Bitcoin climbed above $66,000 on July 21, reaching a one-month high as semiconductor shares rebounded and U.S. spot ETF demand improved. By July 23, it had settled back near $65,000 after failing to hold above resistance, while the supplied seven-day chart showed BTC almost flat for the week. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index stood at 28 on July 24, still in “Fear,” compared with 31 yesterday, 27 last week and 17 last month. Sentiment has improved from June’s extremes, but subdued trading volumes show investors remain cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting.
Senate Unveils Landmark Crypto Bill
U.S. Senate Republicans unveiled the long-awaited Clarity Act text on July 22 as lawmakers raced to act before the August recess. The bill would ban rewards on idle stablecoin balances while allowing transaction-based rewards, and would place digital-asset exchanges, brokers and dealers under Bank Secrecy Act requirements. It also proposes lighter SEC registration requirements for some token fundraising and defines when DeFi platforms remain decentralized. The measure still needs at least eight Democratic votes to advance, so its passage remains uncertain despite the release of detailed legislative text.
Uniswap Adds Permissioned Trading Pools
Uniswap Labs introduced Permissioned Pools on July 23, creating onchain markets for regulated funds, equities and other tokenized assets. The framework lets issuers restrict trading and liquidity deposits to approved wallets while continuing to use Uniswap’s automated market-making infrastructure. Securitize, Superstate and European digital-securities platform Dowgo are among the launch partners. By moving investor-eligibility checks directly into Uniswap v4 pools, the system gives institutions a way to access onchain liquidity while retaining the controls required for regulated securities.
Bitcoin ETFs opened Monday with $226.8 million in net inflows, led by BlackRock’s IBIT at $116.5 million and ARKB at $72.7 million, despite a $45.4 million outflow from GBTC. Tuesday brought another $203.2 million, with IBIT contributing $163.9 million and Fidelity’s FBTC adding $23.1 million. Wednesday remained positive at $69.1 million, while Thursday reversed sharply with $225.1 million in net outflows, driven primarily by $202.5 million leaving IBIT. Despite the late reversal, the funds recorded an overall net inflow of $274.0 million for the week.
Ethereum ETFs began Monday with $38.0 million in net inflows, led by BlackRock’s ETHA at $34.3 million. Tuesday added $37.5 million as ETHA’s $52.8 million inflow outweighed a $15.3 million withdrawal from Fidelity’s FETH. Wednesday was the strongest session at $72.7 million, led by ETHA and FETH, while Thursday remained positive at $26.3 million with contributions from ETHA, ETHB and FETH. Ethereum funds finished the week with $174.5 million in net inflows and recorded a positive result on every reported session.
Hedera led the tracked Metal Pay assets with a 7.7% weekly gain as buying rotated selectively into several altcoins. Litecoin gained 2.6%, while Ethereum and XPR Network remained modestly positive at 0.9% and 0.5%, respectively. Bitcoin was nearly unchanged, but most other tracked assets finished lower, showing that the broader recovery remained uneven despite improving ETF demand.
