Bitcoin Surges Past $80,000 as Fed Signals Rate Pause

Bitcoin surged past $80,000 on Thursday, up nearly 3% over 24 hours, as Ethereum and XRP rallied alongside a broader stock market advance.

The catalyst for this rally appears to be comments from Fed Governor Christopher Waller, who signaled he could support holding rates steady. This led to a sharp reversal in rate-hike odds, with the CME FedWatch tool now showing just 50.4% probability of a hike at the September meeting.

Short sellers were particularly affected by this move, with over $415 million in liquidations across crypto in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data. This included more than $329 million in short bets that got force-closed in just the last hour alone.