Bitcoin (BTC) is facing renewed selling pressure during Thursday's early trading session, as oil prices and Treasury yields continue to climb while the probability of the Clarity Act passing has sharply declined.
The cryptocurrency's price is hovering near the $65,500 level, having fallen approximately 0.7% since midnight UTC, extending a pullback from Wednesday's high near $66,700. The market weakness has spread across the broader digital asset space, with major tokens including Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), and Ripple (XRP) also trending lower.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures have climbed to $88.60 per barrel, marking the highest level since June 11th. This rally continues a strong rebound from recent lows below $70, signaling a potential new inflationary shock that could push consumer price indices higher in the US and globally. This, in turn, would complicate efforts by central banks to implement interest rate cuts.
The bond market has already begun to react. According to data from TradingView, the yield on the US 2-year Treasury note has surged to 4.31%, its highest level since February 2025, while the benchmark 10-year yield has risen to 4.66%, its peak since May. Rising yields increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets like Bitcoin and gold, typically prompting investors to shift capital away from speculative assets and into fixed-income securities that now offer more attractive returns.
Geopolitical tensions are also in focus. The US military deployed a B-1 Lancer strategic bomber on Tuesday to conduct strikes against targets linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The use of this heavy bomber is a clear signal of an escalation in the scale of US operations and suggests Washington may be preparing for broader military action, moving beyond the more limited strikes seen recently.
Regulatory uncertainty persists, following a group of key Senate Democrats stating that the latest version of the Digital Asset Market Structure Clarity Act is "deficient" in its ethics and other critical provisions.
In response, the prediction market platform Polymarket reacted swiftly, with the platform's forecast for the Clarity Act's passage plummeting from 46% to 38%.
Senate Republicans released an updated draft of the bill earlier on Wednesday, which includes ethics language agreed upon by the White House and former President Donald Trump. Senator Bernie Moreno described it as "the strongest ethics language in American history."
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