Bitcoin clears $80,000 as ETF inflows reach an eight-day run

The CoinDesk report first put the short-liquidation wave at about $2.7 billion. Later public snapshots put short liquidations above $3.1 billion and total crypto liquidations closer to $3 billion to $3.6 billion, depending on the provider and the exact 24-hour window. The CoinGlass dashboard remains the reference data surface, but live liquidation totals are time-sensitive and can differ as exchanges report new events.

Bitcoin later extended the move above $75,500. The Block reported that BTC was up more than 8.9% over 24 hours at the time of its report, while another $747.7 million in bitcoin short positions had been liquidated in the preceding 24 hours. A Binance BTC-USDT spot check returned $74,268.90 at 03:03 UTC, showing that price had pulled back from the reported high by the time of this update. The report attributed the broader backdrop to Treasury buybacks, the SEC's crypto proposal and the White House meeting, but those catalysts do not prove that the rally will persist.

A newer CoinDesk report put the latest 24-hour liquidation total at $1.23 billion, including about $1 billion in short positions, taking the two-day bearish-bet total above $4 billion. It said bitcoin had briefly topped $75,500 before trading just below $75,000, while ether was near $2,350. Those rolling tracker totals measure forced position closures, not new spot investment, so the demand test remains unresolved.

The Block's latest market report added that bitcoin briefly crossed $79,000 during its biggest weekly gain in two years, while XRP rose nearly 40% and HYPE, ZEC and LINK gained more than 30%. A Binance BTC-USDT ticker check at 18:20 UTC returned $77,418.01, showing that the market had pulled back from the reported high. The breadth is a material change in the move's scale, but it still does not distinguish forced buying from durable spot demand.

A fresh The Block market report adds that XRP was up 39% for the week, while bitcoin and ether had gained between 24% and 28% and HYPE, ZEC and LINK were each up more than 30%. Nexo Dispatch analyst Iliya Kalchev described the move as genuinely broad-based, while Sygnum CIO Fabian Dori said volatility still cuts both ways. The new breadth and the analysts' caution strengthen the case for an update, not for calling the move a confirmed new bull market.

Fresh Decrypt reporting adds a second demand signal: U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs took in $606.29 million Thursday, beating Wednesday's $517.19 million and extending the inflow streak to four sessions. Ethereum ETFs added almost $221 million, their strongest single-day intake since October 2025, while XRP, Solana and Hyperliquid funds also recorded inflows. The figures come from SoSoValue's ETF data.

The new flow data does not settle the durability question. Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, told Decrypt: "The rally may be sustainable if spot demand growth continues after the initial impact of these macro events. Officially we are still in a bear market, so a price pull back is possible, more so after this sudden increase." Nansen analyst Nicolai Sondergaard called $69,000 the key 200-day moving-average line and warned that "the largest risk is that this was a short-squeeze spike, not fresh sustained buying."

A later Decrypt update put bitcoin at $77,137 after a $79,320 intraday high, up 7.9% over 24 hours. CoinGlass showed about $1.5 billion in total crypto liquidations across 178,777 traders, with roughly $1.21 billion in shorts; the largest liquidation was a $23.59 million bitcoin position on Hyperliquid. Those are rolling market snapshots, not a final exchange settlement or proof that the rally has moved beyond forced buying.

A weekly ETF snapshot adds a separate demand signal. The Block's analysis of SoSoValue data put U.S. spot bitcoin ETF inflows at $1.9 billion and ether ETF inflows at $697.2 million for the latest week, the strongest weekly totals for both categories in 2026. Combined trading volume rose to $29 billion from $8.8 billion the prior week. That is stronger evidence of listed-product participation than a single-day flow, but it still does not show that ETF demand will persist after the rally or that the products caused the price move.

A fresh Decrypt breakdown separates new money from mark-to-market gains. SoSoValue data cited by Decrypt shows combined bitcoin and ether ETF assets rose about $23.3 billion in the week ended Aug. 21, while net inflows were about $2.6 billion: $1.92 billion for bitcoin funds and $697.2 million for ether funds. Bitcoin ETF assets rose 25.4% to $96.1 billion and ether ETF assets 35.9% to $14.3 billion, implying roughly $20.7 billion of the AUM increase came from price appreciation rather than new creations. The distinction strengthens the evidence for a rally in the assets, but it makes the durability test more precise: ETF AUM growth alone is not the same as $23 billion of fresh demand.

The demand test moved again on Monday. Cointelegraph reported that U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs took in $337.6 million, extending the inflow run to six sessions and bringing the six-day total to $2.26 billion, according to SoSoValue's ETF data. Ether ETFs added $115.6 million for a sixth straight positive session, while bitcoin ETF net assets reached $98.56 billion. That is a more current spot-demand observation than the Aug. 21 weekly snapshot, but it still measures fund flows rather than proving that the rally has escaped short covering.

A newer The Block market report said bitcoin added $14,264 in the week ended Aug. 23, its largest dollar-denominated weekly gain on record, closing at $77,387 for a 22.7% seven-day rise. CoinCentral reported the same weekly close and percentage. Investing.com's historical table shows BTC closing near $77,755 on Aug. 23 after closing near $64,506 on Aug. 17, corroborating the scale of the move while using a different daily-price convention. The record-gain claim describes the move; it is not a forecast that bitcoin will hold $80,000.

A fresh Coindoo market report published Aug. 22 put bitcoin near $78,500 and ether above $2,500, with the report's snapshot showing $78,490 and $2,510 respectively. Binance's current BTC-USDT and ETH-USDT tickers returned $77,978.01 and $2,511.01 at the latest check, confirming the level while showing why these prices should be treated as time-specific snapshots. The move is broader than bitcoin alone, but the available data still does not prove a durable institutional rotation.

A regional market response adds a new demand signal. The Block reported that Upbit’s 24-hour trading volume rose 273% to about $1.84 billion, according to CoinGecko data, its highest daily level since mid-March. Bithumb volume rose 132.9% to roughly $934.9 million, and XRP was the most-traded asset on both venues. Min Jung of Presto Research told The Block that Korean investors are “return-chasing” rather than “asset-loyal,” while cautioning that it was too early to call the move a rotation.

The macro link is also verifiable in the U.S. Treasury's buyback schedule, which lists a $4 billion liquidity-support operation for 3-to-5-year nominal coupons announced Aug. 19 for an Aug. 20 operation. That confirms the program and its size; it does not by itself prove that the buyback caused crypto's move.

A fresh Bitcoin.com market report adds a more specific measure of the unwind: it says bitcoin reached about $79,500 during the week while automated liquidation engines closed 172,108 short positions, with roughly $3 billion in bearish bets wiped out in one 24-hour window. The figure is another rolling market snapshot rather than a final exchange settlement, but it adds scale to the already documented squeeze and does not change the central question: whether unlevered spot demand survives after forced buying fades.

A separate Bitcoin.com report adds a supply-side counterpoint: it says an unidentified wallet transferred 7,700 BTC, worth about $576.6 million at the reported prices, between Aug. 19 and Aug. 22, including a 2,700-BTC transfer on Aug. 22. GNcrypto's independent account reported the same figures and cautioned that the onchain movements do not reveal the seller's motive. The data therefore adds a large-holder distribution signal, not proof that the rally is reversing or that the coins were sold directly into exchange order books.

Bitcoin.com's separate market analysis adds a conflicting demand reading from Bitfinex analysts, who said spot buying and short covering, rather than fresh leverage, carried the move. They pointed to price rising 10% to 11% while open interest rose about 4%, plus $606.29 million of U.S. spot-bitcoin ETF inflows on Aug. 20. That is an attributed market interpretation, not proof that the rally has escaped leverage or that the whale's transfers were absorbed without impact.

A new Reuters report says bitcoin rose above $80,000 on Aug. 25, reaching $81,237.94 in Asian trading before changing hands at $80,323.24. Reuters said the move made a softer dollar and Treasury bond-buyback plans part of the market narrative, while quoting analysts who described a supportive macro backdrop but not a guaranteed continuation. The Binance BTC-USDT ticker provides a reproducible live-price check; it cannot recreate Reuters' earlier intraday high. The move above $80,000 is a material update to this rally, not proof that forced buying has ended or that a $95,000-$100,000 target will be reached.

A current Decrypt market-structure report adds a separate leverage signal: crypto-margined bitcoin futures now make up about 12% of open interest across exchanges, down from near-total dominance in 2019 and 2020, citing Glassnode's long-run metric. The same report puts 24-hour liquidations at $570.08 million, with shorts accounting for $329.60 million versus $240.48 million in longs; CoinGlass' liquidation surface is the reproducible tracker for that rolling total. The mix suggests the market still carries forced-flow risk, but it does not establish whether bitcoin's next move will be higher or lower.

The rally is also showing up in stablecoin supply. CoinDesk's current market update says Tether's USDT supply grew by $2.2 billion and Circle's USDC by $1.8 billion over the past week, citing RWA.xyz's stablecoin dashboard. Ripple's RLUSD added another $300 million. Those supply changes are a liquidity signal and do not prove that all of the new stablecoins moved into bitcoin or that the rally will persist.

The first clear pause after the break above $80,000 arrived Wednesday. CoinDesk reported that bitcoin slipped nearly 1% to about $79,000 in Asian trading as traders took profits after a 23% weekly gain. XRP fell more than 4%, Zcash nearly 6% and Solana more than 3%, while bitcoin still held its weekly advance. CoinDesk also reported CryptoQuant's Bull Score rising from 30 to 80, with eight of 10 indicators bullish and spot demand growing at its fastest monthly pace since late December. A Binance BTC-USDT ticker check returned $79,005.17 at 07:37 UTC on Aug. 26. The pullback is a material follow-through point, not evidence that the rally has either failed or become durable.

Two additional market measures sharpen the follow-through test. CoinDesk reported that bitcoin's 20-day correlation with gold reached 0.93, its highest level in the past year, while the five-year correlation reached 0.87. A separate CoinDesk options report put Friday's bitcoin options expiry at $6.4 billion, with large open-interest concentrations around key strikes. Correlation describes a recent relationship and options positioning describes potential volatility; neither predicts the next bitcoin move.

The latest session kept the demand signal positive even as price paused. CoinDesk reported that bitcoin was near $79,000 after a 23% seven-day gain and that U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs took in $314 million on Aug. 25, their seventh straight day of net inflows. A daily ETF-flow table records $314.4 million for the session and puts August's net inflow at about $3 billion. The figures support a stronger spot-demand observation, but they still do not show whether the rally can hold after profit-taking.

A new liquidity measure adds a second test to that reading. CoinDesk Research reported that average 0.5% market depth across major spot exchanges was roughly $9.6 million on Aug. 18, when bitcoin was around $64,000, and $8.7 million on Aug. 25, when it reached $80,000. The report says that relatively stable depth argues against a thin-market air pocket, although the composite figures are CoinDesk Research's snapshots rather than a public exchange-by-exchange dataset. A Binance BTC-USDT ticker check returned $79,686 at 11:03 UTC on Aug. 27; that live price check does not reproduce the historical depth series or prove the rally will continue.

The spot-demand run has now reached eight sessions. Farside Investors' daily table records net inflows on every trading day from Aug. 17 through Aug. 26, totaling $2.8019 billion. The Aug. 26 session brought in $232.2 million, led by BlackRock's IBIT at $200.8 million, while Grayscale's GBTC recorded a $50.4 million outflow. Decrypt's current report describes the run as an eight-day streak and says IBIT accounted for about $2.02 billion, or 72%, of the total. The figures strengthen the case for sustained listed-product demand, but the falling daily inflows show that the pace is weakening and do not prove that spot buying will continue.

The next session pushed bitcoin back above $80,000. CoinDesk's live market update reported bitcoin above $80,000 as U.S. spot bitcoin funds reached eight straight days of inflows and roughly $2.8 billion since the run began. Binance's BTC-USDT 24-hour ticker returned $80,268.05 at 22:13 UTC, after a session high of $80,848.74. The level confirms the latest market move at a reproducible timestamp; it does not establish that the rally has escaped leverage or that ETF inflows will keep accelerating.

The macro test has now arrived. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh's Jackson Hole keynote said the Fed's 2% inflation objective is a firm target and that the central bank has work to do if underlying inflation is not moving toward it clearly and quickly enough. CoinDesk's live market report said bitcoin fell below $78,000 as traders absorbed the remarks, while Decrypt reported that Warsh declined to provide forward guidance on the September decision. The reaction is a material update to the rally's macro backdrop, not proof that the speech alone caused every price move or that a September hike is certain.

Shorts dominated the unwind

Shorts still dominated the unwind. CoinDesk’s earlier snapshot put bearish liquidations at roughly 92% of the reported total, while later tracker readings continued to show shorts as the overwhelming majority. When a leveraged short is forcibly closed, the exchange buys back the asset, adding mechanical demand to the move.

CoinDesk’s earlier breakdown attributed about $1.42 billion of the short liquidations to bitcoin, $1.13 billion to ether and $104.67 million to solana. It also reported that more than $1 billion of bitcoin shorts were liquidated in a single hour. The rising totals should be read as rolling estimates, not a single final exchange statement.

Ether's historical signal is mixed

Ether was the outlier in percentage terms. Binance's ETH-USDT daily candles show the Aug. 19 close at $2,252.80, up 17.46% from the previous daily close. The exact figure changes with the exchange and measurement window, which is why the 17.9% figure in the market chart should be read as a data-set-specific result.

Jamie Coutts, CMT, wrote in an X post that the move ranked eighth among Ether's daily gains of at least 15% since January 2018. His table has 16 completed historical examples: eight were higher 30 days later, 10 were higher after 90 days and 12 were higher after 180 days. Mean returns were 8.2%, 20.6% and 59.3% at those horizons. Coutts' digital-asset research background makes the table useful context, but it remains a small, non-uniform sample. It is not a probability estimate for this rally or a trading instruction.

The next test is spot demand

Fresh same-day reporting from The Block points to a second question: whether spot and ETF demand can carry the move after forced buying fades. Gideon Hyams, chairman and co-founder of STS Digital, said: "Squeezes start rallies, but they don't sustain them." He pointed to falling long-end yields, returning ETF flows and a clearer regulatory path as conditions that could support a trend, while stressing that bitcoin still has to hold above the range that trapped it since June.

Nicolai Søndergaard, senior research analyst at Nansen, told The Block that short covering accelerated the breakout but did not create it. He said continued spot buying would be the test after the squeeze, not a guarantee that the rally will persist. Those are analyst interpretations, not proof that a new bull market has begun.

In a later report, The Block quoted Shawn Young, chief analyst at MEXC Research, saying crypto was giving Treasury's intervention “far more credit than it deserves”. Young said the bond-market move forced shorts out faster than it improved bitcoin's macro case. The caution matters because liquidation-driven buying can lift price without demonstrating new, unlevered demand.

CoinDesk separately reported that bitcoin reclaimed $75,000 late Thursday. Bitcoin analyst James Check wrote that “bears [were] in pain, right now”. The same report quoted macro strategist Mark Connors, who sees Treasury buybacks as a potential liquidity tailwind but warned that bitcoin could fall back below $72,000 if the Clarity Act fails to advance by Sept. 15. Those are analyst scenarios, not a forecast or investment advice.

At 04:02 UTC, Binance's BTC-USDT ticker returned $74,795.18 and its ETH-USDT ticker returned $2,350.05. Those exchange snapshots are a point-in-time check, not a consolidated market close.

A forced move is not a demand verdict

Liquidations explain how the move accelerated: leveraged traders were closed and the resulting orders pushed price through thin levels. They do not establish that fresh spot buyers will keep bidding after the forced unwind ends, or that the rally is durable.

The macro trigger was a U.S. Treasury announcement that larger liquidity-support buybacks would calm pressure in the long-end bond market. The Treasury’s stated rationale was to provide liquidity support; Axios quoted TD Securities strategist Gennadiy Goldberg calling the move “effectively the equivalent of verbal intervention from the U.S. Treasury.” The White House meeting added crypto-specific optimism: the Associated Press reported that CFTC Chair Mike Selig vowed to “use every tool available” to advance Trump’s agenda after the president urged passage of the CLARITY Act.