Zcash leads crypto majors with a 10% gain as bitcoin holds near $87,000

Zcash (ZEC) rose 10% to just above $1,616 as of Wednesday Asian morning hours, the largest gain among major tokens, CoinDesk data show.

Bitcoin held near $86,900, up 1% over 24 hours. XRP added 6% to just above $1.62 and HYPE 4% to nearly $97. DOGE picked up 4%, while ether, BNB and SOL each gained under 1%. TRX was the only large token to fall, down 1%.

Two pieces of Washington news sit behind the tone, some analysts said in an email to CoinDesk. One is the House Financial Services Committee approved the American Reserve Modernization Act on Sept. 17 by 28 votes to 21, sending it toward a full House vote.

The second is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stepping in where Congress has not. With the CLARITY Act stalled, the regulator used an innovation exemption to clear a path for onchain trading of tokenized U.S. stocks within a day, a move Dicarlo said has lifted tokenization-linked tokens and broader confidence.

“Technically, Bitcoin's back above its 50 & 200 week moving averages, up ~29% in 35 days,” Tony Dicarlo, director of institutional propositions at RootstockLabs, said in an email to CoinDesk. “Legislatively, The SEC stepped up support of digital assets where Congress hasn't with the Innovation Exemption filling the CLARITY gap within 24 hours, driving sharp rallies in tokenization related digital assets and improving broader confidence.”

“The American Reserve Modernization Act clearing committee last week has also reignited the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve conversation again, the furthest such a bill has gotten in Congress, though it still needs a full House and Senate vote,” he added.

The bill would place the roughly 325,000 bitcoin the government already holds, most of it seized in criminal and civil forfeitures, into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve at the Treasury, require the coins be held for at least 20 years, and mandate quarterly audited proof that they are still there.

It also orderd a study of ways to buy more without adding to the deficit.

Meanwhile, among broader markets, bonds rallied across the Asian session as oil kept sliding. Australian and New Zealand 10-year yields each fell at least three basis points and 10-year Treasury futures climbed, with cash Treasuries shut for a Japanese holiday.