Bitcoin Nears $81,000 as Treasury Buyback, ETF Inflows Fuel Rally

Bitcoin traded above $80,700 on Tuesday, up close to 5% over the past 24 hours and more than 25% over the past week, after an intraday move that briefly pushed the price past $81,000. The rally has been building since the middle of last week and now has the asset testing resistance at the upper edge of its May trading range.

The immediate trigger traces back to August 19, when the U.S. Treasury said it would at least double the size of its liquidity support buyback operations for longer-dated government bonds, from a $2 billion cap per operation to at least $4 billion, covering the 10-to-20-year and 20-to-30-year maturity sectors. The change takes effect September 9 and runs through the current refunding quarter, ending November 4. Treasury framed the move as a response to strong dealer demand in those operations rather than a shift in debt policy, but the announcement pulled bond yields lower within hours and revived appetite for risk assets, bitcoin included. A short squeeze followed as bearish positions were forced to cover into the rally, with more than $4 billion in bearish crypto positions liquidated over the following days.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs have absorbed the momentum. U.S. funds pulled in $1.92 billion in net inflows for the week ending August 21, their strongest week since October 2025, with BlackRock's IBIT accounting for $1.33 billion of that across five consecutive sessions. Additional inflows on August 24 brought the six-session total north of $2 billion. August has now delivered $2.38 billion in net inflows, the strongest month of 2026 so far, though the category remains $2.91 billion in net outflow for the year after heavy withdrawals in May and June. Spot ether ETFs moved in step, taking in roughly $700 million over the same week, their best showing since October 2025 as well.

Bitcoin has now recovered about 38% from a July low near $57,700 and has erased its losses since May. It remains roughly 36% below its all-time high of $126,080. The next test is whether buyers can close above $82,000, the top of the range that capped the market back in May; a sustained move above that level would be the clearer signal that this is more than a short-covering bounce.