Bitcoin punched through the $100,000 barrier on Saturday afternoon to trade at $100,420 by 4:00 p.m. ET, marking the largest cryptocurrency's first six-figure print since January and capping a 7.4% advance over the past 24 hours. The breakout extends a relentless rally that began the moment Iran ceasefire terms hit the wires and has been turbocharged by speculation around Tuesday's Senate Banking Committee markup of the CLARITY Act.
On-chain analytics firm Glassnode flagged that wallets holding more than 1,000 BTC absorbed roughly 84,000 coins over the trailing five sessions, the heaviest pace of accumulation since October 2024. The data underscores how institutional and high-net-worth participants are positioning before regulatory clarity arrives, leaving short-term traders to chase the move.
ETF Bid Returns With a Vengeance
Spot Bitcoin ETFs absorbed $2.8 billion in net inflows over the prior week, the fund category's strongest five-day stretch since launch. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust alone took in $1.6 billion, pushing total assets above $84 billion and cementing IBIT as the fastest ETF in history to cross that mark. Fidelity's FBTC and ARK's ARKB rounded out the top three by dollar inflow.
Derivatives markets reflect the conviction. Open interest on CME Bitcoin futures hit a record $48 billion, while perpetual funding rates on offshore venues climbed to 0.082% per eight hours — elevated, but far below the 0.15% threshold that has historically marked local tops.
CLARITY Act Becomes the Pivot
Capitol Hill staffers confirmed that the Senate Banking Committee will markup the Crypto Legislative Asset Regulatory Investment and Trading Yardstick (CLARITY) Act on Tuesday morning, with a floor vote tentatively scheduled before the Memorial Day recess. The bill assigns spot tokens to the CFTC and securities-like tokens to the SEC, ending years of jurisdictional turf wars that have suppressed institutional allocations.