Bitcoin’s market cap rises $416B in 9 weeks as Treasury policy shift fuels historic rally

Bitcoin added roughly $416 billion in market capitalization over the span of nine weeks, climbing from the low-to-mid $60,000s in early August to peaks above $79,000 before settling in the $77,000 to $78,000 range by late August. At approximately $1.54 trillion, Bitcoin briefly became the 13th-largest asset on the planet, edging past Meta Platforms in the global rankings. The Fear & Greed Index, a widely watched gauge of crypto market sentiment, spiked to 78, a level indicating extreme greed and the highest reading since December 2024. The Treasury catalyst nobody saw coming On August 20-21, the Treasury announced it would expand its long-term bond buyback program, raising the operational cap from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation. The immediate effect was mechanical: increased demand for existing bonds pushed yields lower. Lower yields make safe-haven assets less attractive and risk assets more compelling, and a non-trivial amount of capital ended up flowing into crypto. A record-breaking week in raw dollar terms Bitcoin gained $14,264 in a single week, closing at $77,387. That’s a 22.7% weekly jump, the largest single-week gain in USD terms the asset has ever re...