Bitcoin (BTC) rose to $71,900 in European trading on 20 Aug, its highest level since June, extending a two-day advance that has run further in Ether and in crypto-linked shares than in bitcoin itself.
BTC traded at about $71,900 at 09:00UTC, up 3.8% on the day, according to TradingView data. Ether (ETH) stood at roughly $2,290. Across the two sessions since 18 Aug, Ether has gained 20% against Bitcoin's 11%, and the advance followed some 12 hours of overnight consolidation just below $70,000.
Leveraged exposure to Bitcoin is working again for Strategy after months in which it did not. It is not a general revival: the largest Ether treasury company merely matched its own asset.
Strategy doubles Bitcoin's move, BitMine does not
Strategy (MSTR), the listed company that holds bitcoin as a treasury asset, rose 13% on 19 Aug and a further 9.6% in premarket trading, a two-day gain of 24%, or about twice Bitcoin's 11%. Stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) and exchange operator Coinbase (COIN) each added about 18% over the same period. Retail brokerage Robinhood (HOOD) gained 10%.
BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), which holds Ether rather than bitcoin, gained 20% across the two sessions. That is almost exactly Ether's own 20% move, leaving it with none of the amplification Strategy delivered.
For Strategy, the arithmetic is concrete. Its average purchase price is $75,385, so Bitcoin must rise a further 4.8% before the holding is worth more than the company paid for it. Earlier this month, Strategy sold bitcoin at a 15% loss to fund buybacks of its preferred stock.
Fund flows hit a five-month high
Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds took in $517.2mn on 19 Aug, a third consecutive day of net creations and the largest daily total since 4 May, according to Farside Investors. IBIT, the largest of the funds, accounted for $284.7mn. Spot ether funds added $186.8mn, more than eight times their average daily flow since inception.
Both sets of subscriptions were placed during the move rather than after it, so the 20 Aug figures, published 21 Aug, are the first read on whether allocators are chasing it.
US Fed minutes cut against the move
The advance sits awkwardly with US Federal Reserve minutes released on 19 Aug, which showed several policymakers favoured raising rates. European government bonds remain under strain, with the French 10-year yield at 4.1%, an 18-year-high.
Dean Chen, an analyst at crypto exchange Bitunix, said in commentary shared with Sandmark that the rally was better understood as "a temporary easing in financial conditions and a repricing of the dollar following Treasury intervention in the long-end of the bond market, rather than a conventional rate-cut trade." He said Bitcoin could extend the rebound if the dollar keeps weakening and long-term yields stay contained, but that sticky inflation and a $40tn federal debt burden could push the term premium higher again and renew valuation pressure across crypto.
