Altcoins surge, Coinbase rebounds 10%, and SEC Chair Atkins backs onchain finance rules as BTC holds above $80K!

Bitcoin holding above $80,000 gave risk appetite room to run on Friday, with altcoins outperforming the flagship asset and blockchain infrastructure equities staging a broad recovery. ICP, NEAR, and UNI led gains across major tokens, while Solana and Chainlink also moved higher in a session that felt decisively constructive across the digital asset complex.

Coinbase shares clawed back 10% from session lows despite Thursday's earnings report revealing a $398 million quarterly loss and softer trading volumes. Several Wall Street analysts chose to look past the weak quarter, anchoring their thesis on longer-term tailwinds from stablecoin adoption and an improving regulatory backdrop — a call that looked prescient by end of day.

The catalyst that sharpened that narrative: SEC Chair Paul Atkins publicly signaled the agency is weighing new rulemaking around onchain trading systems, crypto…