Bitcoin Reclaims $80K as ETF Inflows and Schwab Expansion Fuel Rally

Bitcoin settled at $80,258 on Thursday for a 1.56% daily gain, pushing the largest cryptocurrency back above the $80,000 level for the first time in months. The session extended a late-August rebound powered by steady buying of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, which logged their strongest weekly showing of 2026, drawing roughly $1.6 billion in net inflows from Monday through Thursday, with Thursday alone accounting for about $606 million.

Solana stole the show among major altcoins, jumping 6.89% to $109.21, while XRP added 2.15% to $1.453 and Ethereum drifted up just 0.17% to $2,510. The catalyst for Solana's outsized move was Charles Schwab, which announced it plans to add Solana, Avalanche, and Chainlink to Schwab Crypto in the coming months, expanding a platform that launched in May 2026 offering only Bitcoin and Ethereum.

SEC Advances Landmark Crypto Offering Framework

On the regulatory front, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules on August 18 titled Regulation Crypto Assets, which would create the first tailored offering regime for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets. The proposal marks a long-awaited acknowledgment that the SEC's existing disclosure regime, designed for traditional securities such as stocks and bonds, is ill-suited for crypto asset offerings and represents the agency's most significant step yet toward a stand-alone regulatory framework for the asset class.

The Senate, meanwhile, has yet to hold a final floor vote on the companion CLARITY Act after delaying ahead of the August recess due to partisan disagreements over ethics rules and banking opposition. A procedural cloture vote is now scheduled for September 15, 2026, requiring 60 votes to move the bill forward. Separately, CoinDesk reported that developers issued an emergency warning to Bitcoin Lightning node operators after AI-assisted code work triggered a second security vulnerability this month, with fix details held back for two weeks while patches are distributed to operators.