Bitcoin ended the trading week (ending August 23) with a gain of $14,264, or 22.7%, reaching $77,387, marking its best weekly performance in dollar terms since the asset began trading, although previously, when the price was lower, Bitcoin had shown more significant fluctuations in percentage terms.
A 22.7% gain sounds impressive, and it is, but Bitcoin has shown larger percentage gains before when the entire market was worth only a fraction of today's value. What distinguished last week was the price level from which Bitcoin's move began.
At current levels, even small percentage fluctuations result in five-figure changes in dollars, which was impossible when Bitcoin traded in the hundreds or low thousands.
The momentum did not stop after the candle closed: in the following days, the price of Bitcoin rose to $81,000, reaching a three-month high before retreating back to the $79,000 area.
Traders pointed to a specific catalyst for this move: The US Treasury Department stated it would at least double the size of its long-dated bond buyback operations to support liquidity – from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation, with larger operations scheduled from September 9 to November 4.
Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy Digital, pointed to another sign behind this rally: Blackrock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) showed the most significant "buying tilt" from retail investors in two years – a sign that not only institutional investors but also ordinary investors were actively entering the market again during the rise to $81,257.
Where Wall Street Sees the Next Signal
Galaxy Research also tracks Bitcoin's 50-week moving average, currently around $82,470, to assess further prospects. In a separate analysis report covered by Bitcoin.com News, the company found that in 11 out of 13 completed bear markets since 2011, a weekly close above this average coincided with the cycle bottom already being reached. Only two recoveries did not hold, both occurring during the 2021–2022 "double top" cycle.
This gives Bitcoin's price movement a specific target. A close above the roughly $82,500 level would move Bitcoin into an area that Galaxy's own model considers historically reliable for confirming a bottom, not just a bounce. If this level is not reached, the record-breaking week risks being remembered as a sharp recovery jump within a longer decline, rather than the start of a new uptrend.
Strive Chairman and CEO Matt Cole offered one of the more optimistic interpretations of this move, telling media that "the next Bitcoin cycle will be the strongest we've ever seen," pointing to Bitcoin's momentum against the dollar and gold as evidence that this asset is behaving differently than in past cycles.
However, records expressed in dollars become easier to break as the price base grows, so the headline figure alone does not determine whether the rally has real staying power.
