On Friday, Bitcoin finally broke through the $65,000 threshold amid escalating rhetoric around BIP 110 and threats of another hard fork. Data from Bitstamp shows the cryptocurrency reached a high of $65,340—the highest level seen so far in August and the first return to this mark since July 27. However, until 4:00 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST), the cryptocurrency gradually declined, and selling pressure briefly pushed its price down to $64,132.
This was followed by a powerful surge, lifting Bitcoin by more than $1,000 in just five hours to reach its daily high. Although around 10:10 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST) the price dipped below the $64,800 mark, a subsequent recovery rally pushed it above the $65,000 level for a second time. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading slightly below that mark, with a daily gain of 0.5%.
Despite relatively stable price dynamics, this movement once again pushed Bitcoin's market capitalization above the $1.3 trillion mark. The slight daily gain served as the finishing touch to a weekly rise of 3.3% during a period of turbulence when debates surrounding the CLARITY Act reached their peak.
In the derivatives market, short position liquidations exceeded $30 million for the second consecutive day, while long position liquidations approached $8 million. Across the overall crypto economy, total liquidations reached $192 million, with short liquidations accounting for just under $112 million.
Meanwhile, hopes for the CLARITY Act to be passed before the U.S. Senate recess were dashed when Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced plans to revisit the issue in September. While this was a blow to the crypto industry, which viewed the bill as a crucial milestone under the Trump administration, some market participants downplayed the potential negative impact.
However, regulatory discussions were not the only topic shaping debates about Bitcoin's future. The controversial BIP 110 proposal reached peak discussion after prominent Core developer Luke Dashjr suggested on X that if BIP 110 fails to gain support, changing Bitcoin's "proof-of-work" (PoW) consensus mechanism would become the "only option"—a stance highlighting the growing risk of a potential chain split.
"If BIP 110 doesn't work, the only option will be to change PoW," he wrote on X in response to a question about the proposal's potential failure.
Others warn that if miners do not support the proposal, it will have serious consequences for Bitcoin, which has maintained its status as the leading decentralized network despite challenges such as the 2017 hard fork.
Emphasizing the urgency of the situation, user itcoiner Nitu Sezni stated that if miners refuse to activate BIP 110, Bitcoin would effectively become a centralized "shitcoin." Sezni argued that if the six largest mining pools could block the proposal and collude to dictate network rules, decentralization would be lost—making node operators vulnerable to blockchain bloat and power grabs before hyperbitcoinization could occur.
Nevertheless, similar to the legislative debates around the CLARITY Act, the discussion over BIP 110 appears to have had limited impact on Bitcoin's price. Moreover, some market observers suggest that Bitcoin's upward trend ahead of the BIP 110 deadline is driven by investors accumulating coins in anticipation of a potential hard fork—a scenario where they would automatically receive equivalent tokens on the forked chain.
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