Bitcoin gained 44% in the third quarter of 2026, its strongest quarterly performance since the fourth quarter of 2024, and recently climbed above $85,000 for the first time in about eight months. The cryptocurrency outperformed gold, which rose 8.7%, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, which each advanced about 2%; Nvidia gained 11%. Ethereum, XRP, Solana, Uniswap and Near Protocol each rose between 40% and 150% during the quarter. The rally followed earlier oversold conditions and a short squeeze and was also supported in part by changes in the U.S. regulatory environment. On Sept. 17, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission introduced a five-year temporary exemption allowing qualifying trading platforms to trade tokenized U.S. stocks. Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro, said the market had entered a bull market but warned that investors should remain alert to a sudden correction. CoinDesk said a sustained move above $84,000 would place Bitcoin in the $84,000-to-$97,000 range, an area with relatively little recent trading activity.