What Sent Bitcoin Flying Above $71,000? 5 Factors Behind the Surge

It provides us nice (largely unbiased) pleasure to put in writing such an article, particularly after weeks and months and practically a 12 months of painful declines or lack of any precise upside motion. After all, the cryptocurrency market is used to explosive actions, however this wasn’t the case for a very long time. At least not in the ‘proper’ course.

Let’s shortly recap what occurred in the previous 24 hours: bitcoin traded at $64,400, then exploded to $70,000, then it was briefly pushed again to $68,000, then went on the offensive once more, after which rocketed previous $71,000 minutes in the past for the first time since very early June.

As Glassnode put it, this was its most spectacular each day shut since February, however that one adopted a serious retracement. What makes the present pump so spectacular is that it had “no crash to bounce off.”

The final each day bitcoin:native shut this huge was in February, and that was simply the rebound from the -14% day earlier than it.

This one had no crash to bounce off. Against its personal 30d volatility it was a 5.8 sigma transfer – the largest to the upside since October 2023. pic.twitter.com/SqiitTuTYc

— glassnode (@glassnode) August 20, 2026

The Main Catalyst

Perhaps the most vital issue behind this mind-blowing surge was the US Treasury Department’s announcement that it’s going to at the least double the most measurement of liquidity-support buybacks for longer-dated authorities debt. It will increase them from $2 billion to at the least $4 billion per operation, and the modifications will start on September 9 and can proceed till November 4.

This announcement got here after the 30-year Treasury yield hit 5.34% on Tuesday, the highest degree in practically 20 years, as inflation considerations, heavy authorities borrowing, and considerations about the general US fiscal outlook skyrocketed. The similar Treasury yield dropped instantly to 5.20%, whereas shares, gold, and crypto moved in the other way. The greenback weakened as decrease bond yields could make non-yielding and riskier property comparatively extra enticing.

More US-Related Reasons

Since we’re on the US subject, let’s discover two extra doable components that could possibly be thought to be promising for risk-on property. The first got here from the POTUS, who paused the tariffs in opposition to Canada and later announced a deal to chop a few of them from 25% to fifteen%. Tariff information has impacted BTC for over a 12 months and a half, and commerce offers have a tendency to profit the asset’s strikes.

The different one, expectedly, additionally got here from Trump. This time, although, it involved Iran. Instead of warning of latest ballistic assaults, the POTUS took a special method, focusing on the nation’s financial system.

After admitting that the Iranian authorities had did not make a cope with the US, he outlined the new technique, which is able to give attention to bringing the nation down by means of financial exercise.

“I’m asserting the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY! This will likely be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale. Their navy is gone, their air power is destroyed, their army factories at the moment are rubble, their forex is nugatory, and their nation is hanging by a thread.”

Obviously, this isn’t the good final result, particularly for Iran, however at the least there are not any new damaging bodily assaults or one other menace of a nuclear bloodbath. Risk property like that.

ETFs and OI

Now let’s focus extra on BTC itself. The first motive right here is the ETF inflows. Data from SoSoValue exhibits that the each day internet inflows stood at simply over $517 million for yesterday. This was the highest quantity since early May, when the flows have been $630 million and $532 million for 2 consecutive buying and selling periods. Recall that bitcoin went on a formidable run again then, peaking at $83,000 inside per week or so.

To put issues into perspective, the netflows yesterday alone have been so much greater than the total month of July, when the funds attracted $172.43 million.

Lastly, let’s study the open curiosity, which had built up to its highest place since 2023. When leverage will increase a lot, each smaller transfer turns into a lot bigger, which is obvious from the cascade of liquidations of merchants betting on the fallacious aspect.

And the OI only a few days earlier than yesterday’s explosion was even greater than earlier than the October 2025 bloodbath, when the liquidations topped $19 billion. In different phrases, one thing was brewing for weeks, as BTC doesn’t like standing in a single spot for too lengthy.

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