BTC Surges 24% in One Week: Which Is the Strongest Crypto Leverage Stock?

CRCL has been the strongest rebounder over the past month, up +41.5%, more than double BTC's gains over the same period.

By Xiaobing

In late August, Bitcoin staged its most aggressive rally since 2026: climbing from around $65,000 on July 24 to a temporary high of $79,500 on August 21, surging approximately 23.5% in a week and bringing its market cap back to $1.56 trillion.

This rally was fueled by three factors:

1. Dual macro and regulatory catalysts. The U.S. Treasury doubled the long-term repo swap line size from $2 billion to $4 billion (mockingly dubbed "QE Lite" by the market), pushing down longer-term interest rates; meanwhile, Trump convened executives from Coinbase, Robinhood, Ripple, and others at the White House to advance procedural voting on the CLARITY Act in the Senate in September, while the SEC also proposed a fundraising framework for cryptocurrencies.
2. ETF capital inflows returning. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $517 million and $606 million on August 19 and 20, respectively, clearing away the gloom of a $4.4 billion single-month outflow in June.
3. The largest short squeeze in history. In just one day on August 19 (Wednesday), over $2.75 billion worth of Bitcoin shorts across the network were liquidated, followed by another $783 million in positions liquidated over the next 24 hours, with 95% being shorts. These short sellers were forced to buy back, which in turn drove prices higher.