Bitcoin posts biggest daily gain since March ahead of White House crypto meeting

Mucahithan Avcioglu

19 August 2026•Update: 19 August 2026

Bitcoin posted its strongest daily gain since March on Wednesday, climbing 5.4% as cryptocurrency executives prepared to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency approached $68,300 as of 1830GMT, reaching its highest level since early June and breaking out of a months-long trading range. Its weekly gain reached 7.6%.

Bitcoin’s market capitalization rose 5.4% over the past 24 hours to $1.36 trillion, while its daily trading volume surged over 77% to $35.43 billion.

The value of the broader crypto market also climbed 5% to $2.31 trillion, while Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, rose 9% to around $2,090.

The rally came ahead of Trump’s planned meeting with executives from cryptocurrency companies including Coinbase, Kraken operator Payward and Blockchain.com.

Investors expect the meeting to focus on efforts to establish a more industry-friendly regulatory framework and advance legislation governing the US digital asset market.

Optimism was also supported by a Securities and Exchange Commission proposal this week that would exempt certain digital asset offerings from securities registration requirements. The proposed exemptions are intended to help cryptocurrency companies during their startup and fundraising stages.