Bitcoin continued its rise on Friday, having its best week since 2023 as over $1 billion in shortsellers’ positions got ruined and exchange-traded funds received billions in new cash.
The leading cryptocurrency on Friday was recently trading 23% higher over a seven-day period after flying past $77,542. It earlier in the day reached as high as $79,319.
Bitcoin’s rise comes after the American investors fast piled into exchange-traded funds, with the vehicles so far this week taking in over $1.6 billion, according to Farside Investors data.
CNBC analysts said that the coin’s rise is its best performance since 2023 and was triggered by the Treasury Department’s Wednesday announcement to at least double the size of its long-dated bond buybacks.
The announcement has helped send yields down lower, while assets like bitcoin and gold have shot up. The dollar is trading at a three-month low and on track for its worst week of August.
Why? Because lower long-term yields reduces the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets, and generally supports risk-on sentiment.
Those betting on the price of the cryptocurrency to fall also got hit hard: Data from Coinglass shows that over $1 billion in shorts positions were closed.
In a note Friday, Standard Chartered’s Global Head of Digital Assets Research, Geoffrey Kendrick, said that Thursday was the largest liquidation of Bitcoin shorts ever when $1.1 billion in bets were closed.
Bitcoin’s volatility had dropped significantly over June and July and had mostly been trading below $65,000.
Investors have this week frantically bought shares of Bitcoin ETFs, with the funds on Thursday receiving $606.3 million — one of their biggest trading days this year.
Positive regulatory news coming out of the White House is also helping: President Donald Trump held a meeting with crypto executives earlier in the week, and urged lawmakers to get the Clarity Act over the line.
A vote will go ahead on the long-awaited crypto legislation, which the digital asset industry has long called for, in September.