banking-related concerns, particularly around how crypto firms relate to bank-style regulation.
• If no vote occurs before recess, consideration is likely to slide into the lead-up to the 2026 midterm elections.

Time pressure as the recess deadline closes

The urgency around CLARITY is practical as well as political. According to the Senate Democrats’ calendar posted for Wednesday, there was no vote scheduled for the legislation at that point, effectively compressing the timeline to a brief stretch of remaining business days before the Senate pauses legislative work for its August recess. Senate Democrats’ published schedule indicated no immediate floor opportunity.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune—who would control the scheduling—has been reported to be planning a vote before Saturday. That plan matters because, without a floor date, the bill cannot move through the procedural stages necessary to reach passage.

After Friday, the Senate is set to be in recess until mid-September, meaning any delays would almost certainly push deliberation into a period dominated by campaigning and political signaling ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Why Democrats’ support is still not settled

Even though CLARITY passed in the House in July 2025 by a 294-to-134 vote, the Senate debate has remained contentious. A key fault line is ethics. The opposition cited by the reporting notes that many Democrats want stronger ethics provisions tied to US President Donald Trump’s investments, after he disclosed he earned more than $1.4 billion from investments tied to digital assets in 2025.

Earlier coverage also pointed to ethics as a sticking point during the Senate process; Cointelegraph previously reported that Democrats were seeking additional safeguards that could affect how the bill intersects with political financial disclosures.

That creates a structural challenge for supporters: changes that improve ethics coverage may reduce resistance among Democrats, but they can also trigger objections from other lawmakers who view edits as reopening negotiations or diluting other parts of the bill.

The procedural hurdle and lingering bank-related concerns

CLARITY faces an additional, concrete constraint: it needs 60 votes in the Senate to invoke cloture and shut down a filibuster. In practice, that means the bill requires broad cross-party cooperation rather than a simple majority.

According to a recent report by Politico, at least one Republican senator plans to withhold support until concerns from banks are addressed. Politico reported that Senator Josh Hawley would withhold a favorable vote until changes satisfy bank-related worries.

While lawmakers reportedly reached some compromise with banking groups on aspects of the bill—particularly around stablecoin yield—industry leaders have continued to push for a tougher regulatory alignment. Earlier coverage noted that a stablecoin yield compromise was finalized after negotiations with banking groups (Cointelegraph reported), but further pressure has persisted for provisions that would require crypto companies to face licensing and restrictions comparable to those imposed on banks.

This tension—between closing a political deal and still meeting stricter regulatory expectations—underscores why the vote is far from guaranteed even after substantive negotiations.

What happens if CLARITY slips past recess

If the Senate does not act before the August recess, the legislative momentum for CLARITY could be significantly harder to maintain. The post-recess period runs into the final stretch of pre-election attention, when lawmakers often prioritize campaign dynamics and avoid procedural risks that could prove politically costly.

Just as importantly for the market, delay affects uncertainty around how the US will define and regulate crypto activities at a structural level. For businesses building compliance programs, trading venues planning policy frameworks, and users looking for clearer consumer protections, timing influences investment decisions and operational strategy.

Sen. Lummis framed the push for an early vote as a matter of accountability—she said it is “just time to get people on the record.” Whether senators can be convinced to go on record before recess, and whether the 60-vote threshold can be reached, are the immediate markers readers should watch in the coming days.

With the schedule tight and opposition still anchored in ethics and banking-related concerns, the next development to monitor is whether Majority Leader John Thune successfully schedules a cloture vote before the Senate breaks—and, if not, how the bill’s support and amendments evolve in the run-up to the midterms.

Cointelegraph is committed to providing independent, high-quality journalism across the crypto, blockchain, AI, and fintech industries.

All news, reviews, and analyses are produced with full journalistic independence and integrity. For more details on our standards and processes, please read our Editorial Policy.

Bitcoin bridge Boltz, which recently suspended its services after repeated attacks from AI-powered hackers, has come under fire after it allowed its warrant canary to lapse for over five days.

The lapse indicates to several critics that Boltz is possibly under government investigation.

A warrant canary is a colloquial term for a recurring public notice that a service has not received a secret legal process.

Because subjects of a legal or criminal investigation often may not lawfully disclose service of legal proceedings once a process server or law enforcement agency begins work, developers proactively and periodically state that they have not received such service by renewing their warrant canary.

A missed renewal of a warrant canary, including silence after a regular time period, is an alarm that something is amiss. Boltz’ own text told readers to “assume the worst” if it failed to renew on-time.

Boltz renewed its warrant canary notice today with a valid, PGP-signed message that claims zero government data demands. A defender said the team simply forgot during the swap freeze.

Not everyone was convinced, and the timing was unfortunate.

Indeed, Boltz is in the middle of a proverbial five alarm fire this week.

It just told users its Boltz Swap Service for bridging BTC between mainchain, Liquid, and Lightning Network, will stay disabled “until further notice.” 

It said it had suffered months of “AI-assisted probing” with attackers able to “iterate faster than a team our size can find and patch.”

Critics took the combination of its service suspension plus its warrant canary lapse as a signal of duress.

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari backed gradual interest rate increases as persistent inflation and uncertainty around the Strait of Hormuz complicate the outlook for US monetary policy.

Kashkari calls for gradual Fed rate hikes

Kashkari said during a CNBC interview on Wednesday that the central bank should begin moving interest rates higher as inflation remains above its target.

“I think now is the time to start slowly moving rates up,” Kashkari said.

The Minneapolis Fed president argued that current monetary policy does not appear particularly restrictive. He pointed to strong corporate earnings and continued economic resilience as signs that higher borrowing costs have not placed substantial pressure on demand.

Kashkari clarified that he was not advocating a series of aggressive increases. Instead, he supported incremental moves intended to reduce inflation without causing an unnecessary slowdown in the US economy.

His remarks add to a growing debate inside the Fed over whether rates are high enough to contain renewed price pressures. Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid also called for tighter monetary policy on Wednesday, although he did not specify when or by how much rates should rise.

Fed’s July decision exposed a widening policy split

The Federal Open Market Committee maintained the federal funds rate at 3.50%–3.75% during its July 28–29 meeting.

Kashkari, Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan opposed the decision. All three preferred an immediate quarter-point increase, according to the Federal Reserve’s official statement.

Kashkari later said the dissent reflected his view that policymakers should begin a gradual tightening cycle rather than deliver a sharp increase.

The three dissents showed that concern over inflation is spreading among policymakers. The Fed remains committed to returning inflation to 2%, but higher energy costs and resilient demand have made that task more difficult.

Kashkari said the September decision would depend on inflation reports released before the meeting and developments in the US-Iran conflict. Those factors could determine whether the Fed holds rates steady again or delivers its first increase of the year.

Hormuz uncertainty keeps inflation risks elevated

Disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has increased energy costs and added another layer of uncertainty to the Fed’s outlook. The waterway remains central to global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.

Iran and Oman have reached a preliminary understanding on the coordinates of a possible shipping route through the strait. However, negotiations remain incomplete, and the proposed arrangement does not guarantee safe passage, Reuters reported.

President Donald Trump said an agreement to reopen the waterway could arrive this week. A reduction in regional tensions could lower energy prices and ease some inflation pressure, but Kashkari said the Fed must assess the incoming information before committing to a September move.

Continued disruption would create the opposite risk. Higher fuel and transportation costs could spread across the US economy, strengthening the case for tighter monetary policy.

Crypto traders still lean toward a September hold

Polymarket traders placed the probability of a 25-basis-point September increase at about 46%, while the chance of no change stood near 53% when observed. Prediction-market prices change continuously and later moved closer to an even split.

A separate Polymarket contract assigned a 64% probability to at least one rate increase before the end of 2026. That leaves the October and December meetings as possible alternatives if the Fed decides September is too early.

Bitcoin (BTC) traded near $64,700 on Wednesday, holding above its intraday low near $63,900. The move did not establish a direct reaction to Kashkari’s remarks, but the rate outlook remains important for crypto investors.

Higher rates can strengthen the dollar and reduce liquidity available for risk assets, creating pressure on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. A September hold could offer short-term relief, although persistent inflation may keep the prospect of a later increase in focus.

Upcoming inflation data, the July employment report and developments around the Strait of Hormuz will shape expectations before the Fed’s Sept. 15–16 meeting.