Bitcoin's best week in two years 🚀

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A bond-market revolt sent the 30-year Treasury yield to its highest level since 2007, the Treasury stepped in with doubled buybacks, and stocks still finished the week lower.

If that wasn’t enough, Bitcoin put together its best week in two years.

Let’s get into it 👇️ 

📆 Monday 8/24 — Bessent press conference on Iran sanctions (time TBA): The Treasury Secretary details the "economic isolation" plan targeting Iran's oil, banks and trading partners. Watch oil prices and any spillover to countries — especially China — that still buy Iranian crude.

📆 Tuesday 8/25 — Intuit earnings (after the close): The TurboTax and QuickBooks maker is a clean read on small-business health and AI software spending ahead of Nvidia's report the next day.

📆 Wednesday 8/26 — July PCE inflation + Q2 GDP second estimate (8:30am ET): The Fed's preferred inflation gauge lands with rate-cut hopes fading and three Fed officials having dissented in favor of a hike in July. A hot print strengthens the hawks' case.

📆 Wednesday 8/26 — Nvidia Q2 earnings (after the close): The biggest test yet for the AI trade after a bond-driven tech pullback. Guidance on data-center demand will matter more than the headline numbers.

📆 Friday 8/28 — Fed Chair Warsh speaks at Jackson Hole (10am ET): His first Jackson Hole address as chairman, following an unusually divided July meeting. Any hint on the rate path could set the tone for September.

🛢️ President Trump declared "economic warfare" on Iran, and oil jumped more than 5% for the week. Brent crude climbed for five straight days to about $94 a barrel after Bessent vowed the "toughest sanctions in history" targeting Iran's oil, banks and trade networks. He unveils the full plan Monday.

🥇 Gold futures jumped about 2.4% Friday to settle near $4,680 an ounce, capping a weekly gain of nearly 5%. A sliding dollar and mounting anxiety over U.S. government debt kept drawing buyers into bullion — though gold still sits below the record it set back in January.

💰️ The Treasury's bond-market rescue got a shrug. A day after doubling long-dated buybacks, Bessent said he's ready to expand them beyond $4 billion per operation — but yields snapped right back, with the 30-year ending the week around 5.24%. All three major stock indexes posted weekly losses.

📊 Crypto stocks rode Bitcoin's coattails all week. Coinbase jumped more than 8% Friday to around $186 as Bitcoin broke out of its 2026 trading range, with Strategy and miner MARA Holdings rallying alongside it. Ether's near-30% weekly gain added fuel for exchange and miner stocks.

🤖 Anthropic's IPO filing will reportedly flag AI backlash as a risk factor. The Claude maker filed confidentially in June, and its prospectus — expected within weeks — will cite growing public opposition to AI, including a Gallup finding that seven in ten Americans oppose data centers in their area.

🛒 Ross Stores blew past its own guidance with earnings of $2.66 per share against a forecast of $1.85 to $1.93. Sales rose 13% with comparable-store sales up 10% on strong traffic, helped by a roughly $0.60-per-share tariff-refund benefit. Shares rose 4.4% Friday to $239.04.

🔼 BJ's Wholesale beat estimates and raised its full-year outlook. Adjusted EPS of $1.36 topped the $1.17 consensus on revenue of $6.09 billion, with comparable club sales up 11.9% and membership hitting a record 8.5 million. Full-year guidance rose to $4.60–$4.80 per share.

🏠️ Pending home sales fell 2.3% in July to their lowest level since January. NAR's index of signed contracts also slipped 2.2% from a year ago, with contract activity down in all four regions. NAR's chief economist blamed the year's highest mortgage rates hitting mid-summer — pending contracts now sit 30% below 2019 levels.

Bitcoin surged 22% this week, closing Friday up 6% at $76,943.90. It officially had its best week in two years and its first trip above $75,000 since May.

Two policy moves lit the fuse.

1. First, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent moved to calm the bond market by at least doubling long-dated debt buybacks (from $2 billion to $4 billion or more per operation starting September 9) then said Thursday he's prepared to go even bigger. Falling long-term yields tend to push investors back into riskier assets, and crypto caught the flows first.

2. Second, President Trump hosted crypto executives at the White House and urged Congress to pass the Clarity Act, the long-stalled bill that would finally spell out which federal agencies regulate crypto.

Roughly $2.7 billion in bearish short positions were forcibly liquidated during the week, meaning traders betting against Bitcoin had to buy it back at higher prices (adding fuel to the move).

This wasn't a crypto-native rally, it was a macro rally that crypto led.

Ether jumped nearly 30% for the week, and crypto stocks rode along (Coinbase gained more than 8% Friday alone).

When Bitcoin outperforms while stocks post weekly losses, it signals investors are using it as a hedge (the same debt worries powering gold's surge).

What to watch:

• The Clarity Act's fate in the Senate, where a first procedural vote is set for September 15. Passage is far from assured.

• Nearer term, Bessent's Monday press conference on Iran sanctions could shake risk appetite, and the $80,000 level is the next psychological test.

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⚠️ Disclaimer: Not financial advice. Do your research before making any trades.