Bitcoin is having its best week in nearly two years. It opened this week at its highest level in more than three months — above $79,000, with an intraday move as high as $81,000 — and it isn’t moving alone. Ethereum, XRP, and a wide range of altcoins are rallying right alongside it, and the total crypto market is now worth close to $2.75 trillion.
If you’ve been watching your portfolio turn green this week and wondering why, the short answer is: a U.S. Treasury policy change revived an old trade that links gold and Bitcoin, and record-setting demand for Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs poured fuel on the fire. But there’s a catch. This week also brings the single biggest event-risk moment of the month — a Friday speech from the Federal Reserve’s brand-new chair — and it has genuine potential to either extend this rally or reverse it sharply.
This guide walks through why crypto is rallying, what’s happening with Bitcoin and Ethereum specifically, why altcoins like XRP and Hyperliquid are outperforming, the full week’s calendar, our ranked list of the Top 10 cryptocurrencies to watch, and — most importantly — a balanced look at the risks heading into Friday.
Quick Answer: What’s Happening in Crypto This Week
Bitcoin is trading near $79,000–$81,000, its highest level in three months, after the U.S. Treasury doubled its bond buyback program and revived the “debasement trade” — a pattern where investors buy gold and Bitcoin together as a hedge against a weakening dollar. Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs just logged their best combined inflow week of 2026 (roughly $2.6 billion), and altcoins like XRP (+39%) and Hyperliquid (+37%, a new all-time high) are outperforming on separate regulatory news. Sentiment has swung into “Greed” territory, and the week’s outcome likely hinges on Friday, August 28, when new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh delivers his first Jackson Hole speech — a genuinely two-way event that could extend the rally or trigger a sharp pullback.
Why Crypto Is Rallying: The Debasement Trade, Explained
If you only remember one phrase from this article, make it this one: the debasement trade. It’s the single biggest force behind this week’s rally, and it’s simpler than it sounds.
What the Treasury’s Bond Buyback Expansion Means
Last week, the U.S. Treasury announced it would double the maximum size of its long-term bond buyback program, to roughly $4 billion per session. In plain English: the Treasury is buying back more of its own debt, more aggressively, than markets had expected.
Why does that matter for crypto? When a government leans harder on its own balance sheet to manage its debt load, investors start to worry about currency debasement — the idea that, over time, aggressive fiscal and monetary interventions erode the purchasing power of a currency. That worry doesn’t require anything to go wrong immediately. It just needs to be plausible enough that investors want a hedge.
Why Gold and Bitcoin Are Moving Together
That’s exactly what’s happened. Gold climbed to a three-month high above $4,600 an ounce this week, and Bitcoin rallied right alongside it — both moving in the same direction, driven by the same underlying worry about dollar weakness. This is sometimes described as the “debasement trade”: investors treating gold and Bitcoin as parallel hedges against currency devaluation rather than trading them as unrelated assets.
It’s worth being precise about what this does and doesn’t tell us. It doesn’t mean a currency crisis is imminent. It means a meaningful slice of institutional capital is choosing to hedge that risk right now, and that hedging flow is a real, measurable driver of this week’s price action — not just retail enthusiasm.
Bitcoin: Where Things Stand
Bitcoin’s move this week is its largest weekly gain in almost two years, up roughly 22–28% over the past seven days. That’s a genuinely large, fast move, and understanding what’s driving it — and what could stop it — matters more than the headline number itself.
ETF Inflows and Institutional Demand
Spot Bitcoin ETFs — investment funds that hold actual Bitcoin on investors’ behalf — just had their strongest week of inflows in roughly ten months. Single-day inflows hit $517 million and then $606 million on back-to-back days, and combined with Ethereum ETF inflows, the week added up to about $2.6 billion, the best ETF week of all of 2026 so far. Some analysts, including Standard Chartered, believe $1 billion-plus single-day inflows are achievable if this pace continues.
Corporate buying has continued too. Metaplanet, a company pursuing a Bitcoin treasury strategy similar to MicroStrategy’s, added roughly 1,000 more BTC to its holdings this week, bringing its total to about 43,000 BTC. Worth noting: its average purchase price is now higher than Bitcoin’s current spot price, which is a useful reminder that even determined institutional buyers can be sitting on paper losses during a rally.
What the On-Chain Data Is Really Showing
It’s tempting to read a big rally as one-directional euphoria, but the actual on-chain data (a record of transactions and wallet activity visible on the Bitcoin blockchain) tells a more balanced story. Some large, previously inactive wallets are selling into this strength — one cluster sold about 7,700 BTC (roughly $577 million) over three days, and a wallet that had been dormant for around four years moved 1,400 BTC, realizing an estimated $76.5 million profit.
At the same time, other large holders are doing the opposite. One trader closed a profitable leveraged position and immediately placed new buy orders in the $72,600–$74,200 range, betting on a pullback to that zone as a buying opportunity rather than a warning sign. That mix of selling and buying among large holders is a sign of active price discovery, not a market moving in only one direction.
Key Levels to Watch
Analysts widely point to $70,000 as the level Bitcoin needs to hold to prove this rally is more than a short-term short squeeze. On the upside, $80,000 and $81,000 are the immediate psychological and technical levels in play this week.
Track Bitcoin’s Run to $80K Before Friday’s Jackson Hole Speech
BTC is holding near three-month highs as the debasement trade lifts gold and Bitcoin together — follow the $70K support level, ETF flow data, and on-chain activity in real time ahead of Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s pivotal Friday speech, free.
Open Free Charts on TradingView →Ethereum: Outpacing Bitcoin, But More Overbought
Ethereum has actually outperformed Bitcoin on a percentage basis this week, up roughly 28–30%, and about 33% over the trailing month. It’s trading in the $2,480–$2,510 range.
ETF Flows and a DeFi Activity Resurgence
Spot Ethereum ETFs recorded a $221 million single-day inflow this week — their best day in about ten months. Underneath that, on-chain activity data shows genuine demand returning to Ethereum’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem: trading fees on Uniswap, one of the largest decentralized exchanges built on Ethereum, jumped nearly 192% over seven days. That’s a meaningful signal, because it suggests real trading activity is picking back up, not just speculative price momentum.
Key Levels to Watch
Here’s the nuance worth understanding: Ethereum’s daily Relative Strength Index (RSI), a common measure of whether an asset is “overbought” or “oversold,” is sitting near 80 — a level that historically signals an asset has moved quite far, quite fast, and may be due for a pause or pullback. That’s more extreme than Bitcoin’s current reading. Near-term support sits around $2,166 (Ethereum’s 20-day average price), while resistance is around $2,538–$2,598. In practical terms: Ethereum’s fundamentals look strong, but its price has moved further ahead of itself than Bitcoin’s has, which raises the odds of a sharper short-term pullback if sentiment cools.
Why Altcoins Are Outperforming (XRP, Hyperliquid, and More)
One of the more notable features of this week’s rally is how broad it’s been. Rather than Bitcoin rising alone while everything else lags, a wide range of altcoins are outperforming both Bitcoin and Ethereum — and each has its own distinct story.
XRP surged as much as 39% this week, reclaiming the $1.40 level for the first time in months. The move is tied largely to growing optimism around U.S. crypto legislation, including the SEC’s newly proposed “Regulation Crypto Assets” framework, which would create clearer, streamlined paths for crypto projects to raise capital in the U.S. rather than moving offshore.
Hyperliquid (HYPE) jumped more than 37% to a fresh all-time high near $78, after White House commentary suggested the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is working on a path to bring Hyperliquid’s derivatives trading platform onshore in a “fully compliant” manner. It’s a good example of how a single, well-placed comment from a government official can move a token’s price faster than months of product development.
Other names posting strong weekly gains include Solana, Chainlink, and Zcash — each up roughly 30% or more, reflecting how far speculative and institutional risk appetite has spread across the market this week.
Analysts have specifically flagged the breadth of this rally as a bullish signal in its own right. Narrow rallies, where only one or two assets move while everything else sits still, tend to fail faster than broad-based ones. That said, breadth cuts both ways: if sentiment reverses, a broad rally can unwind just as broadly.
This Week’s Calendar: Everything That Could Move the Market
Here’s a day-by-day look at the events most likely to move crypto prices this week.
| Date | Event | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Mon, Aug 24 | Treasury bond buyback expansion takes effect | Fuels the debasement trade; bullish for gold and Bitcoin, bearish for the dollar |
| Tue, Aug 25 | Token unlocks: Humanity (H) and Plasma (XPL) | New tokens enter circulating supply, which can create short-term selling pressure on these specific coins |
| Wed, Aug 26 | Token unlock: Huma Finance (HUMA), ~16.7% of supply | The largest proportional unlock of the week; a useful case study in supply-driven volatility |
| Thu, Aug 27 | Core PCE inflation report and GDP revision | A hot inflation print paired with a growth downgrade sets the tone heading into Friday’s Fed speech |
| Fri, Aug 28 | Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s first Jackson Hole speech (8:00 AM ET) | The week’s single biggest catalyst — a dovish or hawkish tone could swing every major crypto asset |
| Fri, Aug 28 | Monthly Bitcoin and Ethereum options expiry | Lands the same day as the Fed speech, which can amplify intraday volatility in both directions |
Top 10 Cryptocurrencies to Watch This Week
Based on institutional interest, scheduled catalysts, and expected volatility, here are the ten cryptocurrencies most likely to see significant price movement this week.
| Rank | Asset | Sector | Trend | Primary Catalyst This Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bitcoin (BTC) | Layer 1 | Bullish | Jackson Hole speech + debasement trade + record ETF inflows |
| 2 | Ethereum (ETH) | Layer 1 | Bullish | Record ETF inflow day + DeFi fee resurgence, but technically overbought |
| 3 | XRP | Payments | Bullish | U.S. regulatory optimism; led the altcoin rally at +39% weekly |
| 4 | Hyperliquid (HYPE) | DeFi Infrastructure | Bullish | CFTC/White House commentary on U.S. onshoring; new all-time high |
| 5 | Solana (SOL) | Layer 1 | Bullish | Broad altcoin rally participation |
| 6 | Chainlink (LINK) | Infrastructure | Bullish | Rising DeFi and DEX activity across the Ethereum ecosystem |
| 7 | Zcash (ZEC) | Privacy | Bullish | Speculative rally participation, +30% weekly on thin liquidity |
| 8 | Plasma (XPL) | Stablecoin Infrastructure | Neutral | Scheduled token unlock (Aug 25) |
| 9 | Humanity (H) | RWA / Identity | Neutral | Largest dollar-value token unlock of the week (Aug 25) |
| 10 | Huma Finance (HUMA) | DeFi Lending | Neutral | Largest proportional token unlock of the week, 16.7% of supply (Aug 26) |
Build a Watchlist for This Week’s Top Crypto Catalysts
From XRP’s regulatory-driven surge to Hyperliquid’s fresh all-time high and this week’s biggest token unlocks — track every coin on our Top 10 list in one place, free.
Set Up Your Watchlist on TradingView →The Main Event: Jackson Hole and the New Fed Chair
Every other story this week is, in some sense, a preview for Friday. That’s when Kevin Warsh delivers his first Jackson Hole keynote as Federal Reserve Chair — and because he has no established track record in the role yet, markets genuinely don’t know what to expect. That uncertainty itself is the story.
What Markets Are Pricing for September
Heading into this week, markets assign roughly 70% odds that the Fed holds interest rates steady at its September 16 meeting. But here’s the detail that surprises a lot of people: the remaining probability isn’t split toward a rate cut. It’s concentrated on a rate hike, at roughly 28–35%. That’s unusual. It traces back to July’s Fed meeting, where three officials voted in favor of raising rates — the most hawkish (rate-hike-favoring) dissent the Fed has seen since 2016.
Combine that with Thursday’s Core PCE inflation report, which is forecast to accelerate, and a GDP revision expected to come in lower, and you get a genuinely unusual macro setup: hot inflation paired with slowing growth. That combination is sometimes called a stagflation-adjacent environment, and it’s exactly the kind of environment where a Fed chair’s tone matters enormously.
Two Scenarios for Friday
Because this is Warsh’s first major speech as chair, and because monthly Bitcoin and Ethereum options expire that same day, Friday carries the potential for an outsized move in either direction.
| Scenario | What It Could Mean for Crypto |
|---|---|
| Dovish tone (Warsh signals patience, downplays hike risk) | Likely extends this week’s rally; some analysts see room toward $85,000–$90,000 for Bitcoin if momentum continues |
| Hawkish tone (Warsh emphasizes inflation vigilance) | Likely triggers a sharp, broad pullback given how stretched sentiment already is; a retest of Bitcoin’s $70,000 support level is the primary downside scenario |
Risks to Keep in Mind
This week’s rally is real and fundamentally supported, but a few risk factors are worth holding in mind alongside the good news.
- Sentiment is stretched. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index climbed from 41 a month ago to as high as 83 (Extreme Greed) this week, before easing slightly to the mid-70s. Levels this high have historically preceded pullbacks, even within otherwise healthy uptrends.
- Friday is genuinely two-sided. Because Kevin Warsh has no prior track record as Fed Chair, his tone at Jackson Hole is harder to predict than a typical Fed speech — and it lands the same day as a monthly options expiry, which can amplify whatever move follows.
- Not every large holder is buying. On-chain data shows some big, previously dormant wallets selling into this strength. That’s not necessarily a bearish signal on its own, but it’s a reminder that not all “smart money” agrees on where prices go from here.
- Smaller tokens face mechanical supply pressure. Humanity, Huma Finance, and Plasma all have scheduled token unlocks this week that add new supply to the market regardless of what the Fed does — a useful reminder that not every price move this week will be about macro news.
Key Takeaways
- Bitcoin is near a three-month high above $79,000, and the total crypto market is worth close to $2.75 trillion.
- The rally is being driven by the “debasement trade” — a Treasury bond buyback expansion that’s weakened the dollar and lifted gold and Bitcoin together.
- Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs just had their best combined inflow week of 2026, around $2.6 billion.
- Sentiment has swung into Greed and briefly Extreme Greed territory, a level that historically raises pullback risk.
- XRP and Hyperliquid are leading a broad altcoin rally, both tied to distinct U.S. regulatory developments.
- Friday, August 28 is the week’s most important day: new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s first Jackson Hole speech, landing the same day as a monthly options expiry.
- Markets are pricing a real, if modest, chance of a September rate hike — not just a hold or a cut — following hawkish dissents at the July Fed meeting.
- On-chain data shows a genuinely mixed picture: some large holders are selling into strength while others are buying dips.
- Three smaller tokens (Humanity, Huma Finance, Plasma) face scheduled unlocks this week, adding supply-driven volatility independent of the macro story.
- The week’s overall setup is bullish but two-sided: strong fundamentals meeting a genuinely unpredictable Fed event.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Bitcoin going up this week?
Bitcoin is rallying mainly because of the “debasement trade”: a U.S. Treasury bond buyback expansion has weakened the dollar and pushed investors toward gold and Bitcoin as hedges. Record spot ETF inflows are reinforcing the move with real institutional demand.
What is the debasement trade?
The debasement trade describes investors buying gold and Bitcoin together as a hedge against the risk that aggressive government fiscal or monetary policy erodes a currency’s purchasing power over time. It doesn’t require a crisis to happen — just enough concern that investors want protection.
What is Jackson Hole and why does it matter for crypto?
Jackson Hole is an annual economic policy symposium hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. This year it matters more than usual because Kevin Warsh delivers his first keynote as the new Federal Reserve Chair on Friday, August 28, and his tone on inflation and rates could move Bitcoin, Ethereum, and broader risk assets sharply in either direction.
Will the Fed raise interest rates in September 2026?
It’s not the most likely outcome, but it’s a real possibility. Markets currently price roughly 70% odds the Fed holds rates steady at its September 16 meeting, with the remaining probability concentrated on a hike (around 28–35%) rather than a cut, following three hawkish dissents at the July meeting.
Is Bitcoin overbought right now?
Bitcoin has moved a long way, very fast, and sentiment readings (like the Fear & Greed Index reaching Extreme Greed) suggest caution is warranted. Ethereum’s daily RSI, a separate technical measure, is even more overbought than Bitcoin’s right now, which is why analysts flag Ethereum as having a higher near-term pullback risk.
Why are XRP and Hyperliquid outperforming Bitcoin and Ethereum?
Both are being driven by distinct U.S. regulatory catalysts rather than the broader macro story: XRP by growing optimism around crypto legislation and the SEC’s new capital-raising framework, and Hyperliquid by White House commentary suggesting the CFTC is working to bring its platform onshore.
What is a token unlock, and why does it matter?
A token unlock is a scheduled event where new tokens that were previously locked (often held by early investors or the project team) become available to trade. Because it adds new supply to the market, it can create downward price pressure on the specific token — independent of what’s happening in the broader market.
Related Reading
- Top 10 US Stocks to Watch This Week (Aug 17–21, 2026) – Is Apple Stock a Buy After Redburn Upgrade?
- Top 10 UK Stocks to Watch This Week (August 17–21, 2026)
- Top 10 Asian Stocks to Watch This Week (August 17–21, 2026) – Is Temasek Investing in Samsung?
- Top 10 Forex Pairs and Commodities to Watch This Week (August 17–21, 2026)
- Crypto Market Outlook: Sentiment Warms as Fed Minutes and the White House Collide (Aug 17–21, 2026)
Conclusion
This week’s crypto market is telling two stories at once. The first is genuinely bullish: a revived debasement trade, record ETF inflows, and friendlier U.S. regulatory signals are all pointing the same direction, and the rally’s breadth across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins like XRP and Hyperliquid is itself a healthy sign. The second story is a reminder that markets rarely move in a straight line: sentiment is stretched, and Friday’s Jackson Hole speech from a brand-new Fed Chair is a genuine coin-flip event landing on the same day as a monthly options expiry.
The most useful thing you can do this week isn’t to predict which way Friday goes — it’s to understand why the market is positioned the way it is, so you can interpret the headlines yourself rather than reacting to them after the fact. Keep an eye on Bitcoin’s $70,000 support level, watch how the Fear & Greed Index moves over the next few days, and remember that this week’s setup, while favorable, still carries real two-way risk.
Track These Levels Yourself
If you want to follow Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the rest of this week’s Top 10 list in real time — including the key support and resistance levels discussed above — TradingView offers free charting tools, watchlists, and screeners that make it easy to monitor these levels as Friday’s Fed speech approaches.
Disclosure: The content on this page was produced with AI writing assistance under the editorial direction of a licensed Electrical Engineering practitioner and certified investor in different markets with over a decade of experience. All articles are reviewed and approved by the author before publication.
