{"id":823201,"date":"2026-08-23T14:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T14:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/823201\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T14:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T14:10:11","slug":"scott-bessent-just-kicked-the-bitcoin-debasement-trade-into-another-gear-chart-of-the-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/823201\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Bessent just kicked the bitcoin debasement trade into another gear: Chart of the Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bitcoin (BTC-USD<\/a>) had its best week in more than three years as stocks fell. Scott Bessent helped light the match. <\/p>\n

The cryptocurrency surged roughly 23% this week, blowing through a months-long trading range as gold (GC=F<\/a>) jumped about 5% and the dollar (DX-Y.NYB<\/a>) fell. The S&P 500 (^GSPC<\/a>), meanwhile, lost ground. <\/p>\n

\"BTC<\/a> BTC has surged more than 20% this week after spending months trapped below $67,000. \u00b7 Yahoo Finance AlphaSpace <\/p>\n

That combination got especially interesting on Wednesday, when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cried uncle on the bond market<\/a> and doubled the size of planned buybacks for some longer-dated Treasurys. <\/p>\n

The 30-year yield (^TYX<\/a>) promptly dropped 9 basis points as bitcoin jumped 7% and gold rallied 4%. <\/p>\n

Then came the fun part. <\/p>\n

By Friday, the 30-year yield had clawed back almost its entire Wednesday drop. Bitcoin had surged more than 10%, while gold tacked on another 2%. <\/p>\n

Bessent knocked long-term yields lower. The bond market took almost all of it back. Bitcoin and gold didn’t. <\/p>\n

Coinage founder Zack Guzman said Friday<\/a> on Yahoo Finance’s Morning Brief that bitcoin has “established itself as a bit of a debasement trade.” <\/p>\n

“When you’re talking about the government getting involved here to kind of control things, eventually that money flows to assets like Bitcoin,” Guzman said. <\/p>\n

History makes this week look even stranger. <\/p>\n

There have been six previous weeks since 2015 when bitcoin gained more than 15% while stocks fell, gold rose, and the dollar declined. <\/p>\n

Bitcoin’s prior big weekly rallies came with falling rates. <\/p>\n

Every previous episode came with falling 30-year Treasury yields. <\/p>\n

Not this one. <\/p>\n

Widen the lens, and the move looks even more unusual. There were 24 previous weeks when stocks fell, gold rose, the dollar declined, and the 30-year yield rose. Bitcoin’s median gain was only about 2%, while the previous best was about 14%. <\/p>\n

This week’s roughly 23% surge blows through that record. <\/p>\n

Bitcoin bulls have spent years calling it digital gold. This week, for once, the market behaved that way. <\/p>\n

Its 20-day correlation<\/a> with the S&P 500 collapsed from roughly 0.43 last Friday to nearly zero, while its correlation with gold climbed above 0.5. Over a full year, bitcoin still behaves more like stocks than gold, so one week does not rewrite the rulebook. <\/p>\n

But it was one of the strongest “digital gold” weeks bitcoin has ever produced. <\/p>\n

Big bitcoin weeks have also tended to keep running. <\/p>\n

Seasonality throws in a wrinkle. August has produced a median loss of roughly 8% since 2015, and only three of the prior 11 were positive. <\/p>\n

The only two previous double-digit August rallies came in 2017 and 2021. Both were followed by September declines of roughly 7% \u2014 and then October rallies of 49% and 40%. Two examples are hardly a forecast, but the pattern is worth keeping in mind. <\/p>\n

Guzman sees another reason the bitcoin rally may have legs. He said the move has been driven mostly by buyers purchasing bitcoin outright, rather than traders piling into leveraged bets. <\/p>\n

“This explosion is not driven by leverage,” he said. “It’s mostly spot driven.” <\/p>\n

Jared Blikre is the global markets and data editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @SPYJared<\/a> or email him at jaredblikre@yahooinc.com. <\/p>\n

Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest stock market news and events moving stock prices<\/a> <\/p>\n

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bitcoin (BTC-USD) had its best week in more than three years as stocks fell. Scott Bessent helped light…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,4666],"class_list":["post-823201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-scott-bessent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}