Bitcoin Surges Above $81,000 on Fresh Institutional Demand and Waller's Comments

Bitcoin's rally above $81,000 is gaining momentum as fresh capital flows into the market.

The price acceleration was sparked by Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller's comments that he could support keeping interest rates unchanged this month if August inflation continues to cool.

This helped push the market-implied odds of a September rate increase from 65% to around 50%, and Treasury yields declined following the remarks.

As a result, major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, XRP, and Solana gained more than 5%, while Zcash and Cardano climbed over 10%.

The influx of fresh capital is replacing the short squeeze that initially drove Bitcoin's rally, with US spot Bitcoin ETFs drawing $730.9 million on Thursday - their largest daily inflow since January.

BlackRock's IBIT accounted for roughly $454 million of this inflow, while products from Fidelity, Grayscale, and others also attracted capital.

This fresh demand is a stronger source of support after CryptoQuant found that much of Bitcoin's earlier push toward $81,000 was driven by shorts being liquidated or closed, with relatively few traders opening new long positions.