The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) just rewrote its relationship with crypto, and Bitcoin is trading like it hasn’t decided what to think about that yet. Bitcoin is hovering near $61,500, roughly flat over seven days and grinding through a consolidation range that has frustrated bulls and bears alike. The detail most headlines are burying deserves attention.
On July 31, 2025, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins formally introduced “Project Crypto”, a sweeping initiative to modernize U.S. securities rules for tokenized markets. The headline finding: the SEC now holds that a majority of digital assets should not be classified as securities.
SEC CHAIR PAUL ATKINS: “We have moved purposefully to answer President Trump’s call to make America the Crypto Capital of the World.”
“We are taking historic steps to modernize our rules and regulations to facilitate markets' moving on-chain." pic.twitter.com/hWopE8zk8E
— Bitcoin News (@BitcoinNewsCom) July 3, 2026
That is a structural shift, not a press release. The initiative will be developed alongside the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, and will cover custody rules, trading frameworks, and the integration of decentralized finance into regulated markets.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is expected by March 2026 to establish joint standards for token classification. The regulatory architecture is changing faster than most traders have priced in.
SEC Crypto News: Can Bitcoin Break $65,000 Before the SEC Tailwind Takes Hold?
Realistically, I think we're entering the final few months of this bear market.
Every cycle BTC has ever had, it spent roughly a year correcting before finally printing its cycle low.
We're now around nine months into this correction.
75% of the way through.
If this… pic.twitter.com/DLNRdkMS7v
— Ardi (@ArdiNSC) July 3, 2026
Bitcoin’s current range, $60,500 to $61,700 at last check, sits in no man’s land. Support clusters between $58,000 and $60,000, a zone watched closely by chart analysts on TradingView and institutional desks alike.
Resistance is stacked at $63,000–$65,000, the underside of a prior consolidation ceiling. Volume is declining, and daily momentum indicators read neutral-to-slightly bearish, the kind of setup that resolves with a sharp move in either direction, eventually.
Three scenarios are in play.
Bull case: a clean close above $65,000 on expanding volume reopens the path toward the mid-$70,000s, consistent with Citi’s $82,000 cycle target if ETF inflows reverse.
Base case: Bitcoin continues to grind between $58,000 and $65,000 as the market waits for a policy catalyst, perhaps the SEC-CFTC MOU or a CFTC decision on US-listed perpetual crypto futures, which would represent a significant liquidity injection.
Bear case (invalidation): A daily close below $58,000 exposes the mid-$50,000s, likely accelerating ETF outflows in a self-reinforcing cycle. The regulatory tailwind from Project Crypto is real, but tailwinds don’t override technicals in the short term. Watch the $65,000 level closely.
EXPLORE: Best Meme Coins to Buy for July
LiquidChain Targets Early-Mover Upside While Bitcoin Consolidates
Bitcoin consolidating below resistance is the kind of environment that pushes capital toward higher-beta, earlier-stage opportunities, where the upside math is still uncapped.
One project drawing attention in that space is LiquidChain ($LIQUID), a Layer 3 (L3) infrastructure protocol that operates as an execution environment built atop existing blockchains, fusing the liquidity of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana into a single unified layer.
The technical proposition is specific: a Unified Liquidity Layer with Single-Step Execution, Verifiable Settlement, and a Deploy-Once Architecture, meaning developers can write a single codebase and access all three ecosystems simultaneously.
The presale is currently priced at $0.01476 per $LIQUID, with $882,255.85 raised to date. Staking terms have not yet been disclosed; that’s a gap worth monitoring before committing capital.
That said, for traders seeking exposure to the regulatory-unlocking narrative without waiting for Bitcoin to clear $65,000, researching LiquidChain’s presale mechanics is a logical next step. Independent coverage of the project’s cross-chain approach is available here.
Visit the LiquidChain Presale Website Here.
EXPLORE: Best Meme Coins to Buy in 2026
Why you can trust 99Bitcoins
Established in 2013, 99Bitcoin’s team members have been crypto experts since Bitcoin’s Early days.
Weekly Research
100k+Monthly readers
Expert contributors
2000+Crypto Projects Reviewed
