On Aug. 20, Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed the $72,000 price mark for the first time since June 1 after two major announcements yesterday.
First, the U.S. Treasury announced it is at least doubling the amount of longer-term government bond buybacks which will increase market liquidity.
Second, President Donald Trump doubled down on his vow to cement the U.S. as the natural home for the crypto industry while hosting the industry's leading executives at the White House.
Trump hailed his administration for ending "Operation Chokepoint 2.0" that he accused the Joe Biden administration of waging against the crypto industry.
The president also touted his pro-crypto initiatives such as passing the GENIUS Act to regulate stablecoins and urged the Congress to pass a "fair version" of the CLARITY Act.
Related: Trump hosts crypto executives at the White House — and one token surges 19% on his remarks
Bitcoin was trading at $71,385.80 at press time, up 11% in 24 hours.
Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $2,266.81, up 19% in 24 hours. XRP also rose 19% in 24 hours to trade at $1.20.
The total crypto market capitalization rose 10% in 24 hours to $2.52 trillion.
As per the onchain analysis platform CoinGlass, crypto shorts worth more than $3 billion and longs worth more than $305 million got liquidated within the last 24 hours.
Bitcoin with $1.67 billion and Ether with $1 billion led the short squeeze.
195,045 traders got liquidated during the 24-hour period, the single largest liquidation being a BTC-USD pair worth $48.80 million on Hyperliquid.
Related: Gold, Bitcoin rally as U.S. Treasury makes unexpected bond market move
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Aug 20, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.