Live markets: Bitcoin rises to five-week high near $67,000 on boosted hope for Clarity Act

One of the bellwethers of the AI trade, as well as President Trump’s industrial policy, Intel (INTC) is planning another round of layoffs in its data center group, according to The Oregonian.

“As part of our broader strategy to become a more focused and efficient company, [the data center group] is aligning its organization to ensure it has the right roles and skills in place to position the business for long-term success,” said Intel in a written statement to the paper.

Intel, over the past year, has risen about fivefold since the U.S. government took a stake in the company, alongside generally surging stock prices for chipmakers.

Shares are higher by 5.8% on Tuesday.

The company reports second-quarter earnings after the close on Thursday.

Crypto markets may be starting to reward fundamentals instead of speculation, according to analyst Jim Ferraioli.

After adjusting returns for bitcoin’s (BTC) influence, he found that most major cryptocurrencies have performed as expected, while TRX and ZCash stood out for reasons tied to network-specific demand.

TRX, which is up 15% year-to-date, has benefited from its role in stablecoin transfers, while ZCash, up 7%, has gained from renewed interest in privacy.

Ferraioli also points to BNB’s underperformance despite a deflationary token supply, arguing that falling network activity may be weighing on its price. The trend suggests investors are paying closer attention to utility, usage and token economics, he argued.

Extending its 24-hour gain to just shy of 3%, bitcoin (BTC) hit $66,400 for the first time in about five weeks.

Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), and solana (SOL) are up similarly.

The advance comes as U.S. stocks are set for sizable opening gains, led by the Nasdaq’s 1.2% advance as recently beaten-up chip stocks rally.

The news out of Iran isn’t great — with attacks continuing and oil again higher — but, for the moment, markets are looking past that conflict.

For crypto in particular, movement on advancing the Clarity Act could be helping to improve the mood. Odds of its passage have risen to nearly 50% after a report that President Trump had agreed to a key ethics provision.

The London Stock Exchange (LSEG) plans to introduce a near-continuous trading venue aimed at digital, algorithmic and agent-based trading.

Client testing on the platform, called LSE 24, is expected to begin by the end of the year, with exchange-traded products scheduled to launch in the first half of 2027, LSEG said.

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs took in about $227 million on July 20, a fifth consecutive day of net inflows for the first time since late April, per SoSoValue data. Ether ETFs added about $38 million, led by BlackRock’s ETHA.

The five-day run has pulled in roughly $727 million, the most sustained stretch of buying since the record outflows of June. Total bitcoin ETF assets have climbed back to about $79 billion from a July low near $75 billion. BlackRock’s ETHA drove the ether side with about $34 million.

Bitcoin has held its range near $63,000 as last week’s chip-driven selloff paused, and the return of the ETF bid is the piece that had been missing through a quarter of mostly outflows.

The test is what it holds through. The Fed meets July 28 and 29, and Big Tech earnings land this week, with Alphabet, Tesla and Intel reporting the numbers that will show whether AI spending, the trade bitcoin has moved with all month, is still climbing.