Wintermute: Bitcoin, XRP, Gold Benefited From 'Debasement Board' Last Week

Crypto and gold surged together last week while equities fell, prompting quant trading firm Wintermute to call Bitcoin‘s (CRYPTO: BTC) best week since March 2024 “a debasement board.”

Wintermute’s weekly market update on X broke down the split between assets outside the fiscal complex and those priced off it:

What Actually Triggered the Move

According to the report, six weeks of compressed volatility had stacked a dense band of short liquidation levels directly above Bitcoin’s range.

When the Treasury announced it would at least double long-end bond buybacks to $4 billion per operation, Bitcoin cleared that ceiling and turned the short book into the buyer.

A record $2.7 billion in shorts were liquidated across the move from $63,000 to $79,000, according to CoinGlass.

Meanwhile, BTC ETFs took in $1.92 billion on the week with BlackRock’s IBIT (NASDAQ:IBIT) capturing $1.33 billion, while ETH ETFs added $693 million with daily prints building from $31 million Monday to $220 million Thursday.

Wintermute flags that sequencing as critical: May’s similar run to these price levels carried no ETF bid and died, while this week’s combined $2.6 billion gives the advance structural sponsorship the last breakout lacked.