Bitcoin tops $80,000 price as Clarity Act nears Senate floor with new Fed chair imminent

Bitcoin punched through $80,000 on Monday, up 19% over the past month, as a twin engine of institutional demand and legislative momentum roars back to life.

On the first day of May alone, $630 million poured into US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, extending a two-month winning streak that made April the best month since October, DefiLlama data shows.

ETF inflows have become the dominant force behind Bitcoin’s ascent, Max Kahn, CEO of investment adviser Digital Wealth Partners, told DL News. They now act as “an increasingly important source of consistent buying pressure,” helping the asset hold higher levels as long as institutional appetite remains intact.

The institutional surge comes as Washington closes in on a legislative breakthrough. Senate Banking Committee chair Tim Scott told Fox Business on Friday that the Clarity Act — the landmark digital asset market structure bill — is heading for a bipartisan markup in May and a Senate floor vote soon after.

‘Red zone’

"We're in the red zone," Scott said, signalling the bill is nearing the Senate floor and that each procedural step strips away regulatory fog that has long restrained institutional capital.

“I just want to have thirteen of thirteen Republicans on board,” he said. “That makes it easier for us to have a bipartisan markup – in May is my hope – and we’ll get this thing to the floor of the Senate.”

Meanwhile, Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy, is already ahead of the curve. Shares of Strategy surged over 7% on Friday as Bitcoin clawed toward $80,000, rewarding investors who endured a brutal stretch.

At the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas last week, Saylor trained his sights beyond Bitcoin's price. His pitch centred on STRC — Strategy's Bitcoin-backed preferred stock — and a thesis that digital credit is set to reshape global capital markets.

"The world's $300 trillion credit market is a much bigger opportunity than the world's roughly $2 trillion Bitcoin market," Saylor told the audience. BlackRock's iShares Preferred & Income Securities ETF has already taken a $210 million position in STRC, which has grown to $8.5 billion in under nine months.

What comes next

The macro calendar for May is stacked.

Kevin Warsh's confirmation as the next Federal Reserve chair is imminent as Jerome Powell’s official term ends on May 15. Polymarket bettors put the odds of confirmation at 95%.

The US jobs report on Friday is the main event, according to economist Ed Yardeni. Unemployment is expected to tick down to 4.2%, with jobless claims pointing to a healthy labour market, he wrote.

Corporate earnings are also in focus — Palantir, AMD, McDonald's, and Arm all report this week. With 44% of S&P 500 companies already in, analysts now forecast 19.8% earnings growth for 2026, well ahead of recent years.

Meanwhile, Nine Federal Reserve officials are speaking this week, with investors parsing every word for clues on rates.

Inflation expectations are also due Thursday, with the New York Fed forecast to show a jump toward 4%.

Crypto market movers 

• Bitcoin is up 2.2% over the past 24 hours at $79,887.
• Ethereum is up 3% over the past few hours at $2,371.

What we’re reading 

• Anthropic’s new Mythos AI will hit crypto. Bitcoin investors don’t care, says Coinbase — DL News
• Crypto industry reels as April sees highest number of hacks ever — DL News
• New Bitcoin Wallet Offers Post-Quantum Protection Without a Fork — Unchained
• The AI margin trap — Milk Road
• DeFi lender Sky hits $124m revenue record. Yet token holders aren’t impressed — DL News

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at lance@dlnews.com