Bitcoin reached $79,461 on Friday and retreated shortly thereafter, extending the correction that began after a rally driven by three things: falling US Treasury yields, strong demand in the spot market and a wave of short positions being forcibly liquidated. On Saturday, the asset operated up 0.3%, at US$77,307, which gives an idea of ​​the size of the week's movement — even after "correcting", the price remains well above where it was ten days ago.

## Behind the rise: less about crypto, more about interest

It is worth separating what happened this week into two layers. The one above is the most visible: Bitcoin went from US$70,000 to more than US$78,000 in a few days, pulling the rest of the market along — Ethereum rose 8.12% on Friday, to US$2,515, and XRP advanced 14.61%, to US$1.4538. CoinShares called this movement a macroeconomic phenomenon, not something specific to the crypto market, and pointed to the behavior of the Treasury bond market as evidence: short-term yields fell, a sign that investors stopped expecting further interest rate hikes from the Fed.

The bottom layer is even more concrete. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on August 20 that he would double repurchases of long-term bonds — a technical measure that reduces yields and, in practice, reduces the opportunity cost of holding an asset that does not pay interest, such as Bitcoin. Add this to President Trump's public support for the Clarity Act, and you can understand why the market reacted with a squeeze: those who were short had to buy back in a hurry.

On the institutional side, Bitcoin spot ETFs had the highest daily volume of inflows since May, with US$606 million moved on Thursday — BlackRock alone accounted for 83% of that total. This suggests that the money coming in is more institutional than purely retail, which tends to provide more support for an upward movement than an isolated speculative wave.

## What does this change for those who mine

The price recovery brought direct breathing to miners. The hashprice — the expected revenue per unit of computing power — rose 20.4% in four days, going from US$31.80 per petahash/second on August 18 to US$38.29 on Saturday, according to data from Bitcoin.com. It is a metric that matters because it shows, directly, whether it is worth keeping the machines on.

The network's total computing power was close to 922 exahashes per second, close to the zettahash mark. Foundry USA remains the largest mining pool, with Antpool and F2Pool following.

In terms of revenue, miners raised US$682.69 million in August through Saturday, including block subsidy and transaction fees. Of this total, only US$5.14 million came from fees — a small portion that makes it clear how much the mining operation still depends on the block reward and, by extension, the price of Bitcoin. As long as fees do not grow as part of revenue, any price correction hits the miner directly.

## The long-term argument

Zach Pandl, head of research at Grayscale, listed three factors that, in his view, favor those who are long in the medium and long term: Bitcoin adoption continuing at a steady pace, the current bear market being one of the shallowest on record, and a generally favorable macroeconomic scenario.

It is also worth mentioning that Standard Chartered, after this week's rally, revised its projection and started to estimate that Bitcoin could reach US$100,000 by the end of the year, citing the same two points: a less severe bear market than expected and a more favorable regulatory environment in Washington.

## It's worth keeping an eye on what

None of these factors guarantee that the price will continue to rise in a straight line — in fact, Saturday's drop itself shows that the market is still digesting the movement. What can be said with more certainty is that this rise had less to do with the crypto narrative and more to do with monetary policy: falling bond yields, the central bank signaling a pause in interest rates and a government more open to regulating the sector instead of prosecuting it. If these three axes continue in the same direction, the miners' — and Grayscale's — argument that the worst of the bear cycle is over becomes easier to sustain.

*This text is for informational purposes and is not an investment recommendation. Prices and mining data quoted reflect the period between August 18 and 22, 2026 and may change quickly.