Bitcoin is finally moving with conviction again. After weeks of sideways trading, the price accelerated above $77,000, hitting an intraday high of $79,400 on Friday, August 21. It is the strongest weekly advance in years: roughly +24% since Monday, the best week since 2023.
The US Treasury buyback sparks the move
The spark was macroeconomic, not crypto. The US Treasury announced a significant increase in liquidity-support buybacks of longer-dated government debt, raising the maximum from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation in the 10-to-20 and 20-to-30 year sectors, effective September 9. The move pressured long-dated yields, which had just touched 5.337%, their highest since 2007, and weakened the dollar, pushing investors toward risk assets.
The short squeeze amplifies the rally
The market was leaning the wrong way. After six weeks of compression, traders had piled up a wall of bearish positions. On August 19, derivatives liquidations reached $3.3 billion in total (CoinGlass data), with another $1.25 billion wiped out in the following 24 hours. When those who bet against get forced to buy back, the move tends to feed itself.
The return of ETFs and the technical signals
US spot Bitcoin ETFs took in $517.2 million in net inflows on Wednesday, August 20, their best single day since May 4. August's total reached $1.47 billion, and roughly $1 billion has flowed in since Monday. On the technical side, Bitcoin cleared the $76,000 level implied by the inverse head-and-shoulders pattern formed from the June lows; the RSI is now in overbought territory, a sign that a pullback cannot be ruled out.
Analysts split: local rally or regime change?
The big question is whether this is the start of a new trend or a violent bounce in a still-fragile phase. Glassnode's Realized Profit/Loss Ratio sits at 0.75, well below the 2.0 level the firm treats as evidence of a genuine shift: until it clears that, the move should be treated as a local rally. On the regulatory front, the SEC's "Regulation Crypto Assets" proposal and President Trump's push on the CLARITY Act have helped change the broader backdrop, but some strategists warn of a possible correction from current levels if the legislation does not progress by mid-September.
Bitcoin's market value now stands at roughly $1.5 trillion, still about 40% below its October 2025 record above $126,000. The lesson remains the same: when the market seems to have fallen asleep, that is often exactly when you should pay the most attention.
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