By Jonatan Randin - Senior Market Analyst at PrimeXBT
Between Wednesday 19 August and Friday 21 August, Bitcoin (BTC) climbed from around $64,100 to above $79,000. That's roughly 22% in three sessions, its strongest week in years. Ethereum (ETH) moved back above $2,500, a seven-month high.
Here's what caused it, in plain terms.
It started in the bond market
On 19 August, the US Treasury said it would buy back twice as much of its own long-term debt as previously planned, lifting the cap from $2bn to at least $4bn per operation. The programme runs from 9 September to early November.
When the government buys back its bonds, bond prices rise and yields fall. Lower yields make bonds less rewarding to hold, so some money looks elsewhere for a return.
Long-dated yields dropped on the announcement. The 30-year had touched a 19-year high above 5.34% the session before, and fell to around 5.19%.
Washington added two more signals
The day before, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed the first set of rules written specifically for crypto rather than borrowed from stock market law. It could mean easier fundraising for projects and a clearer route to avoiding classification as a security.
Then crypto executives met at the White House.
Neither is settled. The SEC proposal still needs a vote. But arriving in the same week, they pointed in one direction.
Why the move got so big
Those news items on their own were worth a few percent. The chain reaction did the rest.
A large number of traders were short Bitcoin, meaning they'd bet the price would fall. When it rose instead, their losses grew and exchanges automatically closed those positions by buying Bitcoin back. That buying pushed the price higher, which closed more positions, and so on.
Roughly $1.9bn of positions were liquidated inside 24 hours on the 19th, most of them shorts, with a large share going in a single burst.
Buying also came from outside the derivatives market. Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) took $517m that day, their biggest since 4 May, then kept taking money for four more sessions.
One detail worth noticing
Gold (XAU) rose 4.35% on the same day, its best in six months, and the US Dollar Index (DXY) fell to a three-month low.
That tells us something. If this were purely about investors turning optimistic, shares would have led the way. Instead the assets that gained were the ones people buy when they're worried about the value of money itself.
Bitcoin was bought alongside gold, not alongside risky bets. That distinction may matter more than the size of the move.
Then the weekend arrived
By Sunday the same mechanism ran backwards.
Leveraged buyers who'd chased the move got closed out. CoinGlass recorded $250.57m of long positions liquidated over 24 hours out of $339.73m in total. Bitcoin dipped to around $76,088.
Weekend liquidity is thinner, and the ETF creation channel shuts from Friday to Monday, so the steadiest source of buying was absent.
The positioning data afterwards is worth a look. Open interest in Bitcoin futures fell 2.65% to around $54.54bn, and funding rates stayed near the 0.01% baseline. A market where buyers were piling straight back in would show the opposite. It could suggest leverage was cleared rather than reloaded.
What's next?
Four things worth watching:
- ETF flows. Last week brought $1.92bn into Bitcoin funds and $697.2m into Ethereum funds, a combined $2.6bn and the strongest week for both since October 2025, according to SoSoValue. Whether that continues is the real test.
- 9 September. The first buybacks under the new limit show whether yields stay down.
- The US dollar. Continued weakness could keep support behind the move.
- Funding rates. If they climb well above baseline again, the weekend setup could repeat.
One caveat worth holding onto. Even after that intake, Bitcoin ETFs are still carrying roughly $2.9bn of net outflows across 2026 as a whole. And September has historically been Bitcoin's weakest month, averaging a fall of around 3% to 4%.
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About PrimeXBT
PrimeXBT is a global multi-asset broker and crypto asset service provider trusted by traders in more than 150 countries. The platform bridges traditional and digital markets within one integrated environment, redefining versatility and innovation in online trading. Clients can access Forex, CFDs on indices, commodities, shares, crypto, and Crypto Futures, as well as buy, store and exchange cryptocurrencies. This unified experience extends across both the native PXTrader 2.0 platform and MetaTrader 5, supported by advanced risk-management tools and a wide range of funding options in crypto, fiat and local payment methods. Since 2018, PrimeXBT has focused on empowering traders through broad multi-asset access, fair and transparent conditions, professional-grade technology and dedicated human support. By combining expertise, trust and a client-first approach, PrimeXBT sets a benchmark of excellence in the financial industry and provides traders with the tools they need to trade, grow and succeed with confidence.
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U.Today Editorial Team
Dan Burgin
