Do you feel that?

That’s the rumblings of the world changing. It’s been quite the week for existential headlines, ranging from AI-caused human extinction to the possibility of a larger war in Europe.

When it comes to Bitcoin, two headlines that you would have thought would send it tumbling, the failure of CLARITY and a Fed rate hike, barely made a dent.

Bitcoin is clearly gaining strength. Is the bear market over? Only psychics can tell, but its increasing resilience in the face of bad news certainly points in that direction.

Other headlines this week include

AI is rapidly changing the economics of building, operating, and investing in businesses. So where should investors be looking next?

This Friday at 11 AM ET, Bitcoin News is teaming up with Mita TechTalks for a live, one-hour conversation with investor, entrepreneur, and The Price of Tomorrow author Jeff Booth.

Bitcoin News co-founder Rob Wallace will sit down with Jeff to discuss how the investment landscape has shifted over the past two years, where he sees opportunity emerging as AI transforms business, and how Bitcoin fits into that changing world.

The webinar is a preview of the conversations happening at the 10th edition of Mita TechTalks, an invite-only gathering in Punta Mita, Mexico this October bringing together investors, founders, and industry leaders across Bitcoin, AI, energy, and capital.

Jeff will be a headline speaker at the event, with Bitcoin News joining Mita TechTalks as an official media partner.

Join us live Friday, September 25 at 11 AM ET.

Hey everybody, Rob here. Bam is taking the week off. His first time in nearly three years!

In his stead, I’ll be bringing you this week’s Op-Ed.

There’s no pretty way to put it. 2026 has been a brutal year for Bitcoin. Sure, other bear markets have seen much deeper drawdowns of 70–80% compared to this cycle’s relatively tame 50%, but that doesn’t mean this one hasn’t hurt in its own unique way.

February’s flash crash showed us what looks to have been the worst of this cycle’s price action, but it was the time capitulation that really got to Bitcoiners this time around.

Months of ranging in the $60,000s were followed by a little bit of hope as we traded up to $82K in May. But as they say, sell in May and go away, because what followed were two of the worst months of sentiment I’ve seen in my six-plus years covering the space.

Over the course of eight weeks, we had Saylor selling, the COLDCARD exploit that led to the loss of more than $100 million in BTC, and the contentious chain split that saw notable Bitcoiners like Luke Dashjr and Bitcoin Mechanic fork off onto a new chain while declaring that legacy Bitcoin had died.

Talk about a tornado of bad news.

Well, they say it’s darkest before dawn. Roughly one week after the Blake2b Bitcoiners forked off, we got a surprise announcement from Scott Bessent that he was prepared to increase the size of Treasury bond buybacks to steady the rapid rise in 10-year Treasury yields.

Bitcoin heard the sound of the money printer warming up and reacted the way you’d expect from the world’s number one liquidity sponge, surging 23% in a matter of days.

Since then, Bitcoin has stuck the landing, digesting the move and securing its footing in the $75K–$80K range. Nothing fixes Bitcoin sentiment quite like healthy price action, and this rapid rise gave many of the Bitcoin faithful the boost they so desperately needed.

A little more bullishness in the air naturally had the community looking toward the next potential catalysts. Two of the biggest were the deadline for the CLARITY Act and the September FOMC meeting.

Despite prediction markets pricing the odds of the CLARITY Act passing before the midterms as low as 20% in the days leading up to the cloture vote, there was still plenty of hope that a surprise victory could be the catalyst to rapidly send Bitcoin back into the $90,000s.

Prediction markets were also pricing in roughly 90% odds of a rate hike ahead of Wednesday’s meeting. That didn’t stop Bitcoin market commentators from insisting there was no way the new Fed Chair, personally selected by Trump with an expectation of lower rates, would turn around and hike them for the first time since 2023.

Well, on Tuesday, the CLARITY Act failed to make it to the Senate floor after a 49–50 cloture vote. The next day, Kevin Warsh stepped up to the podium and did exactly what Polymarket predicted he would, raising rates by 0.25%.

This one-two punch sent Bitcoin down to $74,888, its lowest level since the mid-August price explosion. It felt like Bitcoin was finally ready for the pullback into the $60Ks that many of us feared.

But wouldn’t ya know, Bitcoin shrugged it off and closed out the week back above $80,000.

You see, bear markets end when bad news no longer affects price. We’ve had plenty of bad news since Bitcoin rallied more than 20% in mid-August, yet the price has barely budged from its new, higher range.

Keep in mind, Bitcoin is showing this resilience against a backdrop that hardly screams risk-on: escalating geopolitical tensions, an energy shock, rising rates, and increasingly serious questions about what the AI revolution means for the global economy.

And yet Bitcoin is sitting above $80,000.

Maybe the market is beginning to appreciate just how valuable a neutral, permissionless digital store of value can be in an increasingly uncertain world.

Bitcoin looks resoundingly strong here, and it’s about time. I know what asset I want to be holding as the world dives headfirst into the final years of the Fourth Turning.

Let’s keep stacking.
- Rob