Bitcoin reached a multi-month high of $87,270 before retreating below $84,000 as U.S. bond yields rose, although bullish chart patterns and stronger ETF activity supported the broader outlook. Spot BTC ETFs had over $134 million in assets on Friday, with BlackRock’s IBIT adding $97 million and Fidelity’s FBTC adding $49 million. Bitcoin gained 24.95% in August, its third-strongest August since 2013 and best since 2017, far exceeding the historical August average of 2.82%. The cryptocurrency is also on track for its first positive August-September combination since at least 2013, a pattern associated with a strong Uptober (a historically strong October). Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the network is evolving beyond a standalone blockchain into a much larger, multilayer system, citing progress at both protocol and application levels. Prediction market (platform for trading event outcomes) Kalshi faced scrutiny after a Wall Street Journal analysis found that more than one-third of its Ethereum-price trading volume involved rapid trades clustered around the same $5,500 order size, with nearly a million trades of nearly identical sizes in one market. The wider crypto market and several crypto-linked stocks posted double-digit gains after the Clarity Act failed to advance in the U.S. Senate, while regulators continued developing industry rules.