Bitcoin News Today: Cowen Expects BTC Rally After Golden Cross Dump Bitcoin News Today carries a big regulatory headline. The CFTC has sent its crypto market rulemaking to the White House for
Bitcoin News Today carries a big regulatory headline. The CFTC has sent its crypto market rulemaking to the White House for review, and Bitcoin is trading near $81,000 on the same day. Two major stories, one clear theme: momentum is building on both the policy side and the price side at once.
Source: X Official
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission submitted a new rulemaking titled "Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets" to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on September 17, 2026.
The filing carries the code RIN 3038-AF80 and sits at the earliest prerule stage.
Source: reginfo.gov
The text itself is not public yet.
It is marked as not economically significant and tied to existing Dodd-Frank authority.
Prerule filings typically get a shorter review window, often around 10 working days, before returning to the agency.
The move came two days after CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said the agency was "locked in and ready to ship rules," a statement made right after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act on a 49-50 vote.
That bill would have built a statutory market-structure framework for digital assets. With it stalled, the commission chose to act under authority it already holds.
Selig's earlier public statements point to what this rulemaking is trying to solve. The core focus sits on retail crypto transactions that involve leverage, margin, or financing, and when those can be offered outside a formal exchange under the "actual delivery" exception.
Key goals include:
Setting clearer requirements for designated contract markets offering leveraged crypto products.
Exploring a tailored registration category for platforms handling retail leveraged crypto trading.
Building on the earlier joint token taxonomy that placed assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana under CFTC oversight as digital commodities rather than securities.
Extending recent no-action relief already given to passive software providers, such as certain wallet interfaces, that connect users to regulated markets without registering as brokers.
For exchanges, this could mean clearer legal pathways paired with new compliance duties around surveillance, custody, and reporting.
For everyday traders, it points toward more regulated leveraged products with stronger protections, though the full picture will not be clear until the draft text becomes public.
Nothing here happens overnight. After White House review, the CFTC would need to issue a formal proposed rule, open a public comment period that often runs 60 to 90 days, and then hold a commission vote. Some estimates place final, binding rules as far out as late 2027.
Bitcoin price today is having a strong day, and the CFTC filing is one of the major parts of the reason.
Source: CoinMarketCap Official
Bitcoin trades at $81,015.73, up 4.55 percent in 24 hours.
Market capitalization sits near $1.62 trillion, up 4.54 percent.
24-hour trading volume jumped 61.02 percent to $38.3 billion.
Circulating supply holds at 20.08 million BTC against a fixed 21 million cap.
Fully diluted valuation sits near $1.7 trillion.
Regulatory relief following the CFTC filing eased some of the uncertainty left by the Senate's failed CLARITY Act vote, giving the broader market a reason to breathe out. Spot ETF markets also saw inflows after weeks of volatility.
Institutional money is backing the rally. US spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $433.03 million in net inflows on September 18, a sharp turnaround from weeks of mixed flows.
Source: SoSo Value
Daily net inflow: $433.03 million
Cumulative net inflow: $55.16 billion
Total value traded: $4.67 billion
Total net assets: $102.53 billion, or 6.29% of Bitcoin's market cap
Fidelity's FBTC led with $310.72 million in inflows, followed by BlackRock's IBIT at $108.44 million. Both closed the day up over 6%, alongside gains from GBTC and BITB.
Ethereum ETFs added $144 million the same day, led by BlackRock's ETHA at $114 million, bringing combined Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF inflows to $577 million for September 18.
Analyst Benjamin Cowen framed the current bounce as the expected rally following an earlier golden cross dump. In a post on X, he said Bitcoin is now in that rally phase after dipping into the mid-$70,000s.
A move to a higher high, with weekly closes above the 50-week simple moving average, would meaningfully weaken the bear case.
That pattern would echo the 2019 and 2023 cycles, both of which marked the end of extended bear phases.
A rejection at these levels, by contrast, would still fit a bear market continuation, similar to the 2014-2015 cycle where a lower high led to deeper lows later.
Bitcoin's next stretch likely depends on three forces: institutional demand, macro liquidity, and miner economics.
Bitcoin news today shows a market where policy and price are moving together for once. A CFTC rulemaking now sits with the White House, a Senate bill just failed, and Bitcoin used both as fuel for a sharp move higher.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Crypto markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions.
