Bitcoin Tops $75,000 as Treasury Buybacks and $2.75B in Liquidations Fuel Crypto’s Biggest Week in Two Years

Crypto just posted its strongest week in more than two years. Bitcoin climbed from roughly $64,100 on Wednesday to as high as $75,740 by Friday morning in Asia. That move represents a gain of about 20% in five sessions. Ether performed even better on a percentage basis, jumping 18% in a single day. Meanwhile, XRP and Solana joined the move with double-digit weekly gains of their own.

The rally arrived after months of grinding, low-volatility trading. Volumes had fallen to yearly lows, and positioning had tilted heavily bearish. Then three separate catalysts landed inside 48 hours. As a result, a thin, one-sided market repriced violently.

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Trillions in tokenized assets. Crypto at the White House. Visa. CFTC. Japan’s payment system. Institutional credit onchain.

The world has no clue what’s coming:

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What Actually Triggered the Crypto Market Rally

The first and largest catalyst came from the U.S. Treasury, not from crypto. On Wednesday, August 19, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the department would at least double its bond buyback operations. The per-operation cap rises from $2 billion to a minimum of $4 billion, running from September 9 through November 4. Notably, the program targets the 10-to-20-year and 20-to-30-year segments, where yields had reached levels unseen in nearly two decades.

Long-dated Treasury yields fell immediately. Risk assets followed. Bessent then told CNBC on Thursday that operations could exceed $4 billion per issue. He also flagged a fiscal consolidation plan arriving within days. Importantly, this all followed total U.S. public debt crossing $40 trillion in mid-August.

Traders read the intervention as a liquidity signal. Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, put it directly. “This is about what the US Treasury has done, which is reigniting fears of fiscal dominance,” he said. In other words, the bid was not about crypto fundamentals. Instead, it reflected a wager that Washington will suppress long-end yields rather than let debt service costs spiral.

The SEC Proposed Its First Major Crypto Rule

The second catalyst came a day earlier. On August 18, the SEC proposed “Regulation Crypto Assets,” its first major crypto rulemaking rather than an enforcement action. The proposal creates tailored exemptions from Securities Act registration for token offerings. One exemption caps fundraising at $5 million over four years. The other permits up to $75 million in any 12-month period.

The framework also includes a safe harbor for investment contracts involving crypto assets. Additionally, it builds on the taxonomy the agency issued in March 2026. That interpretation sorted digital assets into five working categories: digital commodities, collectables, tools, payment stablecoins, and digital securities.

Chairman Paul Atkins framed the proposal as a break from the prior era. He has repeatedly criticized “regulation by enforcement” and the effort to fit a square peg in a round hole. He described the rulemaking as an attempt to onshore crypto innovation for generations. Many token issuers spent years without a compliant path to raise capital. For them, that shift matters more than one week of price action.

Trump Pushed the Clarity Act at a White House Summit

The third catalyst was political. On August 19, President Trump convened crypto executives and regulators at the White House. Attendees included Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and CFTC Chair Mike Selig also attended.

Trump used the event to press Congress on the Clarity Act. That bill would establish a federal market structure framework and settle whether specific assets fall under securities or commodities rules. “We need Congress to take the next step by passing the Clarity Act, a fair version of the Clarity Act,” Trump said.

However, the legislative picture remains unresolved. The bill cleared the House and advanced through a Senate committee, but a floor vote has not materialized. A procedural vote is now scheduled for September 15. Democrats and Republicans remain split over ethics provisions, specifically a ban on government officials operating crypto businesses. Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research, noted the stakes. Progress on the Clarity Act “could boost investor confidence and spark a broader recovery,” he said.

The Mechanics: A Record Short Squeeze

Positioning turned a rally into a stampede. Bitcoin perpetual funding rates had been negative for weeks, which signals short dominance. When the Treasury news hit, those shorts had nowhere to go.

Roughly $2.75 billion in bearish crypto positions liquidated within 24 hours on Wednesday. More than $1 billion cleared in a single hour. That figure ranks as the largest such event in records extending back to 2021. Funding rates flipped positive within hours.

Volume confirmed the scale. Combined spot and perpetual volume across Bitcoin, Ether, and XRP hit $46.6 billion on August 19. That marked the highest reading since June 5. Perpetual contracts accounted for $42.7 billion, or 91.7% of that total. Bitcoin perps led at roughly $22 billion, followed by Ether at $20 billion. Spot volume totaled just $3.85 billion, meaning derivatives traded at nearly 11 times spot. Paul Howard, senior director at Wincent, observed that 24-hour volumes rose fivefold from the yearly low.

Real Demand or a Leverage Flush?

Here the analyst community splits. Spot ETF flows argue for genuine demand rather than pure mechanics. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $517.2 million on August 19 alone, and roughly $1.004 billion across August 17 to 19. Spot Ether ETFs added $186.8 million on the same day, and $289.1 million over the three-day stretch. Those were the largest inflows in months. Bitcoin also reclaimed its 200-day moving average for the first time in nine months.

Gideon Hyams, chairman and co-founder of STS Digital, sees more than a squeeze. “Squeezes start rallies, but they don’t sustain them, and this one has more,” he said. Nansen senior research analyst Nicolai Søndergaard set a clear test. “Sustained acceptance above $70,000 would keep the outlook constructive,” he said.

Skeptics disagree sharply. Shawn Young, chief analyst at MEXC Research, argued the market overread the macro signal. “Crypto is giving the Treasury’s intervention far more credit than it deserves,” he said. “The Treasury opened a pressure valve, and crypto priced it like a regime change.” Young added that the bond move forced shorts out faster than it improved Bitcoin’s macro case. He called the push above $70,000 premature. Some bearish desks still expect a final flush toward $44,000 to $48,000 before any durable bull market.

What to Watch Next

Three dates now define the setup. Buyback operations begin September 9 and run through November 4, which gives the liquidity thesis a concrete testing window. The Senate procedural vote on the Clarity Act lands September 15. The SEC proposal enters a public comment period before any final rule.

For traders, the technical question is simpler. Bitcoin needs to hold above $70,000 to prove the move outlasted the liquidation cascade. Below that, the $69,700 to $69,000 zone becomes the first real support test. Until spot volume catches up to derivatives activity, the rally rests on leverage and policy expectations rather than sustained accumulation. VanEck’s research team offered one longer-term frame. Previous Bitcoin bear markets averaged 12.7 months from peak to trough. This cycle sits near 11 months from the October peak.

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