🔥The King Returns! Bitcoin surged 23.6% week over week, posting its strongest weekly performance since March 2023!
Last week, Bitcoin exploded—rallying violently from around $62,000 to a peak of $79,500, and as of the time of writing, $79,248. The weekly gain was 23.6%, the largest since the Silicon Valley Bank crisis in March 2023, and the second-best weekly performance since February 2021. Ethereum was even stronger, rising 31.3% over the same period to above $2,520.
📋 Three major drivers converged:
① A doubling of U.S. Treasury buybacks ignited the “debasement trade.” Finance Minister Bessent announced that the long-term Treasury buyback cap would be raised from $2 billion to at least $4 billion, effective September 9. The 30-year yield promptly plunged, the U.S. Dollar Index fell below 99, directly stoking market demand for the “currency debasement trade.” Coinage’s founder said bluntly that this rally was “not driven by leverage,” but rather “direct buying triggered by a specific event.”
② An epic short squeeze wiped out billions of shorts. On August 20 alone, roughly $1.44 billion of shorts were liquidated, with the short-to-long ratio reaching as high as 8.6:1. After BTC broke above $72,000, it also triggered forced liquidation of more than $3 billion in short positions. The stampede by shorts created a chain-reaction of buy orders—an immediate trigger for this surge.
③ ETF inflows went wild. The 13 spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows of $1.92 billion last week, the highest weekly record since October 2025; the Ethereum ETF recorded net inflows of $697 million. BlackRock’s IBIT led with $1.3 billion attracted in a single week. Weekly trading volume jumped from $6.9 billion to $22.1 billion—up more than 219%.
💡 Price action: spot-driven rather than leverage-driven
This rally differs from the past—open interest measured in coin terms is basically flat, and funding rates stayed low. DWF Labs noted that the move looks more like “short squeezes layered with spot buying absorbing supply,” rather than a short-term trend fueled by expanding leverage. Market structure is relatively healthy; the main risk is whether spot buying can be sustained.
📈 What do institutions think?
Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio suggested allocating a “small amount” of Bitcoin to reduce risk and improve returns. Standard Chartered hinted that a year-end target of $100,000 may be “too low on risk.” Among VanEck’s 12 tracked “Bitcoin capitulation” indicators, 8 have already been triggered, and it expects the market to form a bottom between September and November 2026.
Iron buddies, did you catch this move?
$BTC
$ETH
Last week, Bitcoin exploded—rallying violently from around $62,000 to a peak of $79,500, and as of the time of writing, $79,248. The weekly gain was 23.6%, the largest since the Silicon Valley Bank crisis in March 2023, and the second-best weekly performance since February 2021. Ethereum was even stronger, rising 31.3% over the same period to above $2,520.
📋 Three major drivers converged:
① A doubling of U.S. Treasury buybacks ignited the “debasement trade.” Finance Minister Bessent announced that the long-term Treasury buyback cap would be raised from $2 billion to at least $4 billion, effective September 9. The 30-year yield promptly plunged, the U.S. Dollar Index fell below 99, directly stoking market demand for the “currency debasement trade.” Coinage’s founder said bluntly that this rally was “not driven by leverage,” but rather “direct buying triggered by a specific event.”
② An epic short squeeze wiped out billions of shorts. On August 20 alone, roughly $1.44 billion of shorts were liquidated, with the short-to-long ratio reaching as high as 8.6:1. After BTC broke above $72,000, it also triggered forced liquidation of more than $3 billion in short positions. The stampede by shorts created a chain-reaction of buy orders—an immediate trigger for this surge.
③ ETF inflows went wild. The 13 spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows of $1.92 billion last week, the highest weekly record since October 2025; the Ethereum ETF recorded net inflows of $697 million. BlackRock’s IBIT led with $1.3 billion attracted in a single week. Weekly trading volume jumped from $6.9 billion to $22.1 billion—up more than 219%.
💡 Price action: spot-driven rather than leverage-driven
This rally differs from the past—open interest measured in coin terms is basically flat, and funding rates stayed low. DWF Labs noted that the move looks more like “short squeezes layered with spot buying absorbing supply,” rather than a short-term trend fueled by expanding leverage. Market structure is relatively healthy; the main risk is whether spot buying can be sustained.
📈 What do institutions think?
Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio suggested allocating a “small amount” of Bitcoin to reduce risk and improve returns. Standard Chartered hinted that a year-end target of $100,000 may be “too low on risk.” Among VanEck’s 12 tracked “Bitcoin capitulation” indicators, 8 have already been triggered, and it expects the market to form a bottom between September and November 2026.
Iron buddies, did you catch this move?
$BTC
$ETH