What Was Behind Bitcoin's $80K Surge? | CoinDesk Daily

**Uyen Truong** (0:00)
What was behind Bitcoin's run to $80,000 and the US. Treasury puts Iran's crypto industry in its crosshairs. This is CoinDesk Daily.
RealFi, a smarter stablecoin backed by real world assets. Join the testnet now at realfi.co. Bitcoin's climb from $62,000 to $80,000 was its second largest weekly gain in five years, but it wasn't fresh money driving it, it was short covering. Future's open interest actually fell as the price surged, dropping to around 587,000 Bitcoin, the lowest in nearly five months. Billions in short positions were liquidated, creating a squeeze that pushed Bitcoin above the $80,000 threshold. The US Treasury has added Iran's crypto industry to the list of sectors it can sanction. The move lets OFAC blacklist anyone, anywhere. It determines who is operating in Iran's crypto sector. The country's crypto ecosystem hit $7.78 billion in 2025, with IRGC-linked wallets receiving more than $3 billion.
And a global team of investigators, exchanges and law enforcement just wrapped a multi-day operation using blockchain intelligence to track down child sexual abuse networks. Organized by Chainalysis, Operation Lighthouse partnered with Europol, the Australian Federal Police, and the UK's national crime agency, among others. The team analyzed more than 20,000 crypto addresses across 100-plus forums, generating over 14,000 leads. Suspects were located in 125 countries, some already registered sex offenders. Get more updates on coindesk.com. RealFi, a smarter stablecoin backed by real world assets. Join the testnet now at realfi.co.