Bitcoin's best week in years; what drove it and what's next

Governments are engineering a new playbook to manage debt. Bitcoin bulls have a name for it. And crypto just had its second-best week since 2021. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ SPONSORED BY Monday, August 24, 2026   Bitcoin is consolidating near $78,000 after its second-best weekly performance since early 2021 — a 23.6% surge triggered by the Treasury’s bond buyback expansion, a collapsing dollar and $2.62 billion of ETF inflows, the most since last October. The macro narrative has a new name: “financial repression,” the old policy playbook that governments use when their debt grows too large to manage through free markets. Keep interest rates artificially below inflation, force banks to buy government bonds, and savers are quietly wiped out over time. Bitcoin bulls — and now Ray Dalio — argue that in that environment, scarce assets that live outside the traditional system become essential. Gold is already above $4,600. The week ahead will test how much of that thesis survives contact with Jackson Hole, where Fed Chair Kevin Warsh speaks for the first time in that role. Core PCE data also drops this week. Stay alert. Read today’s full report → Market snapshot As of 8am EST Asset Price 24h BTC $77,711 +0.55% ETH $2,490 −0.40% SOL $88.60 −1.20% XRP $1.16 −2.30% Prices approximate. Visit coindesk.com/price for live data. A message from RealFi Most stablecoins leave capital sitting still. RealFi is different. It connects on-chain capital to real-world markets like US Treasuries, money market funds, and private credit. Real transparency. Real impact. RealFi. RealFi is launching August 2026. Join the Testnet now at realfi.co Find out more CoinDesk Disclosure: The information contained in this newsletter, and any information linked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency or digital assets. L1.co Disclosure: This material is for informational purposes only, and the content contained herein should not be considered investment advice or a solicitation, offer, or recommendation to sell or buy any asset, strategy, or product. Investing in digital assets involves a high degree of risk, including the loss of principal. What matters today Markets   Story 1 of 3 Financial repression: The new buzzword driving the bitcoin price higher. Bitcoin is being bid up on a macro thesis that goes well beyond short-term price action — and it has a name that is spreading fast on financial social media: “financial repression.” The term describes what heavily indebted governments do when their debt grows too large to manage through free markets and default is politically unacceptable. Rather than cutting spending or raising taxes, they engineer an environment where interest rates are kept artificially below inflation, eroding the real value of cash and bonds over time. Savers lose wealth silently; the government gains breathing room. Two developments this month illustrate the playbook in action. In Europe, a new EU rule coming into force on January 11, 2027 will bar banks based outside the bloc from providing deposit-taking services to EU residents without a licensed branch inside the EU — a form of capital control that traps savings within the system. In the United States, the Treasury’s $4 billion bond buyback program — which doubled in scale last week — has been labeled financial repression by analysts at both Deutsche Bank and Citi, as it is designed to keep long-end yields below where free markets would set them. For bitcoin and gold, financial repression is structurally bullish: it forces savers to seek assets that preserve purchasing power outside the banking system. Ray Dalio said Monday that investors should own “a bit of bitcoin” as U.S. debt risks rise — a significant statement from the founder of Bridgewater, who spent years dismissing the asset. The bitcoin–Nasdaq divergence that began last week has also attracted attention: BTC has climbed toward $80,000 even as Nasdaq futures declined, reviving debate about whether bitcoin is finally developing into a genuine macro hedge rather than simply a high-beta tech surrogate. The week’s key catalysts are Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech and the core PCE inflation release. A dovish Warsh — or a softer-than-expected PCE — could extend the rally; a hawkish surprise could interrupt it. Read more → Markets   Story 2 of 3 Crypto roars back as bitcoin posts its second-best week since early 2021. Bitcoin gained 23.6% last week, surging from around $62,000 to as high as $79,500 before settling near $77,000 — its second-best weekly performance since February 2021, exceeded only by the relief rally that followed the Silicon Valley Bank crisis in March 2023. Ether did even better, climbing 31.3% from below $1,900 to above $2,520. The trigger was structural rather than crypto-specific: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced an expansion of long-dated bond buybacks, which pushed yields and the dollar lower and created conditions for the breakout that a months-long consolidation had primed. The Dollar Index has now fallen to 98.9, below its 200-day moving average of 99.1 for the first time this year. Gold climbed above $4,600, gaining 15% over the past month. Spot crypto ETFs captured their strongest weekly inflows since October 2025: bitcoin ETFs drew $1.92 billion — their best week since bitcoin was near its all-time high above $126,000 — while ether ETFs added $697 million, their best week since early October. Total crypto ETF inflows reached $2.62 billion. Both BTC and ETH moved above their 200-day simple moving averages for the first time since early in the year, a technical milestone that signals improving long-term trend. Shorter-term moving averages are also beginning to turn upward, raising the prospect of a golden cross — the pattern where the 50-day average crosses above the 200-day, historically associated with sustained momentum. The debasement trade narrative — buying scarce assets to protect against fiat erosion — has returned in force, and for the first time in months bitcoin and gold are moving in tandem rather than diverging. Today, altcoins are consolidating and pulling back modestly from the week’s highs as the market digests the move and awaits its next catalyst. Read more → Finance   Story 3 of 3 Gemini strikes Apex deal to widen prediction markets reach. Gemini, the crypto platform founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, has signed a letter of intent with Apex Fintech Solutions to distribute regulated crypto prediction-market contracts through Apex’s brokerage network. Under the deal, Gemini Titan — the CFTC-licensed subsidiary that received its Designated Contract Market license in December 2025 — would become the exclusive regulated venue for crypto event contracts offered through Apex’s futures commission merchant to its brokerage customers. A futures commission merchant is a regulated firm that handles customer orders and funds for trading futures and derivatives; by routing through Apex’s FCM, retail brokerages gain access to Gemini’s prediction market infrastructure without having to build their own exchange connections. Gemini would handle both execution and clearing — the latter through another subsidiary, Gemini Olympus, which received its Derivatives Clearing Organization license from the CFTC in April. That dual-license structure — exchange plus clearing, both CFTC-regulated — gives Gemini infrastructure that competitors Kalshi and Polymarket do not yet fully match for institutional-grade brokerage distribution. The prediction market industry has grown at a pace that surprised even its optimists: monthly trading volume across leading platforms reached $24 billion by April, up from less than $5 billion in September 2025, according to Pew Research Center data. Sports, politics and cryptocurrency prices are the biggest categories. The deal builds on an existing Gemini-Apex relationship: Gemini launched commission-free stock trading for U.S. customers in July with Apex Clearing Corporation acting as custodian and clearing broker. CEO Tyler Winklevoss framed the direction plainly: “We believe that predictions are the future of markets.” In related news, Ethereum lending protocol Term Finance lost $8.5 million after an attacker accumulated enough governance tokens to pass a malicious proposal — a reminder that on-chain governance remains a persistent attack surface even as the broader market rallies. Read more → CoinDesk Disclosure: The information contained in this newsletter, and any information linked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency or digital assets. L1.co Disclosure: This material is for informational purposes only, and the content contained herein should not be considered investment advice or a solicitation, offer, or recommendation to sell or buy any asset, strategy, or product. Investing in digital assets involves a high degree of risk, including the loss of principal. Crypto Daybook Americas: A newsletter from CoinDesk Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here.  Copyright © 2026 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.  CoinDesk, Inc., 61 9th Avenue, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10011, USA Unsubscribe Manage preferences