Bitcoin reached $80,453 early on 25 August, its first time above $80,000 since mid-May, extending a rally of more than 25% over the preceding week. Ether rose over 30% to $2,503 in the same stretch, while Solana, BNB, XRP and Dogecoin gained between roughly 19% and 52%. The move pushed total crypto market capitalisation to around $2.75 trillion, with the Crypto Fear and Greed Index reading 74, in Greed territory.
Traders are attributing the rally to what is being called the debasement trade, capital rotating out of the dollar and into scarcer assets, bitcoin and gold among them, as a hedge against currency weakness. The proximate trigger was Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s announcement that the government would double its long dated bond buybacks, after 30 year yields hit their highest level since 2007. President Trump hosted crypto executives at the White House during the same stretch and pressed Congress to move on the CLARITY Act.
Hedge fund figure Ray Dalio added his own gloss, warning of a looming debt crisis and recommending investors underweight bonds in favour of gold and, in his words, a bit of bitcoin. That framing, bitcoin as a macro hedge rather than a speculative asset in its own right, is doing a lot of work explaining why a coin that spent the summer below $60,000 is back near $80,000 within weeks.
Bitcoin remains well short of the roughly $126,000 peak it reached the previous year, and the rally is built on a policy story, bond buybacks and yield moves, that could unwind as quickly as it formed. Whether the price holds above $80,000 through the week, rather than the single early morning print that made the headline, is the detail Tuesday’s coverage could not yet answer.
