Bernstein: Bitcoin's push toward $80,000 is liquidity-driven, with ETF fund flows rebounding.

Bernstein analysts believe Bitcoin’s rally over the past two days may signal a shift in market momentum, driven by improved liquidity conditions, rebounding ETF demand, and more favorable regulation. Bitcoin hit $79,500 at one point on Friday before pulling back to around $78,000. The analysts linked this rally to the U.S. Treasury’s announcement of expanded long-term Treasury repo operations, noting that liquidity expansion has historically been positive for Bitcoin. Additionally, Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin during this rally, a trend analysts attribute to ETH’s greater exposure to stablecoins, tokenization, and real-world assets. Flows into spot Bitcoin ETFs have shifted from net outflows in May and June to net inflows of $1.6 billion this week, pushing their total assets under management to over $85 billion. Strategy’s holdings have turned into unrealized gains of more than $2 billion, with its cash reserves sufficient to cover 2.8 years of dividend payments. Bernstein also noted that regardless of whether the highly anticipated CLARITY Act—set for a procedural vote on September 15—passes, the SEC and CFTC are expected to accelerate legislative processes in areas including native token issuance, equity tokenization, perpetual contracts, computing power derivatives, and prediction markets. (The Block)